The Evangelical Methodist Church
catechism the journey of faith __________
“We should so work as if we were to be saved by our works; And so rely on Jesus Christ, as if we did no works.” —Francis Asbury: God’s Circuit Rider (1745-1816)
The Evangelical Methodist Church
CATECHISM Published by the authority of the 30th General Conference of the Evangelical Methodist Church, held in Indianapolis, Indiana March 12-15, 2010 General Editor: Dr. Edward W. Williamson, General Superintendent Department of Publications Editor: Mrs. Peggy Trim, Deaconess
Copyright Š 2012 by the General Conference of the Evangelical Methodist Church Department of Publications PRINTING 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the Department of Publications. All Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible unless otherwise noted. Printed in USA by 48HrBooks (www.48HrBooks.com)
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Evangelical Methodist Church International Headquarters P. O. Box 17070 Indianapolis, IN 46217 Location: 6838 South Gray Road Indianapolis, IN 46237
Additional copies of this publication may be ordered by contacting the Department of Publications at:
Phone: 317-780-8017 Email: publications@emchurch.org www.emchurch.org
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Table of Contents Foreword .................................................................................. 6 Lesson 1: Our History and Commitment ............................... 7 Lesson 2: The Articles of Religion ....................................... 15 Lesson 3: A Biblical View of the Scriptures ........................ 39 Lesson 4: A Biblical View of God and Humanity ................. 41 Lesson 5: A Biblical View of Sin and Redemption .............. 47 Lesson 6: A Biblical View of God’s Plan for Salvation ........ 51 Lesson 7: Sanctification ..................................................... 55 Lesson 8: A Biblical View of the Church and the Sacraments ......................................................... 59 Lesson 9: A Biblical View of Eternity .................................. 65 Lesson 10: Missions ............................................................ 69 Lesson 11: Our Government: Congregational and Connectional ............................................... 79 Lesson 12: Membership Responsibility ………. .................... 83 Lesson 13: Membership ...................................................... 89 Membership Covenant ...................................... 90 Appendix A: John Wesley’s The Scripture Way of Salvation A Break-Through Sermon .................................... 91 Appendix B: The Scripture Way of Salvation, John Wesley’s Sermon in Modern English … ............... 99 Appendix C: Explanatory Notes, Evangelical Methodist Articles of Faith ……………………… ................. 113 Appendix D: Basic Denominational Principles .................. …..127 Answers to Lesson Questions ................................................ 129
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Forward The General Board of Christian Education congratulates you for taking this step in expanding your knowledge of the basic doctrinal teachings to which the Evangelical Methodist Church adheres. The EMC is Wesleyan in doctrine which promotes purity of heart and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is the desire of this Board that as you embark upon your journey through this study you will come to know the EMC better and appreciate its stand for holiness. While this study perhaps will not answer all your questions, it will serve as a foundation upon which you, as a student, may build your understanding of the Wesleyan tradition. As you work your way through this study, you will not only develop a better understanding of what the EMC is, but also establish personal disciplines of study which will serve you well as you grow in your personal relationship with the Lord. While this study gives you a basic understanding of the EMC, it also gives you information for becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. Another study, Discipleship Training, A Venture in Learning and Accountability offered by the General Board of Christian Education, will help you become more disciplined in your daily walk with the Lord. It will also give you tools to disciple others, thus fulfilling the Great Commission that Jesus gave the Church while it waits for His return. The pastor and lay leaders will enlarge and supplement this material to accommodate their local church mission statement and unique missional ministries. 2010-2014 General Board of Christian Education Members: Rev. Debbie Miller, Chair Rev. Dan Cottrell Dr. William Dean Rev. John Gentry Mr. Benoit Kitenge Rev. Robert Perkins Rev. Daniel Stiles
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esson 1 The Evangelical Methodist Church: Our History and Commitment
OUR HISTORY The Evangelical Methodist Church would be considered a young denomination when compared to the rich histories of many other Protestant denominations. Our relative youth needs to be placed in perspective. We believe that our denominational roots span more than just several decades. In reality our roots stretch back over centuries. We have a rich heritage of faith grounded in the Word of God, what we call true Methodism, the historic form of religious expression which bore fruit in 18th century England. It was this form of expression which is noted by many historians as saving England from a violent and bloody civil war. The father of this historic form of expression was the Reverend John Wesley. In September of 1725, John Wesley graduated from Oxford University and was ordained a priest in the Church of England. Even then, Wesley was on a search to know God. Trained in theology, biblical languages and the classics, he was still attempting to save himself through good works. After a failed attempt at missionary work in Georgia, Wesley returned to England, a broken and unhappy man. In his journal he wrote, “I went to America to convert the Indians; but oh, who shall convert me?” This led him to a meeting of Moravians at Aldersgate Street in London. During a reading of Luther’s preface to the book of Romans, Wesley finally found the peace he was searching for on May 24, 1738. At 8:45 p.m. he wrote in his journal, “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation; an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
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From that date forward Wesley began to preach and teach justification by faith. He began to challenge all of England to give their hearts and lives to God and experience full salvation from all sin. The pulpits of the entire church were opened to him as a priest in the Church of England and teaching fellow at Oxford. Like the apostle Paul, Wesley traveled extensively to take the gospel message to those who had not heard. Though many of the bishops of the Church of England began to close pulpits to his message, Wesley resisted cries from his followers to leave the Church of England. He believed that it was still possible to reform the church. As the pulpits closed, he resorted to preaching in the fields and on street corners. He preached anywhere people would stop and listen to him. The result was nothing short of miraculous.
His ministry was to the poor and the downtrodden of society. He preached to those persons whom the Church of England had either forgotten or neglected. He preached to the coal miners at 5:00 a.m. before they went to work in the mines, and when they emerged after a long day in the dark shafts, he preached to them again. Wesley established schools and orphanages for children, jobs for the unemployed, homes for the widows and elderly and regular visitation to the sick and imprisoned. He took every opportunity to share with them the saving message of Christ. Those converted were carefully nurtured and discipled in class meetings, band meetings and other small cell groups. Methodism, as it came to be called, grew and Wesley had to begin training lay ministers to carry on the work of the Lord. The number of trained laymen filling this capacity grew rapidly. Wesley continued to resist calls
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to separate from the Church of England. It was not until 1780, eleven years before his death at age 88 that Wesley agreed to begin ordaining ministers for the proclamation of the Gospel. That decision marked the beginning of Methodism, a body separate from the Church of England.
John Wesley ordained Englishman Thomas Coke as American’s bishop/general superintendent. Coke, in turn, ordained Francis Asbury at the famous Christmas Conference of 1784, which gave
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birth to the American Methodist Episcopal Church. On Christmas Day, Asbury was ordained deacon, the following day, elder, and on December 27th was consecrated as the first bishop of American Methodism. As Coke put it, "We were in great haste and did much business in a little time." Within six months, Coke moved on to another ministry, and thereafter, Asbury held the reins of American Methodism. Methodism in America enjoyed varying degrees of success in different parts of the country, but like many other denominations in America, there began to develop a growing trend toward liberalism. Denial of the doctrine of original sin, the denial of the necessity of conversion to Christ, denial of the authority of Scriptures and denial of the doctrine of full salvation from sin, all had an adverse effect upon Methodism. Within the Methodist Church there were various attempts at reform and renewal. Quite often those attempts led to splits and the emergence of a new denomination that endeavored to capture the original vision of historic or true Methodism. On May 9, 1946 a small group of pastors and laymen met in Memphis, Tennessee. They were deeply troubled by the denial of a great many of the foundational doctrines of the church, such as the virgin birth of Christ, the deity of Christ, the inspiration of the Scriptures, the miracles recorded in the Bible, the denial of the necessity of the new birth and the doctrine of sanctification. After long discussions and longer hours in prayer, these pastors and laymen felt led of God to organize the Evangelical Methodist Church. Dr. J. H. Hamblen of Abilene, Texas was elected the first general superintendent of the Evangelical Methodist Church in November 1946 at the first Annual Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. His often quoted prayer at the conference was simple and direct: “Oh, Lord, if this movement be of Thy will, bless and prosper it; but, Lord, if not of Thy will, then let it die here and now.�
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Dr. Ezequiel B. Vargas attended the first Annual Conference. Dr. Vargas was the superintendent of the Mexican Evangelistic Mission. He proposed that this great work become a part of the Evangelical Methodist Church. His proposal was accepted. In 1957 Dr. Vargas was elected by the General Conference to preside as general superintendent over the first Mexican Mission Conference. On June 4, 1960, the Evangel Church, Inc., founded by Dr. William Kirby and Dr. Cornelius P. Haggard, voted to unite with the Evangelical Methodist Church. Two years later, on July 3, 1962, the General Conference of the Evangelical Methodist Church voted to merge with the People’s Methodist Church whose presiding general superintendent at the time of merger was the Rev. Dr. J. Neal Anderson. These two mergers with the Evangel Church, Inc. from the west coast and the People’s Methodist from the east coast birthed a truly national denomination with a growing mission work in Mexico. Evangelical Methodist missions expanded its outreach in 1979 with the Bolivian Evangelistic Mission. Missionary outreach in this Latin field included both medical and aviation ministries along with church planting and church growth. Bolivia is no longer a mission field of the church. In 2001 a contact was made by the leadership of a group of Methodist churches asking for a visit to Myanmar by the chairman of the Board of World Missions and the general superintendent. In February 2003 the EMC officers traveled to Myanmar to begin a cooperative ministry relationship with the churches there. In July 2006 Myanmar became a mission conference of the Evangelical Methodist Church. Rev. Dar Ro Thanga served as the first general superintendent of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Myanmar. In 2010 the General Conference reorganized the denominational structure and approved the formation of only two districts, the Canada District and the United States District. The two mission conferences of Mexico and Myanmar were maintained. Regions (clusters of churches in close proximity) were established with conference superintendents as overseers of the activities of each region.
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OUR COMMITMENT The commitment of the Evangelical Methodist Church is summed up in six brief statements: The church is fundamental in belief, pre-millennial regarding the second coming, missionary in outlook, evangelistic in endeavor, cooperative in spirit, and Wesleyan in doctrine. We believe this commitment is firmly rooted and grounded in the Word of God. 1. By fundamental in belief we mean that we take our stand on the Bible as the Word of God – its plenary, unique inspiration and its supreme authority in our lives. 2. By pre-millennial regarding the second coming we mean that we believe that Christ will return prior to the millennium, and that He will literally reign on the earth during the 1000 year millennial period. 3. By missionary in outlook we mean that there is a burning desire to keep before the world the scope of the plan of redemption that, “He by the grace of God should taste death for every man,� and to hasten under all possible Christian means the salvation of men, and to keep before the church the magnitude of her unfinished task. 4. By evangelic in endeavor we mean that we seek the salvation of men through concentrated effort to win them to Christ. That concentrated effort largely is the awakening that comes in revival spirit when the Holy Spirit convicts of sin in either mass evangelism or personal evangelism. We seek to promote true revivals of faith in our churches as the supreme aim of the church, and to relate men to Christ in saving and sanctifying grace. 5. By cooperative in spirit we mean that we believe we should cooperate with other like bodies of the evangelical Christian faith, and not withdraw ourselves into a closed religious corporation. The largeness of the undertaking, the brevity of the opportunity, the constraining love of Christ, all show that we should cooperate to the fullest with Bible-believing Christians everywhere, and still maintain a deep and abiding loyalty to our own church as a God-directed and Christcentered movement for such a time as this. 6. By Wesleyan in doctrine we mean that we accept as our standard of faith the Articles of Religion set forth by John Wesley and the early Methodists. We believe the Wesleyan interpretation to be true and correct as we seek to walk with God in righteousness and true holiness.
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Lesson 1 – For Discussion or Follow-up The Evangelical Methodist Church: Our History and Commitment 1. When was your church started?
2. Who were the principle founders?
3. How long has your church been Evangelical Methodist?
4. What is the history, vision and mission of your church?
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—N O T E S—
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