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Modern Methodism

Crusades cannot last forever. Modernism began to take root in the late 1800s, as Methodist pastors were indoctrinated in higher criticism in Germany. R.E. Chiles’ study of Theological Transition in American Methodism, 1790-1935 (Abingdon, 1965) shows how Methodists in the nineteenth century gradually forgot Wesley’s insistence that “free will” itself was a gift of grace, and so oddly capitulated to the Reformed theologians’ claims. Methodists became unclear about basic claims of Christian faith and morality, through what Wesley condemned as “speculative latitudinarianism” in his sermon on a “Catholic Spirit.”

Toward the close of the nineteenth century a movement developed in various parts of the United States corresponding somewhat to that of the revival period of a century previous. It manifested itself differently, so far as organization was concerned, in different sections. In the Southern states it was chiefly an independent movement, and each congregation held itself apart from every other. In the West and in the East the tendencies were toward a closer afliliation, resulting in organization.

The principle at the basis of these movements has been a belief in the power of Jesus Christ to make Christians holy in this present life, and they represent thus a renewed emphasis upon the doctrine of entire sanctification, as taught by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. The immediate occasion was the feeling that full liberty to emphasize this doctrine, which came to be called the "full Gospel," was not allowed even in the Methodist churches.

Mainline American churches offer examples of once vibrant denominations in decline. The faithful in the pews and pulpits tried to steer them back to their conservative roots, but were defeated by the juggernaut of liberalism. These well-meaning believers, devoted to the absolute authority of the Bible seemed to be narrow-minded, uninformed proponents of an outdated theological worldview. As a result, once proud gospel-preaching denominations find tha the flames of revival fires are gone. Compromises with the world has come, apathy has set in, and the world is unmoved.

By the time of the Great War it was evident that Methodism was getting, through its younger ministers, a new and serious inoculation of the New Theology of Modernism. This teaching would change the spiritual character of this great denomination, if it had not already done so. The New Theology of Modernism belittles the miraculous element. To them miracles are not necessary to stamp the book as of God, in fact, to this school, miracles are rather an embarrassment. They affirm that if miracles occurred their purpose is restricted to the human ministry aspect only, and in no-wise serve as proof of the Divine authority of the Bible. The fact of a miracle presupposes a God working contrary to, or independently of evolution, or of any other supposed natural law; and to Modernists God does not thus work in any part of His universe, in contradistinction to the theory of evolution.

Professor Harry Emerson Fosdick of Union Seminary, New York, in his article in The Atlantic Monthly of January, 1919, wrote that "The intellectual classes, trying to think real thoughts about live issues, have gradually drifted away, until Christianity faces to-day, in the deflection of the universities, not from religion, but from the churches, a crisis of the first magnitude."

The largest U.S. Methodist group, the United Methodist Church (UMC), was formed in 1968 from a merger of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The combined membership of the two bodies was 11 million in 1965, but by 1983 had dropped to roughly 9 million members. At its 1972 Quadrennial Conference, the UMC formally approved a policy of doctrinal pluralism founded upon the four-fold authority of Scripture, Tradition, Experience, and Reason. The United Methodist Church is modernistic and ecumenical. Wesley’s “catholic spirit” insisted on common, ecumenical Christian principles, but also expressed the modern concept of religious toleration that had prevailed in Europe after the wars of religion. United Methodist pastors participate in ecumenical clergy associations, joining hands at the local level with diverse faith communities.