In the quotes from Dr. Lloyd-Jones included in this article, the matter of experiential religion is put forth boldly as the leading identification of Methodism—and, indeed, of true evangelical Christianity. Experiential religion is the missing component of most modern Reformed theology. I notice it even in the hymnbooks that are composed by modern reformed denominations and organizations. Anything that sounds like subjectivism or experiential religion is taken away. That is a mistake—a serious mistake. Many years ago, I heard Walt Chantry describe the Christian faith in terms of the human body. If a person was all bones, he would be as dry as dust. If he was all flesh, he would be flabby. Both are needed. In the same way, both objectivism and subjectivism are necessary. Both doctrine and experience are essential for the Christian.
Without vital Christian experience, doctrine degenerates over time. Christians, churches, and denominations veer toward heterodoxy and then heresy. Lloyd-Jones points out what happened to Presbyterianism in England following the writing of the Westminster Confession of Faith. The Presbyterians veered towards Arianism—the same heresy that Athanasius stood against and about whom it was said, ‘Athanasius against the world.’ The Westminster Assembly was very precise about the doctrine of the Trinity which is denied by Arianism. How could Presbyterians, supposedly subscribing to the Westminster Confession, deny such a cardinal doctrine that even the Catholic Church holds? The answer is very simple. When the heart is wrong, the head will eventually go wrong as well. Objective truth without the subjective experience of that truth becomes as dead as Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones. There simply is no life there.
Methodism, as Lloyd-Jones shows below, went in the other direction. Their emphasis was on the subjective experience without the doctrinal skeleton to support it. When objective truth is combined with a life that is changed by the power of the Holy Spirit, the result is beautiful. Yet, subjectivism without objective truth tends to several heresies as well—Quakerism, Charismania, social action devoid of an emphasis on the gospel and conversion, etc. Calvinistic Methodism had both the doctrinal foundation and the experiential grace of true conversion. Wesleyan Methodism ran into problems later because it was too subjective. That is the reason that John Wesley is called the father of the Charismatic movement (which is very experiential to the almost total neglect of sound doctrine) and the heresy of Perfectionism. Wesley did reprint many Puritan books in his day and required then to be read by the ministers that followed him, but he edited out of them the Calvinistic passages which he found objectionable.
There is one other point I want to make before you read the quotes from Lloyd-Jones. The Great Awakening, in which Methodism was greatly involved, had its greatest impact on the American Presbyterians and Scottish Presbyterians. There is a reason for that. Those denominations had the doctrinal foundation and, with the revival under Calvinistic Methodism, they then had the subjective experience also. Vanguard Presbyterian Church is self-consciously in agreement with the New Side (New Light) Presbyterians of the 18th century who combined both objective grace and subjective grace into a robust, revival-centric denomination. Now, enjoy these quotes from Lloyd-Jones:
“The best way of approaching it, I think, is for me, first of all, briefly to outline how Calvinistic Methodism ever came into being. We have to start, of course, with the rise of Methodism. Consider first the condition of England at that time, when Methodism really began in the 1730’s. The Church of England was generally Arminian. You remember the famous dictum of the great Lord Chatham with respect to the condition of the Church of England. He said that she had a Calvinistic creed, a Popish liturgy, and an Arminian clergy. And that was an accurate description. She was not only Arminian but also spiritually asleep.
“What about the other Churches? Presbyterianism had ceased to be. There had been a Presbyterianism in England, but it had become Arian in its doctrine. The Westminster Confession of Faith does not guarantee that you cannot go wrong doctrinally. It was the Presbyterians who went most astray and became guilty of Arianism, and Presbyterianism literally died. The Presbyterian Church of England which we have today is something quite new which only started in the last century. As regards Congregationalism, these Arian tendencies for a while even affected people like Isaac Watts and Philip Doddridge. The Congregationalists had also been affected by the Hyper-Calvinism, to which reference has been made, and we have been reminded also that among the Baptists there was this Hyper-Calvinistic teaching. . .
“We must now face this question – What then is Methodism? Let me first answer negatively. It is not primarily a theological position or even a theological attitude. Methodism was not a movement designed to reform theology. It was not that at all. Actually in Welsh Calvinistic Methodism they did not have a Catechism or a Confession of Faith until the next century – emphasizing this point, that it was not primarily a theological movement. We must not think of it in terms of theological reform.
“What was it then? Well, Methodism is essentially experimental or experiential religion and a way of life. I think that is an adequate definition of it. What produced this? How did this ever come into being? The answer is that it was born of a number of things. The first was the realization that religion is primarily and essentially something personal. This was the thing that came to all of them. They all became aware of their own personal sinfulness; they underwent conviction of sin, and it was an agonizing process. But they all experienced this terrible need of forgiveness. This became a burden to them – both parties. Then there was also a great desire for a knowledge of God – a direct knowledge of God: not to believe things about God – they had already got that – but the desire to know God. ‘This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent’ (John 17:3). All this led on then to a desire for assurance of sins forgiven.
“Many have probably read the account of the first meeting between Whitefield and Harris in Cardiff in 1739 – The first question that George Whitefield put to Howell Harris was this: ‘Mr Harris, do you know that your sins are forgiven?’ He did not ask him, ‘Do you believe that sins can be forgiven?’ or ‘Do you believe that your sins are forgiven?’ for various reasons, but, ‘Do you know that your are forgiven?’ And Harris was able to say that he had rejoiced in this knowledge for several years. This again was a point that was common to all of them – assurance of salvation, assurance of sins forgiven.
“The next thing that was common to all the desire for ‘new life’. So you had that great emphasis doctrine of regeneration and rebirth. You know how they were all influenced by the book of Henry Scougal, The Life of God in the Soul of Man. This was their longing and desire. Whitefield preached constantly on regeneration, and so did the others. You remember that he even had to be corrected on this point, actually by the Wesleys, though he had gone before them. They felt that he was not making enough of justification by faith. There was this tremendous emphasis on the need of a new birth, a new beginning.”[1]
Dewey Roberts, Pastor of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Destin, FL
www.vanguardpresbyterianchurch.com
Please mail any contributions to: Vanguard Presbytery, PO Box 1862, Destin, FL 32540
[1] D. M. Lloyd-Jones, The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors (Edinburgh, Scotland and Carlisle, Pennsylvania: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1987), 193-6.