Welcome to the MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my twenty third episode. Tonight I want to give you a brief description of Methodism so you can decide whether or not you should subscribe to it.
So what is Methodism? You’ve probably noticed signs outside of some churches saying “United Methodist” or “Free Methodist” or “Evangelical Methodist.” I don’t like these signs. As time goes by, fewer and fewer people even know what a Methodist is – and so these signs tend to signal a sectarian attitude towards nonbelievers. A person who is new to Christianity would be more likely to walk into a Church of Christ than a church whose scrubbed Jesus’ name off of their sign to make room for the word Methodist.
The irony is, the founder of Methodism – John Wesley – would probably feel the same way about these signs. Wesley didn’t set out to call himself a Methodist. This name was ascribed to him and his contemporaries as a sort of derisive moniker by people who disagreed with them. As Wesley and the movement took hold, the term Methodism changed into a positive one – and then it stuck. In the plainest sense, a Methodist is a Christian who loves God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength; and loves his neighbor as himself. The Methodist aims to obey God’s laws and serve whatever God’s purpose is for him or her.
So you might be thinking, isn’t that what all Christians do? Well, not really. You see, the people who fought Wesley most fervently were the Christians who followed the French theologian John Calvin. Calvin preceded Wesley by about 200 years. Calvin looked at God’s omniscience and paired it with biblical passages on predestination and determined that God had already chosen who He wants to save and who He wants to condemn. Therefore, it’s not up to you to save yourself. This mentality blossomed into what is called antinomianism – which means if you have faith in Christ then you are not subject to biblical morality because you’re going to heaven no matter what. I’m going to plant a flag here and say that antinomianism is not true Calvinist or Reformed theology – it’s simply a misrepresentation that many Christians hold to.
John Wesley did not like the chaotic behavior that antinomianism caused. To help with this behavior, he explained salvation this way: all you need for heaven is trust in Christ, or faith. However, if you truly trust in Christ, then you will do your best to obey his commands. Wesley explained that part of loving God is following God – and so if you aren’t following God, do you really love him? In this way, a Methodist is a Christian who loves God and obeys God.
So far, I agree with the Methodists. But I think I’ll go a few steps further than Wesley as to why you should follow God. It’s my contention that civilizations rise and fall with their willingness to at least try adhering to biblical principles. I should tell you that I’m not a theocrat. I don’t think laws should extend beyond what is absolutely necessary to maintain freedom. Freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of religion – things like that. However, I am a big believer in teaching people why they should follow biblical principles. Once they’ve learned, it’s up to them to handle the freedom of making their own choices. The biggest problems develop when we forget why we should follow biblical principles and attempt to create our own set of norms. This is true on a societal level as well as an individual level.
Now there’s something else, too. It’s widely understood that God does not infringe upon our free will. If someone wants to make the claim that there is no free will, I’d like to see how that person reacts to having their own freedom stripped away from them. That’s what I mean when I say that free will is widely understood. But there is a warning that comes along with having free will. It means that we are capable of choosing the wrong direction. Or choosing to be separated from God. It seems to me that certain sinful behaviors are capable of warping who we are as individuals.
For example, it’s not uncommon for a thief to become addicted to the rush associated with stealing something. Another way of thinking about it is how a person becomes more confident in telling a lie once they’ve done it successfully. Could it be that we are able to reach a point through sin where we no longer want to be with God, and choose hell instead? I think it’s possible. Just imagine the guilt that you feel when you harm or betray someone and then see that person in public. Now magnify that by infinity, when you see God. This is why we need Christ’s forgiveness. Remember, what did Adam do in the Garden of Eden after he betrayed God by eating the fruit? He hid from Him.
So, we need to know what the biblical principles are and why we should follow them. Methodism is like an ancestral version of this. Wesley was on the right track because he was teaching people what the biblical principles were and how to follow them. But the reasons he was able provide as to why they should do it were limited to an 18th century understanding of reality. This is why it’s so important for Christians to engage with the disciplines. I have a hunch that if we are living in Christ’s world, then His instructions will be consistent with what the disciplines tell us is good for human flourishing. Remember, by human flourishing I mean stability for humanity at large and an enduring sense of meaning in your life.
In addition to giving us reasons why, the disciplines may also help us get there. For example, a discipline like psychology may help you get yourself together so that you are better able to love your neighbor as yourself. Then, a discipline like social science may be able to tell you why loving your neighbor as yourself is beneficial to you and your community. You get the idea.
What did the Methodists do to encourage people to follow biblical principles? This is another area in which we can learn from Wesley. Wesley used what is called an itinerant preaching system to send thousands preachers traveling across territories that would eventually expand to three continents. Everywhere the preachers went, they set up little societies of Methodists where people could join and become members. Members would be expected to live by a code, or method, drawn up from the Bible – (thus the name, Methodist). A typical code involved things like: don’t drink too much alcohol, don’t stockpile wealth, don’t abuse your family or your neighbor, don’t tell lies, etc. Each time a society met, members would be accountable to each other and a member would be removed from the society if he or she continually violated the methods.
The biblical principles Wesley wrote into his methods are still good today. And setting up societies is also still good today. People thrive when they have healthy human relationships. A human being is a social creature, and a host of mental illnesses tend to develop with excessive isolation. What’s unique about our generation is that we can prioritize online connectivity to the point where we unwittingly suffer from excessive isolation.
So, the societies are good and we should set them up today. However, it’s not the 18th century anymore, so we don’t need itinerant preachers to maintain these societies. But I think it is important that these groups meet face to face and not in online gatherings. I should tell you that I’m not being anti-technology here. I think the internet is fantastic for long range communication and gathering information. But there are just too many aspects of your well being that are not sustained in a healthy way by online connection alone. You’ll try to tell yourself that you’re connected, but your DNA knows that your not.
In a couple of weeks I’ll be teaching a Bible study. I want this Bible study to be something like these societies were. I want it to be dialogue between myself and the members – but with some structure from my teaching. If you’re listening to this and you’re trying to change your community at a high level, I want you to reconsider. When I say at a high level, I mean through township meetings, elections, etc. If you want real and lasting change you need to focus on individuals. You need to build and develop individuals so that they can navigate the world successfully without falling into one the many traps of hatred or victim hood. A properly developed individual will be like a beacon of light in the world. His or her family will benefit. Then, they will start families and those families will benefit. Pretty soon the ripple effect is a lot further from where you started. And that’s just by helping one person. Imagine if you helped 50.
If that sounds like something you would like to do, then you might be closer to the Methodists than you realize. Like I said at the beginning, I don’t think the term Methodist carries the same meaning today that it did when Wesley was on the move. But the biblical principles are the same, and they still work just as well today.
If you find this content valuable, feel free to share it and to use it in your own studies. If you’d like to support this podcast, you can do so at www.patreon.com/michaelhbaun. There is a link in the description. Your generosity goes a long way to promoting the growth of this enterprise and the cause of free speech. Thank you all for joining me this evening, and I will see you in the next episode.
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