John Wesley: Difference between revisions

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'''John Wesley''' (June 17, 1703 - March 2, 1791) was an 18th-century Anglican minister and powerful field-evangelist who was an early leader in the Methodist movement.  While never formally separating from the Anglican Church, John Wesley acted on his own even so far as to ordain ministers by the laying on of hands, which he had found to be a Biblical example.  The Protestants in Georgia said the following about John Wesley:  

John Wesley taught what he believed and not what someone else told him to preach.  He was a firm believer that salvation is by God's grace alone, and that the love of God can and should reign in a believer's heart.  Healings and other supernatural occurences also followed his ministry, along with persecution from the established churches.   

John Wesley was born in Epworth, 23 miles (37 km) northwest of Lincoln, England, the son of Samuel Wesley, a poet and graduate of the University of Oxford, and a minister of the Church of England.  In 1689 Samuel married Susanna Annesley, twenty-fifth child of Dr. Samuel Annesley.  Both Samuel and Susanna had been raised in Dissenting homes before becoming members of the Established Church early in adulthood. Susanna herself became a mother of nineteen children. In 1696 Samuel Wesley was appointed rector of Epworth, where John, the fifteenth child, was born.  

In 1720, John Wesley entered Christ Church College, Oxford.  In 1725 he began to seek after holiness of heart and life through a rigidly methodical and abstemious life, study of the Scriptures, and the giving of alms.  He was ordained deacon that year, and elected fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford in 1726.  John Wesley received his Master's degree from Christ Church College in 1727, and became his father's curate for two years, returning to Oxford to fulfil his functions as fellow in 1729.

[[Image:719px-Wesleystatue.jpg|right|300px]]

Back in England, John Wesley met the Moravian Peter Bohler, who shocked him with his faith and assurance in God.  Convinced by the Moravians, John Wesley was convinced their faith was real, and resolved to seek that assuarnce by:  

The Methodists were often attacked verbally in sermons and print, and also physically by mobs.  They were denounced as promulgators of strange doctrines, fomenters of religious disturbances, as blind fanatics leading people astray, claiming miraculous gifts, and attempting to reestablish Catholicism.  

John Wesley had allied himself with the Moravian society in Fetter Lane in 1738, and even went to Herrnhut, the Moravian headquarters in Germany.  He met frequently with this and other religious societies in London, but did not preach often in 1738, because most of the parish churches were now closed to him. Late in 1739 Wesley broke with the Moravians in London. Finding, as he said, that they had fallen into heresies, especially quietism, he decided to form his own followers into a separate society.  "Thus," he wrote, "without any previous plan, began the Methodist Society in England."  

As his societies multiplied, the breach between Wesley and the Church of England widened. The question of separation from that church as a contentious issue.  In 1745 Wesley wrote that he would make any concession which his conscience permitted, in order to live in harmony with the clergy, but could not give up the doctrine of an inward and present salvation by faith alone.  He would not stop preaching or dissolve the societies or end lay preaching. "We dare not," he said, "administer baptism or the Lord's Supper without a commission from a bishop in the apostolic succession."

John Wesley's constant preaching left little time for any other activities.  He travelled constantly, generally on horseback, preaching twice or thrice a day. He formed societies, opened chapels, examined and commissioned preachers, administered charities, prayed for the sick, and superintended schools and orphanages.  He rose at four in the morning, lived simply and methodically, and was never idle if he could help it.  His charities were limited only by his means.   

[[Image:407px-Supernatural_Occurrences_of_John_Wesley_Cover.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''The Supernatural Occurrences of John Wesley]]

'''''The Supernatural Occurrences of John Wesley''''' is a non-fiction book relying heavily upon actual quotations from the writings of John Wesley.  The author presents various types of supernatural phenomena as they were recorded by Wesley. These phenomena include visions, dreams, miraculous healings, instances of persons passing out during Wesley’s sermons, supernatural answers to prayer, the unusual fates of some of Wesley’s critics, and cases of demon possession.

*{{Wikipedia Reference}}