As Christians we believe that God loves us, in much the same way as a parent loves their child, and is preparing us to share eternity with him. Why this should be so we can’t imagine, and this is the most difficult part of our belief. We base this belief on the writings in the Bible, a record of God’s dealings with His people over the ages and a guide to help us understand how He wants us to respond to His love.
The Basis of Belief
We view the early writings (the Old Testament) as a record of how God revealed Himself to one of the earliest civilisations: How He showed us that if we are to share His life we must accept Him wholeheartedly and without reserve; how this was expressed in law through the ten commandments; and how generations of His people found even this simple set of rules too difficult to follow. By the end of the Old Testament, not one single person could claim to have lived up to God’s standards.
This held until Jesus was born, called The Christ, or the redeemer. The second section of the Bible, the New Testament, begins with the four Gospels, meaning ‘Good News’: a record of how Jesus was born into an enemy-occupied land, lived preaching a new life of forgiveness, and died a shameful death by crucifixion. This in itself was not unusual, but we believe Jesus was unique: He claimed a special relationship with God, who he always referred to as his Father, and in such terms that he was understood to claim to be God. He performed miracles of healing, even to the extent of raising some people back from the dead. Some people saw in him the focus for a rebellion, with the power and the charisma which could free their land of the Roman occupation, and they tried to use him in this way. Others saw him as a disturbing influence, trying to change accepted practices and comfortable traditions, possibly even as a threat to ‘established religion’. After three years of preaching, more than one group of people decided he had to go; he was arrested and crucified on the first Good Friday.
Now the story gets interesting: Although none of his followers expected it, they relate how he came back from the dead on the Sunday morning, and reminded them how he had promised he would. He spent a month with his followers, convincing them he really had returned, and that it wasn’t a dream; then he left them. They were evidently puzzled as to why he was leaving, but he told them it was for the better, because it would pave the way for a totally new relationship with God: He promised that God’s Spirit would come in his place, enabling them to experience the life and power God had to offer – permanently. The remainder of the New Testament relates how those same frightened and puzzled followers suddenly became filled with joy and power, and gave their lives – literally – to spreading the news that this was open to anyone who wanted it.
The Theological Bit
We believe that our inability to accept or to live up to God’s calling in the Old Testament has meant that we are separated from God. We believe that Jesus was the only person who has ever lived up to this calling, and can therefore claim the right to be with God. He explained that his acceptance of death on the cross enabled him to take our death on himself, and to exchange our death for his life. In this way he has paid the price for our separation from God, and is able to offer us that new life as a gift. We refer to this as being ‘born again’. All we have to do is to accept it, as a gift, and to accept that there is nothing we can possibly do to earn it for ourselves.
Jesus himself claimed to be “the way, the truth and the life”, and claimed that no-one could come to the Father (God) except through him. This is the central claim which all Christians hold in common.
So What’s the ‘Methodist’ Thing?
The ‘Methodist’ name was at first a bit of an insult, given to the brothers John and Charles Wesley when they were students during a period of religious revival in the 18th century. They were part of a group of Christian students who gathered for Bible study and prayer, which became known as the ‘Holy Club’. They put such store on a regular discipline of prayer and study that they were seen as following a method and trying to apply it to others as well – hence the name. The rest, as they say, is history. The Methodist website (at http://www.methodist.org.uk, within their ‘Welcome/History’ section) describes this well.
We see ourselves as a wing of the Christian Church as a whole, and work closely with other denominations and groups as partners, or brothers and sisters. In terms of belief there is very little difference between us, but there are a few things we hold dear:
The Wesley brothers wrote literally hundreds of hymns, and communal singing has always been at the centre of Methodist worship and service, both old hymns and new songs.
We hold dear the belief that God has reached out to us to offer us a new life with Him, and that we therefore have a direct, personal contact with God Himself. Each person is precious to Him, whatever their past, and anyone who accepts His gift of life is as special as anybody else.
The Methodist Church was one of many organisations which faced the dangers of alcoholism in the 19th century in particular. It adopted an ‘alcohol-free’ policy in order to draw a clear and unambiguous line in the sand against those dangers, and it has stuck to its guns ever since. It does not insist that every member of the Church should adopt this line, but it does not normally allow alcohol on Church premises anywhere or for any reason – even for the service of Holy Communion.
