Baptism

I took a look at the UMC Official Web site and found the sections on baptism and communion, so I hope everyone will take a look before our next meeting. As you can see, I also started the Prayer List. I haven't got the picture quite where I want it but it will do until I can work on it again!

Baptism

Communion

Moravians

There is a well-substantiated and fairly authoritative article on the Moravians on Wikipedia which is a good jumping off place if anyone cares to research them further. The links at the bottom of the article should prove helpful.

Moravians

the point of the article on the website

I think the excerpt below from the website that Rusty posted last week kind of synopsizes what the author was trying to say in a lot of words about Wesley's development of the quadrilateral.

Wesley’s theological pluralism was evangelical in substance (firm and clear in its Christocentric focus) and irenic in its temper ("catholic spirit"). It measured all doctrinal statements by their Biblical base and warrants. He loved to summon his readers "to the letter and the testimony," understood as "the oracles of God." But this reliance on Scripture as the fount of revelation was never meant to preclude a concomitant appeal to the insights of wise and saintly Christians in other ages. And it never gave license to "enthusiasm" or to irrational arguments. Finally, since the devils are at least as clear in their theological assents as believers are, real Christians are called beyond "orthodoxy" to authentic experience—viz., the inner witness of the Holy Spirit that we are God’s beloved children, and joint heirs with Christ. It is this settled sense of personal assurance that is "heart religion": the turning of our hearts from the form to the power of religion. Christian experience adds nothing to the substance of Christian truth; its distinctive role is to energize the heart so as to enable the believer to speak and do the truth in love.

This complex method, with its fourfold reference, is a good deal more sophisticated than it appears, and could be more fruitful for contemporary theologizing than has yet been realized. It preserves the primacy of Scripture, it profits from the wisdom of tradition, it accepts the disciplines of critical reason, and its stress on the Christian experience of grace gives it existential force.

This week's lesson (on tape) is on John Wesley's Quadrilateral. In order to give you some introduction to this topic we're giving you a link to a website with the treatment of the issue. Please review this link so that each of you can be prepared to discuss this important issue relating to Wesley's beliefs for the process to perfection in the worship of Jesus and ultimately God. Take a look and let us dive into the bases for our core beliefs as Methodists.



Yours in Christ



Rusty & Dani Faulk



http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyan_theology/theojrnl/16-20/20-01.htm