John Wesleys Impact on the History of Christianity - Research Paper Example

? John Wesley’s impact on the History of Christianity John Wesley was the main driving force of Methodism and can also be regarded as the father of Methodism. Born in 1703, John Wesley laid the ‘seed’ for the open-air preaching, which is the essence of the Methodist movement. He also successfully embraced the Arminian doctrines that existed predominately in the eighteenth century. Moreover, he implemented the Evangelical movement through which he encouraged the people to indulge themselves in deep meditation and ultimately experience Jesus Christ in their life. Wesley’s preaching mainly focused in developing the Modern Methodist movement, which encompasses the concept of Pentecostalism, the Charismatic movement and Neo-Charismatic churches. Thus, he strongly emphasized on the evangelical status which was much more deviated form the Orthodox Catholic Christianism. Also, he insisted much on perfectionism among the Christians, where he focused on implanting holiness in their heart and life. He framed small groups through which he preached the sacraments and other religious instructions among the members of the groups. Thus the concept of Christian perfectionism was his major basic sacramental theology. “Wesley wished Methodist to become peculiar people; to abstain from marriages outside the societies; to be distinguished by their dress and by the gravity of speech and manners; to avoid the company of even relatives who were still in Satan’s kingdom.” (Bloy, n. d). Thus, pertaining to the above statement he insisted that the Methodist to lead a disciplined and spiritual life. Moreover, he always opted for the Open-air teaching where he preached the essence of faith in Salvation and to feel that each and every human being is the child of God and they are filled with God’s spirit. Also he maintained a cordial and amicable relationship with his fellow followers. This part of the content will identify and link the relationship of John Wesley with his followers and his contribution to the Christian History. Wesley traveled all throughout his life meeting all sections of people propagating the vital elements of Methodism and the concept of evangelism. “He traveled almost constantly, generally on horse back, preaching twice or thrice a day.” (Theology thru Technology). As mentioned above, he formed small groups or societies and propagated his preaching through the groups. Each group had to follow the religious instructions strictly. He insisted the concept of personal responsibility in developing the spirituality among the members of the societies. He also selected preachers among the groups and they had the role of spreading the concept of evangelism and taking care of the people. His main motive was to administer discipline among the members of the society and thereby allowing them to feel the spirituality and ultimate salvation. His link and relationship with the people, who were his followers, can be easily identified through various events that he implemented during his period. For example, he opened many chapels and made the people to assemble in those chapels and commissioned the preachers respectively. Importantly, he raised funds for the schools, orphanages and established charity homes in various regions of United States of America. Also, he assisted the poor and the sick people by providing them with appropriate medication and other treatment for illness. Thus, he rendered a helping hand for the people who were in need. Moreover he took earnest steps in preparing the religious literatures through which he could make even a lay man understand the essence of Christianity. Through his continuous and constant traveling he was able to meet people and enlighten them with his preaching. “He is believed to have traveled in the course of his itinerant ministry more then 250,000 miles and to have preached more than 40,000 times.” (John Wesley, n. d.). Thus he spread the vital essence of spiritual Holiness among the people. John Wesley can be considered as a keen observer of Human behavior, and his teachings were based on those observations. As he always wanted people to overcome sin and attain salvation, he mainly insisted on the charismatic and spontaneous prayers which were very much lacking in the Orthodox Catholicism. Through the societies and the chapels that he had formed, he inculcated the habit of talking to God loudly so that they can get rid of their sins and can grow in spirituality and attain eternal salvation. Thus John Wesley always had casual and scriptural relationship with the people so that he could preach the vital doctrines of Methodism. This part of the paper will clearly feature the impact and the role of John Wesley in Christian history. As mentioned above, he can be considered as the Father of the Methodism and one who spread the evangelical thoughts among the people. Methodism is one of the denominations of Protestantism. Thus Wesley joined hands with the evangelical minded Christians in promoting the concept of deep faith and spontaneity. Initially Christianity was ruled by the Cardinals of Catholic churches who framed orthodox rules and regulations. Later it was diversified into Protestantism where the followers were against the concept of idol worship and other religious instructions. Methodism can be thus considered as one of the denomination of Protestantism which mainly insisted on people being True Christians and establishing nominal, scriptural and spiritual relation with the Almighty, with John Wesley being considered to be the founder of the Methodism. Thus he plays a major role in Christian history, where he took Christianity from the orthodox state to the charismatic state. According to Wesley, every Christian should be true Christian rather being an almost Christian. He also marked two main qualities for an individual to be a true Christian which includes holiness and happiness. Thus he denotes the concept of holiness to be achieved by filling one’s heart with spirituality and setting aside all worldly affections. He implanted the essence of spirituality and holiness among the people through the groups. “This was a group of four to six persons who met weekly and shared their spiritual journeys in a very intimate fellowship.”(Lyons 1997). Thus in the history of Christianity it was John Wesley who framed groups and initiated the people to offer prayers in groups, thus paving the way for the spiritual progress of group of people. He also insisted the people to indulge themselves in serving God wholeheartedly and thereby increased the seriousness about the religion. Unlike the orthodox Catholicism which mainly focused on more of rituals and standard prayers, John Wesley’s Methodism concentrated on spontaneous prayers where people attained and experienced God through their charismatic prayers. This typical sort of offering prayers to God also provided an opportunity for renewing individual covenants with God, thus making major impacts as far as the Christian history is concerned. From the above discussion of John Wesley, his life and his contribution to Christianity, one can clearly understand how his contributions impacted the history of Christianity. As discussed above, his preaching mainly focused on the concept of attaining spiritual holiness and provided the essence of experiencing God in one’s life. “We would make disciplined prayer and fasting, scripture study, constant communion, compassionate ministry, Christian conference, and covenant renewal a regular part of lives.” (Lyons 1997). Thus, through his preaching, he created a new revolution among the Christians and he mainly insisted on the evangelical thoughts. Although, majority of the people were following the traditional streams of Christianity which was enriched with rights and rituals, John Wesley came up with an unique way of preaching and spontaneous style of offering prayers, which also interested certain sections of the people. Those people started to involve themselves in societies formed by him, as they had the urge towards perfectionalism. References: Bloy, M. (n. d). John Wesley and Methodism. A Web of English History. Retrieved from: http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/religion/method.htm John Wesley. (n. d).Theology thru Technology. Retrieved from: http://www.tlogical.net/biojwesley.htm Lyons, G. (1997). The Means of Grace: John Wesley on Deepening Our Relationship with God. Retrieved from: http://wesley.nnu.edu/other-theologians/george- lyons/the-means-of-grace-john-wesley-on-deepening-our-relationship-with-god- an-address-by-george-lyons/ Read More