Wesleyanism and Catholicism

[Guest]

On another forum I posted what I thought was a misrepresentation of Wesleyanism as it related to Catholicism. (I respond to the quote below and, in general, the whole article as it relates to this point)

Quote:
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"Wesleyanism has much in common with Roman Catholicism, because living a holy life is directly connected to one's salvation. That is, committing a certain "sin" directly causes the loss of salvation. The problems with such a theology are easily apparent, particularly when compared with Paul's Epistles. Salvation is either by God's grace, or it is by a combination of God's grace and our own efforts. Catholics and Wesleyans claim the latter. But, consistent Arminians do NOT in any way connect salvation with one's own works."
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http://www.pfrs.org/calvinism/calvin05.html

As I see it, Wesleyanism and Catholicism do not share the commonality that is denoted above. Here's why:

1) Consistent Catholicism is a religion of merit. Justification does not rest solely on Christ's sacrifice for our sins. Other "good" works need to be accomplished for justification to happen. By fulfilling these works, a person believes that they have earned or merited justification (that they deserve it). It would be something to boast about other than Christ's sacrifice. Salvation is not accomplished until all the bases are covered.

2) Consistent Wesleyans do not believe good works help justify anyone. They believe that Christ's sacrifice is sufficient. Yes, they may have an errant view of how sin effects the believer's relationship with God. But this is not a religion of merit. Thinking that one must do things to maintain salvation (i.e, repent of a sin that was committed) is not a meritorious work. They would never say they have earned anything by repenting or not sinning, or that it is something to boast about. It is simply something that they think is required as an obedient follower of Christ. In fact, it's easy to think this way sometimes considering Scripture in 1 John, etc.., and that the devil is an accuser when we do sin.

Wesleyanism may be wrong on its view of how sin effects the believer, but it is hardly a religion of merit or works that would fall under the Galatian heresy."

Steve posted the following back on 05' on another thread.

"Another view holds that we must repent of each sin that we commit in order to maintain our salvation. On this view, even though Christ died for all sins, past, present and future, 2000 years ago, we did not personally benefit from any of this until the point in time when we repented of all past sins at our conversion. Of course, He died for our future sins as well, and we can be forgiven of them all on the basis of that same sacrifice, but we must continue to repent in order to appropriate current forgiveness each time we find that we have sinned.

This view takes seriously 1 John 1:9, but it may not give adequate consideration to the status of a child of God, as opposed to an unbeliever. We know that the unbeliever is at enmity with God, and is under the wrath of God. He needs to repent in order to avoid ultimate condemnation. Is a believer, who falls into sin, also under God's wrath? Is he in the same position as an unbeliver, needing to be saved again each time he falls short of the glory of God?

If this is the case, then salvation seems to be only a series of pardons, applied to the most recent case of sin and confession. There is little recognition of the changed status of the child of God after regeneration. He is essentially of the same status as the unbeliever, except for the fact that he regularly repents."

My question is why do you think that such a position could be held by a legitimate born again Christian? Why isn't it salvation by our own efforts or works?

Feedback is appreciated.

Brian

[Guest]

This isn't really an answer to your question, but as a current 'wesleyan', and one who has been in a wesleyan church my whole life, and having graduated from a wesleyan bible college, I've never met anyone that believed we lose our salvation every time we sin.

Good wesleyan (like good arminians and good Christians in general) RESPOND to grace by WORKS. There are certainly wesleyans (and arminians and christians in general) who haven't quite grasped that works are a response to grace and not a means to accessing grace.