Though in the pastorate for a number of years...
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Though in the pastorate for a number of years, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, still harbored doubts about his faith and the assurance of his salvation. At five in the morning on May 24, 1738, he awoke and randomly opened his Bible, as was his custom, and read these words: "Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in this world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). Yet he felt no exceedingly great promises within his own spiritual state.
That evening he attended a Methodist meeting at Aldersgate Street in London. There he heard a layman reading from Luther's Preface to the Epistle to Romans. Later Wesley recorded in his journal the transformation of his soul: "about a quarter before nine, while the leader was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." The assurance that had so long eclipsed him had now shone brightly.
"I felt my heart strangely warmed" has become the mantra of Methodism. It is the sensation that we all experience when we experience the "refiner's fire and a fuller's soap."
That evening he attended a Methodist meeting at Aldersgate Street in London. There he heard a layman reading from Luther's Preface to the Epistle to Romans. Later Wesley recorded in his journal the transformation of his soul: "about a quarter before nine, while the leader was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." The assurance that had so long eclipsed him had now shone brightly.
"I felt my heart strangely warmed" has become the mantra of Methodism. It is the sensation that we all experience when we experience the "refiner's fire and a fuller's soap."
