Currently Bach: Art of Fugue see related

As I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, The White Horse Inn, one of the participants in the June 28th episode said that Wesley called the doctrine of the imputation of Christ's righteousness "antinomian." He gave no references, so I did some legwork.

In one of his tracts, "Some Remarks on Mr. Hill's 'Farrago Double-Distilled,'" Wesley argued against the phrase "imputed righteousness of Christ" calling it unbiblical and saying only that faith is imputed as righteousness. He indeed seemed to think the doctrine of Christ's imputed righteousness was antinomian.

Whatever the case, here's what he wrote in that tract (¶ 31):

Yet I believe, (and that without the least self-contradiction,) that final salvation is "by works as a condition." And let any one read over the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew, and deny it if he can.

When I read that the first time, I felt the blood drain from my face.

I posted a blog entry (April 25th) about Wesley's response to some people who came to him desperate to "escape the wrath to come." So here is the URL for it:

http://doc411.xanga.com/700039994/to-escape-the-wrath-to-come/

At the time I posted it, it was a mystery to me that Wesley burdened such miserable souls with greater burdens and--it seemed from the source, the Discipline--without the assurance of salvation. Now it makes sense. He believed that people who have placed their faith in Christ can still hold onto that faith and be cast into hell. It is one thing to be Arminian in one's soteriology (which I am not); it's another thing to say that even holding fast to Christ by faith is not enough to ensure one's "final salvation." That casts a shadow over the rest of Wesley's writings.

I trust now that he has been disabused of the doctrine of salvation by works.

Copyright © 2009 by Oh, How I LoveYour Word! LLC