'Will Methodists Be Cursed?'
By J. Grant Swank Jr. (04/26/08)
Methodism has lost members in the US since the 1970s.
Now at its Fort Worth, TX annual conclave, sincere members are urging one another to up the stats.
That is not easy in a denomination that has allowed its holiness message to slip off the pulpit. John Wesley preached “holiness of heart and life” till he died.
He remained an ordained Anglican priest till death. However, out of his ministry came the Methodist Church, named for his methodological approach to inspecting the holiness of his and others’ souls.
Wesley preached not only salvation through Christ. He also called his listeners to go deeper into the sanctified life by the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
Wesley believed that the Bible called disciples to the life of total surrender to God, a commitment that would bring the cleansing of the Spirit upon the inner self. That preaching yielded countless testimonies of the experience realized.
Wesley’s message has reached outside the Methodist Church into other denominations such as the Wesleyan Church, the Free Methodist Church, the Church of the Nazarene and the Pilgrim Holiness Church.
But Methodism has compromised its message in too many congregations. The pastors have not kept to the biblical call to a pure life. However, it was Christ who said that one was to be pure of heart. He called His disciples to a life purposefully turned against worldliness for God’s indwelling sanctifying power.
Now this year’s conference owns up to the membership decline. In addition, homosexuals are pushing for acceptance of sodomy as divinely blessed.
If the Methodist Church adopts that, that denomination will come upon the divine curse.
God abhors homosexual activity; therefore, Methodism will go the way of other denominations who have purposefully yielded to evil rather than biblical morality.
The only hope for the Methodist Church is for pulpit and pew to return to Wesley’s zeal for believing in the “full gospel” of both personal salvation and sanctification in this life.
In doing so, God’s blessing will come upon that denomination and its mission. Otherwise, the denomination is doomed.
Read Methodists Urged to Reverse Decline in Membership at http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/364236.aspx
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