Union with Christ: Two Views - Introduction
You know, I'm bad at this blogging thing. I don't write regularly and I definitely haven't been keeping to the promises I've made. I hope you can forgive me. Because even though there's a dam along the river, it still flows.
"Union with Christ: Two Views" will be on John Wesley, Eastern Orthodox's Theosis, and Jonathan Edwards. Most people will recognize John Wesley - one of the founders of the Methodist movement, which also spawned the holiness movement later on, and possibly Jonathan Edwards - a revivalist who preached during The First Great Awakening - due to having to read his Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God sermon in an English or History class. Though many people have heard of Eastern Orthodox, mainly in the form of Greek or Russian Orthodox, not many people have heard of the doctrine of Theosis. So, then why have I clumped an English Arminian, an American Calvinist, and some "magical" Eastern doctrine all together? Because I think that they have more in common, maybe even the most important doctrine other than the Trinity, than many people realize.
The first post will have a brief overview of the second post (like above), the second will have a brief overview of the third post, etc. until this series is over. Once this series is over, I do still plan on writing on this idea of "Union with God", so I might create another series dealing with that topic.
I hope to God I'll actually write this stuff. Lord, help me.
Introduction
This blog series, which I'm calling "Union with Christ: Two Views", is going to be based on a paper I wrote, titled, Two Views on Mystical Union: An overview and comparison between Perfected (or Perfecting) Unity and Distinctive Unity. Though that paper's title seems very complex (and contrived), these blogposts will hopefully be less so. I would really like everyone to be able to understand this topic, so my writing style will be less formal than in my paper - just as it should be! And I say should be because theology and academia should be easily accessible to seekers of all levels of education - not just those with a college level or even postgraduate level of education."Union with Christ: Two Views" will be on John Wesley, Eastern Orthodox's Theosis, and Jonathan Edwards. Most people will recognize John Wesley - one of the founders of the Methodist movement, which also spawned the holiness movement later on, and possibly Jonathan Edwards - a revivalist who preached during The First Great Awakening - due to having to read his Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God sermon in an English or History class. Though many people have heard of Eastern Orthodox, mainly in the form of Greek or Russian Orthodox, not many people have heard of the doctrine of Theosis. So, then why have I clumped an English Arminian, an American Calvinist, and some "magical" Eastern doctrine all together? Because I think that they have more in common, maybe even the most important doctrine other than the Trinity, than many people realize.
John Wesley and Christian Perfection
To start off, our first blogpost will be about John Wesley and his idea of Christian perfection. I start here because most Americans will have heard of him or at least the Methodist church or The Wesleyan Church.
John Wesley was an English man during the 1700s who traveled to America to be a priest in Georgia. He met a group of pilgrims, called the "Moravians", on his journey who kept still and sung hymns through terrible storms. This caught his attention, so he decided to research their practices and beliefs.1
He didn't stay much longer in America due to some conflicts, thus returning to England. On returning to England, he met George Whitefield who persuaded him to preach to the people not allowed in the church. While he was becoming a prominent preacher to those in the poorer parts of the country, he was developing his doctrine of Christian Perfection.
Christian Perfection is largely misunderstood by people, in the sense they think it's the Christian themselves who initiate and continue the process of perfecting. However, John Wesley himself realized that perfection was only brought forth by God himself. It's not an effort made by man to become perfect, but a gift of grace by God so that man may be perfect.
For those who understand this, it doesn't seem to be a mystical (we'll define this in the first post) idea. They think it doesn't portray the idea of "union with Christ" in a transformational sense, i.e. becoming Christ in his likeness. However, I'll argue that it does and that Christian Perfection, or at least the goal of Christian Perfection, is union with God through Christ. As Mr. Wesley says in his tract, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, "One happiness shall ye propose to your souls, even an union with Him that made them, the having ‘fellowship with the Father and the Son,’ the being ‘joined to the Lord in one spirit" (emphasis mine).2
Christian Perfection is largely misunderstood by people, in the sense they think it's the Christian themselves who initiate and continue the process of perfecting. However, John Wesley himself realized that perfection was only brought forth by God himself. It's not an effort made by man to become perfect, but a gift of grace by God so that man may be perfect.
For those who understand this, it doesn't seem to be a mystical (we'll define this in the first post) idea. They think it doesn't portray the idea of "union with Christ" in a transformational sense, i.e. becoming Christ in his likeness. However, I'll argue that it does and that Christian Perfection, or at least the goal of Christian Perfection, is union with God through Christ. As Mr. Wesley says in his tract, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, "One happiness shall ye propose to your souls, even an union with Him that made them, the having ‘fellowship with the Father and the Son,’ the being ‘joined to the Lord in one spirit" (emphasis mine).2
The first post will have a brief overview of the second post (like above), the second will have a brief overview of the third post, etc. until this series is over. Once this series is over, I do still plan on writing on this idea of "Union with God", so I might create another series dealing with that topic.
I hope to God I'll actually write this stuff. Lord, help me.
Works Used
- "John Wesley Biography ." Biography Online. N.p., 3 Aug. 2014. Web. 14 May 2017. <http://www.biographyonline.net/spiritual/john-wesley.html>.
- Wesley, John. A PLAIN ACCOUNT OF CHRISTIAN PERFECTION: AS BELIEVED AND TAUGHT BY THE REVEREND MR. JOHN WESLEY, FROM THE YEAR 1725, TO THE YEAR 1777. Vol. 11. Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, n.d. The Works of John Wesley. PDF.
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