Reflecting and Responding
John Wesley
The Role of Our Religious Experiences in Knowing God
In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street. . . . About a quarter before nine . . . I felt my heart strangely warmed.
JOURNAL
THE TALE OF THE CONVERSION OF JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791) is one of the most dramatic in the history of the church. History reports that Wesley pursued God with all his might, yet he could never find assurance for his soul. On his trip home from America, Wesley writes, “I came to save the souls of Indians, but who should save my soul?” After countless hours and endless days, his rigorous discipline and his search for lasting assurance paid off when he encountered the living Christ at a meeting of Moravians in the south of London. This meeting forever transformed him.
For many years, Wesley had been dogged by doubt. But this experience in south London was so profound that it completely changed his outlook and reoriented his thinking. He became convinced that the only sure way to heaven was to experience the confirmation of God’s love in our heart.
Because of his great experience, Wesley realized that “experience” did not contradict Scripture but served to organize, illuminate and apply the truth of it to our life. Up until now he had been a faithful adherent of three-point Anglicanism, accepting the primary authority of Scripture with the secondary authorities of reason and tradition. Now, experience offered a fourth path to knowing God.
Understanding Our Experiences
To help graft this fourth source of religious authority onto a mainstream system, Wesley borrowed liberally from John Locke, the great seventeenth-century British empiricist philosopher. Locke believed that all knowledge arises from experience or reflection on experience. Wesley appropriated this understanding into his spiritual application and defined our relationship with God as ultimately resting on “the felt experience of the Holy Spirit in our lives as believers.”
This emphasis on religious experience opened a whole new dimension of theological understanding. Wesley states that heart religion is confirmed by direct, immediate, inward experiences of God. Just as we know physical reality because of our natural senses, we know spiritual reality by our supernatural senses. He defines this type of religious experience as helping determine the “true, scriptural, experimental religion.”
By using the term “experimental,” Wesley is saying something crucial. He means, first, that our life with God is built on the vitality of our experiences of God. Second, it is based on experiment and the way in which our experience aligns with those recorded throughout the history of the church. Finally, it is an experience of God that can be known by test and experiment in a way similar to the new scientific approaches that were sweeping England.
As Wesley settled into these new understandings, his preaching and writing took on greater power and clarity. In one of his best-known passages, Wesley defines the whole purpose of Christianity as helping us “find the way to heaven.” “I have accordingly set down in the following sermons,” he writes, “what I find in the Bible concerning the way to heaven, with a view to distinguish this way of God from all those which are the inventions of men.” Wesley continues by noting, “I have endeavored to describe the true, the scriptural experimental religion so as to omit nothing which is a real part thereof, and to add nothing thereto which is not.” By true religion Wesley meant our knowledge of our spiritual relationship with God.
On his famous trip to the colony of Georgia in 1736, Wesley was overwhelmed by the courage and faith of his fellow passengers, the Moravians. As waves crashed across the top of the ship and their demise seemed imminent, Wesley could hear the Moravians singing and praising God. He realized in that moment that although he had head knowledge of God, he had no real living faith. Eventually they arrived safely in Savannah harbor, but the disquiet in Wesley’s soul would take two years to calm.
Over time Wesley refined his position further. Eventually he came to anchor his thoughts to the idea of the truth of Scripture confirmed in our hearts by the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit. This truth was ably seen by the manifestation of God’s love in our life. The ability to express the fruit of the Spirit is evidence that God’s love is fully active in our life in the world.
The Wesleyan Quadrilateral
The inclusion of experience as a fourth source of religious authority took real courage and helped open the way for Wesley’s innovation in religious knowledge. As an Anglican he had asserted the primacy of Scripture and the corroborating witness of tradition and reason. But his own journey to God convinced him that right thoughts about God were not enough. We need to experience the reality of God in our heart to know the assurance of salvation for our life.
Yet Wesley was concerned about the excesses of religious experience that were echoing back and forth across the Atlantic. He had witnessed some of these excesses himself. As he sorted out their validity, he began to articulate what we know today as “the Wesleyan quadrilateral.”
Wesley believes all knowledge of God originates with Scripture, but all knowledge of God is not contained in Scripture. Although Scripture is the source of our primary knowledge of God, we have the secondary sources of tradition, reason and experience. In 1756, Wesley published his only formal systematic piece, The Doctrine of Original Sin, according to Scripture, Reason, and Experience. This monograph is his only foray into a systematic study of Christian doctrine. It teaches us a great deal about Wesley’s approach to our life with God.
Wesley begins by observing the facts of Scripture that identify the nature of original sin. Then he shifts to a litany of examples from world history, citing both the known history of the English-speaking peoples as well as great works of Western civilization by Cicero, Seneca, Ovid and so on. He then notes examples from recent events and finally concludes by examining personal experience.
Wesley’s innovative approach to religious experience is a tremendous help for understanding our life with God. Here is how he establishes the legitimacy of experience as one of the four sources of religious knowledge and places it in dynamic interplay with the other three.
Beginning with Scripture. First, Wesley begins the quadrilateral with Scripture. To understand Scripture properly, it is important that we learn to read it at three levels: literally, in context and in conversation with itself. By literally, Wesley means we have to understand the stories of Scripture. By understanding the stories of Scripture we gain an appreciation for the various personalities who make up the grand sweep of God’s interaction with humanity. Here we witness both the great triumphs and the devastating tragedies and come to appreciate God’s sovereign hand at work in every age.
In order to gain mastery of the scope and sequence of Scripture we move beyond literal reading to reading Scripture in context. At this second level we gain an appreciation for the nuances of Scripture, for the purposes behind various forms of writing and for the roles different authors play in our life with God. When we read Scripture in context we learn the significance of historical saga, epic narrative and psalms of lament. We feel the pathos of the major and minor prophets. We are electrified by the advent of our Savior and captivated by our call to a gospel life. We are riveted by the explosive growth of the early church while feeling both encouraged and chastened by Paul’s writings to the first Christians. Here we see the messy reality of human life as it encounters the gospel. And just like these first Christians, we are drawn into the grandeur of our own life with God.
As our knowledge of Scripture expands, so our knowledge and experience of God expand as well. We may come to recognize that Scripture appears to contradict itself. Deuteronomy 21, for example, instructs a father to take a mouthy son outside the camp and stone him to death, while Ephesians 6 cautions parents not to provoke their children to wrath. This recognition opens up our third and highest level of reading Scripture: reading Scripture in conversation with itself.
Consciously or unconsciously, we interpret Scripture in ways that make sense to us within the framework of our knowledge of God and our lived experience. We recognize the higher teachings of the Gospels and Epistles and devise our own process of biblical interpretation, even if we lack formal training. No reasonable person, for example, reads Deuteronomy 21 and believes we should still take rebellious children to the edge of the city limits and kill them. No reasonable person believes that Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 5 to pluck out our eye in order to avoid lusting after a woman is something we should literally do. Common sense and the Holy Spirit help us interpret Scripture so that our interpretation leads to the best life possible, not one filled with people who have harmed themselves or others because of a distorted understanding of our life with God.
Tradition. Living the best life possible requires the able help that comes from the legacy of the great saints of the church, our rich theological traditions, our own thinking capacities and the experiences that come when we live in the fullness of our life with God. The great saints of the church fortify the relevance of tradition as they articulate their understanding of Jesus’ person and work throughout history. It is their engagement with the historic faith that provides a relevant and guiding witness in each age.
Reason. Wesley’s inclusion of reason demonstrates the need for our theological reflections to make sense. As humans, our God-like capacity to reason allows the construction of doctrines and theologies that place our individual experiences of God in a broader framework of meaning and understanding. Throughout the history of the church, reason has played a central and primary role in our theological understanding. Pascal notes, “If we submit everything to reason, our religion will be left with nothing mysterious or supernatural. If we offend the principles of reason our religion will be absurd and ridiculous.” Wesley amplifies this understanding by noting, “Reason constitutes a precious gift of God. It is the candle of the Lord, which he hath fixed in our soul for excellent purposes.”
The role of religious experience. Although treated last in the quadrilateral, Wesley believes our experiences of God are critical in confirming the teachings of Scripture. In fact, only by faith do we understand Scripture properly, since our understanding of Scripture is guided by our life of prayer.
Religious experience is more than just an incident of thought and feeling. It is an inward knowing that validates the truth of Scripture. It combines our natural sensations, perceptions and observations and then reorders them so we can perceive our reality accurately and recognize the presence of God. When we move beyond our natural senses, we come to a whole new level of knowledge and understanding. This knowledge is derived from a personal, experiential encounter with God that Wesley considers “objective inward knowing,” a phrase he borrowed from Robert Barclay, the famous Quaker apologist.
God is hidden. That is, God is not discernible through our natural senses. But the testimony of the Holy Spirit with our spirit makes a unique inward impression whereby “the spirit of God directly witnesses to [our] spirit,” thus confirming our relationship with God. This is how we experience the assurance of salvation. This brings the joy, peace and contentment we long for and seek.
Growing in Christ: Societies, Classes, Bands
One of Wesley’s most unique contributions to spiritual formation was an innovation that helped new followers of Christ grow in their faith. Because of his vast travels, Wesley quickly realized many were coming to faith in Christ without any knowledge of how to grow in this new life. As a result, Wesley formed his movement into three differently-sized groups for varying levels of spiritual growth and support.
“Societies” were essentially congregational churches. “Classes” were mixed groups where no more than fifty individuals would gather for instruction and prayer. “Bands” were single-sex groups of no more than ten individuals who met every week to discuss direct and probing questions in order to bring about character formation and Christlikeness.
In order to join a band, you had to answer a set of very specific questions. After being granted entrance, weekly you were asked questions as part of the group’s effort to achieve a depth of commitment that led to a deeper life with God. First, the questions for joining the band:
Once a person joined a band, another set of questions would be asked each time the group met. These questions were quite provocative, and anyone willing to answer them regularly and honestly could not help but grow spiritually. Here they are in outline form:
This organizational structure has helped millions of Christians worldwide come to saving and sustaining faith in God. Its commitment to the pursuit of holiness has led to an understanding of the process of becoming more like Christ. As Christianity expands around the world (by 2050, it is estimated that there will be three billion Christians worldwide, eighty percent of these outside of Europe and North America), the interesting thing is that many of these new Christian groups reflect Wesley’s worldwide reach, including the explosion of charismatic and Pentecostal congregations that have their original roots in Wesley and Methodism.
REFLECTING AND RESPONDING
John Wesley impresses me on so many fronts. His passion. His love for Christ. His organizational skills. His bold field-preaching. And more. Here, I want to reflect with you on two insights into the spiritual life from this astonishing man.
The first is what we have come to call the “Wesleyan quadrilateral” of Scripture, tradition, reason and experience. This synthesis was Wesley’s way of breaking the horns of the perennial dilemma of religious authority. We do not need to study Christian history or be among Christian fellowships for long before we see how groups and even whole denominations end up gravitating toward one of these sources of authority to the exclusion of the others. And the battles people have fought over these matters are enough to create rivers of blood and an ocean of tears.
In contrast, Wesley wisely brought these four sources of authority together as a kind of delicate balancing act: asserting the primacy of Scripture with the corroborating witness of tradition, reason, and experience. His sophisticated understanding of the role of Scripture, his ability with tradition to draw on the great legacy of the saints and the rich theological history of the people of God, his careful use of reason as “the candle of the Lord” and his understanding of experience as “objective, inward knowing” provide us with the four pillars necessary to give us a solid structure of Christian life and faith. Having studied with care the ways these issues have played themselves out through history, I am convinced that Wesley has given us the best articulation of the necessary combination of sources for religious authority that is to be found anywhere.
The second insight is the unique way Wesley was able to bring the growing number of converts into fellowships of loving, nurturing accountability. This was the “method” in Methodism. By establishing the societies for fellowship and nurture, the class meetings for instruction and training, and the bands for mutual, loving confession, Wesley gave a structure for growth to ordinary Christians that is comparable to what Benedict and his rule did for the monastic world.
This “method” was Wesley’s unique way of fleshing out the theological notion of ecclesiola in ecclesia, “the little church within the church.” This structure, of course, can easily fall into legalism, but when it is done well it provides an exceptional means for growing people up in “the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” The searching questions Wesley used to decide if a person should gain entrance into the bands are by themselves enough to build backbone in any Christian. And the weekly questions thereafter can search us to the depths.
Wesley established this structure everywhere he went. Well, almost everywhere. In the county of Pembrokeshire in the northwest of Wales, he failed to organize the people into societies, class meetings and bands. Twenty years later he reflects on this failure in his Journal: “I was more convinced than ever that the preaching like an apostle, without the joining together those that are awakened and training them up in the ways of God, is only begetting children for the murderer. How much preaching has there been for these twenty years all over Pembrokeshire! But no regular societies, no discipline, no order, or connection. And the consequence is that nine in ten of those once awakened are now faster asleep than ever.” Hence, this failure underscored to Wesley the vital importance of his organizing structure of societies, classes and bands.
So, these two insights into our life with God: a solid foundation for spiritual authority and a practical strategy for growth.
For me, my study of Wesley and his vast influence all came together on one memorable day when I journeyed alone to the John Wesley house in London. I had been traveling and speaking hither and yon. Drained from all the ministry activity, I decided to take a day by myself at the Wesley house.
Of course I knew well the story of the man who had declared, “The world is my parish.” On an earlier trip I had traced Wesley’s steps at Lincoln College in Oxford, where he had been a fellow and where the “holy club” had often gathered. I’d even been to sites of his ill-fated missionary sojourn in Savannah, Georgia. But I had never been to the Wesley house. The Wesley chapel and the home next door had both been built around 1778. In the latter years of his ministry Wesley used this home for his London base during the winter months and then traveled the length and breadth of Britain on horseback the rest of the year. It was in this home in the upstairs bedroom that Wesley died on March 2, 1791, just before ten o’clock a.m. He was eighty-seven years of age, having traveled and preached far and wide for over sixty years.
How is it possible that a place that sees multitudes of tourists regularly could be totally vacant on the day of my visit? Maybe the cold, gray weather played a part. Perhaps divine Providence. I do not know, though I am inclined to favor the latter explanation, for what happened to me on that day was deep and lasting. I had taken the London Underground to the Old Street Station and then walked the short distance to the chapel and house. Once there the only person I saw was the curator of the museum, who kindly unlocked the doors and gave me freedom to spend all the time I wanted, alone and undisturbed.
I began in the chapel. It was the first Methodist church built specifically for the celebration of Holy Communion and, of course, for preaching services. In time it became known as the “mother church of world Methodism.” I found it exactly as Wesley himself described it: “perfectly neat but not fine.” Beautiful in a straightforward sort of way with its Georgian architecture, excellent woodwork and stately stained glass. Beautiful but not overly ornate. I liked it immensely.
The five or six steps ascending the pulpit were roped off. But there I was in the chapel completely alone. I couldn’t resist. Gently stepping over the rope I ascended the pulpit where Wesley and many other luminaries of the early Wesleyan movement had preached. I stood there soaking in the goodness of the moment. The earnest sermons of two hundred years, still embedded into the woodwork of the pews, seemed to call out to me. The time was strengthening and humbling.
Leaving the chapel I walked across the street to Bunhill Fields, the famous burial place for Nonconformists and Dissenters. I had been told that the front of Wesley’s chapel looked directly out onto the grave site of Susanna Wesley, mother of John and Charles—even more, the mother of Methodism. I found it easily. Other famous Dissenters were buried there as well: William Blake, Daniel Defoe, John Bunyan, Isaac Watts and more. With much ado I even found the grave marker for George Fox just outside of Bunhill Fields. The Dissenter’s Dissenter, I guess!
Finally, I made my way to the Wesley house. It is an excellent example of a small Georgian house, all brick with three stories, as I remember. But, of course, I had not come for a lesson in eighteenth- century architecture. No, I was seeking out the spiritual core of this remarkable man’s life. Hence I gravitated to the second floor, which contains Wesley’s study, his bedroom and a small prayer room. I studied the study with keen interest. In the desk I was able to find the secret drawer where Wesley would keep the monies for the poor collected from the latest class meeting.
The bedroom too was of interest. The bed where Wesley died especially drew my attention. As he lay dying, his friends gathered around him, Wesley grasped their hands and said repeatedly, “Farewell, farewell.” At the end, summoning all his remaining strength he cried out, “The best of all is, God is with us.” He then lifted his arms and raised his voice again, repeating the words, “The best of all is, God is with us.” With that, one of the great witnesses for Christ passed from this life into greater Life.
At last I slipped into the small prayer room, which extends off the bedroom. Here, early every morning, Wesley would come to study his Bible and seek God’s empowerment for preaching the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world. Over time this little room has come to be known as “the power house of Methodism.” In my mind’s eye I recall only a small table with an open Bible and a kneeling bench. The bench looked out through a window, and from that vantage point I could see Wesley’s grave behind the chapel. Whether the kneeling bench was the original that Wesley used or a replica I do not know. My guess would be a replica, but it was of no consequence to me. I knelt, completely alone with the God who hears in secret. For the longest time I did not try to make any prayer with my mouth or my mind. I remained still. Listening. Ruminating on the great events of that dynamic movement of the Spirit over two hundred years ago. Time was suspended for me at that kneeling bench in that little prayer room in the Wesley house in London. Finally, I spoke words. A longing hope of my heart, I guess. A prayer, too. “Do it again, Lord,” I cried. “Do it again!”
O Christ, Son of the living God, so much of our life feels a lot like Wesley’s ill-fated journey to Georgia. We start out filled with such hope and enthusiasm. But we fail to count the cost. Or we don’t have a realistic vision of what is needed. Or we make fatal blunders along the way. And we end up with our hopes dashed and our mission in ruins.
Jesus, can you make something out of our failure? Will you? The Bible stories make it clear that you are the God who majors in restoration. Could this be true for us? You gave Wesley another run at life—and what a journey it was! His story gives us hope that you just might do something of value with us. O come, Lord Jesus. Give us a renewed vision of what you can do . . . what you will do . . . with the tangled mess of our lives. It is in your name that we dare to make this prayer. Amen.