JOHN WESLEY'S THEOLOGY OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

by
Leon O. Hynson

The Kingdom of God! Was ist Das? Evidently it says something about God, about God's rule and about a realm of rulership, and of the citizens of that realm. Richard Niebuhr defined American Christianity by the rubric: "The Kingdom of God in America." Sometimes the concept referred to God's sovereignty, the kingdom on earth, or in heaven, or the reign of Christ in the hearts of women and men. It may have reference to the liberal goal of a truly redeemed society, a post-millennialist view of the victory of Christ, or a pre-millenialist's view of the second coming of Jesus. J. S. Whale has discussed "The Crown Rights of the Redeemer" to describe the rights of Jesus among the nations of the earth.(l) This is a theme emanating from Reformed theology found later in the hymns of Charles Wesley.(2)

Richard Niebuhr extravagantly criticized the liberal perspective on the kingdom:

The romantic conception of the kingdom of God involved no discontinuities, no crises, no tragedies, or sacrifices, no 1099 of all things, no cross and resurrection. In ethics it reconciled the interests of the individual with those of society by means of faith in a natural identity of interests or in the benevolent, altruistic character of man....

Christ the Redeemer became Jesus the teacher or the spiritual genius in whom the religious capacities of mankind were fully developed....

A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through . . . a Christ without a cross.(3)

If liberal theology of the Kingdom could be disposed of by such a sophisticated blast, neo-orthodoxy felt the contrary winds of criticism:

"O pity the pupil of Barth!

Though he seeks to drive sin from his heart,

And by evil he's frightened

Then his fear is more heightened For he knows that there's no way to start."

William Temple, after hearing Reinhold Niebuhr, wrote,

"At Stanwick, when Niebuhr had quit it, Said a young man:

At last I have hit it, Since I cannot do right I must find out tonight The best sin to commit-and commit it."(4)

Niebuhr reputedly compared the church in the world with Noah in the Ark: "If it weren't for the storm on the outside we couldn't stand the smell on the inside."

Perhaps the new orthodoxy was so preoccupied with the rule of evil, with such a radical sense of historical tragedy, that it made human exigency rather than divine promise the realistic factor for humanity. In essence, the Kingdom of God was so transcendent that its power in history was muted.

What about the Wesleyan heritage? To answer this question we must go back to Wesley (the task at hand), but it will also require the subsequent tracking of the concept through his theological inheritors (a future task). With regard to our tracks, it sometimes isn't clear whether we are coming or going. Durwood Foster has described as a deficiency in Wesleyan theology,

The lack of an eschatological envisagement of God's realm as an embracing frame of reference for the salvific process.... The blessed community of mankind and christic dominion over the whole world, including nature, hang therefore loosely related to the Wesleyan ordo salutus.

Foster appeals for recognition of "the fructifying of all the potencies of life . . . in the vision of God's realm: the tilling of the earth . . . the release into liberty of the whole travailing creation.(6)

From my perspective, this thesis lacks conviction. There is an "eschatological envisagement of God's realm . . . for the salvific process." Wesleyan theology does not stop with the order of salvation. Wesley proposed a comprehensive concept of salvation which surely bursts beyond the borders of the ordo salutis. The ordo salutis is indicative of Wesley's preoccupation with the conversion and sanctification of men and women. To express the comprehensive conception of salvation, Wesley's theology of the Kingdom should be brought into consideration, for it functions more broadly than the ordo salutis. That doesn't deprive the latter of its specialized value when Wesleyan theologians speak of personal salvation or evangelical transformation. We ought in fact to question whether Wesley proposed a bifurcated view of salvation, separating the personal and comprehensive. I do not think he did, although every theological craftsman divides in order to analyze and discuss. And Wesley was a craftsman!

Evidences of the comprehensive, redemptive possibilities in Christ are seen in Wesley's sermons: "The General Spread of the Gospel," "The New Creation," "The General Deliverance," "The Sermon on the Lord's Prayer," the "Thoughts Upon Slavery" and the sermon "The Reformation of Manners." Certainly the dominant motif in these is the gradual transformation which comes through the Gospel and the church's ministry to reform the nation. Yet no matter how we view this, there is continuity between the order of salvation and the process of social transformation. Clarence Bence is correct in describing the marmer by which Wesley's sermon "The General Spread of the Gospel" extrapolates from individual salvation to the whole of society. The "theology of grace is certainly transformational." (6)

The best synopsis of Wesley's theology of the Kingdom may be one of his sermons on The Lord's Prayer:

In order that the name of God may be hallowed, we pray that His kingdom, the kingdom of Christ, may come. This kingdom then comes to a particular person, when he "repents and believes the gospel"; when he is taught of God, not only to know himself, but to know Jesus Christ and Him crucified. As "this is the life eternal, to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent"; so it is the kingdom of God begun below, set up in the believer's heart; "the Lord God Omnipotent then 'reigneth,' " when He is known through Christ Jesus. He taketh unto Himself His mighty power, that He may subdue all things unto Himself. He goeth on in the soul conquering and to conquer, till He hath put all things under His feet, till "every thought is brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ."

When therefore God shall "give His Son the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession"; when "all kingdoms shall bow before Him, and all nations shall do Him service"; when "the mountain of the Lord's house," the church of Christ, "shall be established in the top of the mountains"; when "the fullness of the Gentiles shall come in, and all Israel shall be saved"; then shall it be seen, that "the Lord is King, and hath put on glorious apparel," appearing to every soul of man as King of kings and Lord of lords. And it is meet for all those who love His appearing, to pray that He would hasten the time; that this His kingdom, the kingdom of grace, may come quickly, and swallow up all the kingdoms of the earth- that all mankind receiving Him for their King, truly believing in His name, may be filled with righteousness, and peace, and joy, with holiness and happiness, till they are removed hence into His heavenly kingdom, there to reign with Him for ever and ever.

For this also we pray in those words, "Thy kingdom come"; we pray for the coming of His everlasting kingdom, the kingdom of glory in heaven, which is the continuation and perfection of the kingdom of grace on earth. Consequently this, as well as the preceding petition, is offered up for the whole intelligent creation, who are all interested in this grand event, the final renovation of all things, by God's putting an end to misery and sin, to infirmity and death, taking all things into His own hands, and setting up the kingdom which endureth through all ages."(7)

Wesley's theology of the kingdom is wholistic, including many differing, yet complementary elements. There is at its center a soteriological dimension which imbues all other aspects. We may identify this as the "gospel dispensation," or to paraphrase Jesus, "a kingdom purchased by my blood, for all who have believed in me, with the faith which wrought by love" (Mt.25:34), (8)"The inward present kingdom" (Mt. 13:31, 35), the "Gospel" (Mt.21:43), "true religion" (Rom. 14:17), "real religion" (I Cor. 4:20), "the kingdom of grace" (Mt. 6:10), "heaven already opened to the soul," "the proper disposition for the glory of heaven rather than the attainment of it" (Mt.3:2), a "spiritual kingdom " into which realm enter those who repent (Mt.4:17). The kingdom is in the hearts of believers, but it is also observable (Mt.4:17). For Wesley it is a state to be presently enjoyed, especially visible in the context of a society formed on earth (Mt. 3:2). It denotes individuals but also the "whole body of believers" (Mt.4:17). Here and now, in our hearts and everywhere "we want Christ in His royal character to reign in our hearts and subdue all things to Himself" (Mt.1:16). This is the "evangelical transformation of the world.(9)

The process by which this subduing develops is gradual, but sure. While the kingdoms of earth have sustained long rebellion, usurping the rule of our Lord Christ, we wait the day when "The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever."(Rev. 11:15)

This province has been in the enemy's hands: it now returns to its rightful Master.... Is become-in reality, all things (and so the kingdoms of the world) are God's in all ages: Yet Satan and the present world, with its kings and lords, are risen against the Lord and against His anointed. God now puts an end to this monstrous rebellion and maintains His right to all things. (Rev.11:15)

Wesley commenting on the Lord's Prayer, petitions God:

May thy kingdom of grace come quickly and swallow up all the kingdoms of the earth! May all mankind receiving Thee, O Christ, for their king, truly believing in Thy name, be filled with righteousness, peace and joy, with holiness and happiness, till they are removed into Thy kingdom of glory, to reign with Thee for ever and ever. (Mt. 6:10)

"All things that were or are created are God's by sovereign right-Yours is the Kingdom." (Mt. 6:13)

Those who live by the rule of Christ ("a kingdom cherishes willing subjects," Col. 1:13), live in the world for the world. The kingdom is a state to be enjoyed on earth (Mt. 3:2), a state of "happiness and holiness." A Christian life-style, lived in the society of those who are happy and holy, is to season others (Mt. 5:13). The subjects of Christ are examples of the rule of Christ in all the world. Like lights on the brow of a hill, they cannot be hid. Bearing the realized kingdom of heaven in their hearts ("grace . . . is glory begun," Rom. 8:30), seeking to salt the earth with their presence, they progress toward the kingdom of glory, to the consummation of all things. Jesus is crowned Lord, head over all. God is gathering together into one in Christ all things, that He "might recapitulate, reunite, and place in order again, all things under Christ, their common Head." (Eph. 1:10)

To repeat, the soteriological concern is central, giving continuity to the theme of the Kingdom of God/Kingdom of Heaven (which to Wesley means the same-cf. Mt. 3:2). However, there are other sub-themes which comprise and complete the soteriological. Identified broadly in the prior discussion, they should be detailed more specifically and carefully.

First, we should consider the evangelical aspect in Wesley's theology of the kingdom. We recognize his fundamental belief in the promise of Christ, through His death and rising again, to free humanity from sin's bondage and raise us to new life (Mt. 10:11). Following the apostolic paradosis (see I Cor. 15:1-4), Wesley gives particular attention to the ordo salutis. When Wesley deals with the kingdom it always possesses a Christological referent, with the royal character of Jesus central and the kerygmatic aspects (death and resurrection) largely assumed. The "gospel dispensation" signified in kingdom theology describes the work of Christ in its soteriological expression, i.e., referring to conversion, justification, and sanctification. Through these stages, Christ's reign is begun and develops until the consummation. The experience of conversion is the inauguration (renewal) of the kingdom in us. Through justification and sanctification, the comprehensive rule of Christ at the end of history is experienced in foretaste. We may call this "inaugurated" or "realized eschatology." Wesley accepts the Pauline concept of the earnest of the Spirit as both pledge and foretaste (Eph.1:14) of our inheritance. "There is a difference between an earnest and a pledge. A pledge is to be restored when the debt is paid, but an earnest is not taken away, but completed. Such is an earnest of the Spirit. The first fruits of it we have, Rom. 8:23, and we wait for the fulness." (II Cor. 2:22)

The kingdom of God/heaven is, secondly, defined corporately. It describes the formation of a society, the church comprised of those in whose heart God reigns. Begun on earth, it is meant finally for heaven, the kingdom of glory. (Mt. 3:2) All that the church is, the church in ebb and flow, in majesty or invaded by the "mystery of iniquity"; the church as willing subjects, saints in whom holiness and happiness are to be epitomized; the ecclesia as the reforming agency for Church and State; the church as salt and light in the world, are aspects of the church in the world. In the parable of the wheat and the darnel, a parable of the kingdom of heaven, Wesley sees the difference between imitation (darnel) which is "very like wheat" and the authentic (the wheat). "Darnel, in the church, is properly outside Christians, such as have neither the form nor the power." Such persons must not be uprooted lest some genuine wheat be destroyed! That appearances may be very deceiving, Jesus taught and Wesley recognized. (See Mt. 13:24-30)

It is the church, the society on earth, which is the divine agency for transforming human society. Wesley holds no illusions about the establishment of the kingdom of God in any temporal form. However, there is no doubt about the final kingdom to be founded in the end of history. Between the earnest of the Spirit, the first fruits of the kingdom, and the fulfillment of the kingdom in glory, is the gradual leavening effect of the yeast, the growth of the mustard seed into the great tree. The "already" and the "not yet" are in continuity and identical in nature although not in degree. Hope is based on the final harvesting in glory. The first fruits are the early promise of far more to come, like the first taste of strawberries in spring, like the tiniest stirrings of a baby whose birth is months away, like the dream house which in the beginning is yours but still under the control of the mortgagor (and the future?). Wesley's concept of hope is not illusory, but is fed by preliminary samplings of the future kingdom's banquet feast. When the church is truly a koinonia, the breaking of bread from house to house is a sign of the kingdom when believers shall come from east and west, and "will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" (Mt.8:11). Wesley here thinks of the gospel promises, covenanted with Abraham and shared with many who "shall embrace the terms, and enjoy the rewards of the gospel covenant established with Abraham." (Mt. 8:11)

In this paper, if we are to see the significance of the church in the world, i.e., the kingdom of heaven among the people of earth, we should study Wesley's view of the church, "the theater of the divine wisdom" (Eph. 3:10). What precisely is its role as a society of saints? Wesley's position on the kingdom leads us to conclude that the real presence of the kingdom is found in redeemed persons, and in the social organism called ecclesia. The kingdom is active among men and women, of all conditions, experiences, religions races, or opinions, through the church of the Holy Spirit.

Thirdly, the kingdom is understood in eschatological terms. The kingdom within the hearts of believers is given earthly incarnation in the church, the society of subjects "gathered to God by His Son" (Mt. 3:2). This same society is to be with God in glory (Wesley speaks of the ecclesial society, more than of individual Christians, as living on earth and in heaven). The Church in glory is the church triumphant.

The eschatological significance of the kingdom is critical to the inaugural and the extended dimensions of the kingdom. If we accept Wesley's interpretation, the kingdom of glory not only completes the kingdom within us and in the ecclesia, but most importantly, gives the preliminary its significance. Without glory, the present kingdom is truncated; it promises more than it can produce. Dreams and hopes are reater than the prospects they envision, if there is no kingdom of glory.

Arthur Miller's "After the Fall" describes Quentin's search for lost transcendence and hope: "the string that ties my hand to heaven has been cut." As Flannery O'Conner expresses it, the Kingdom of Christ gives us worth. A young Southern boy is baptized by an itinerant evangelist.

"Have you ever been baptized?" the preacher asked.

"What's that?" he murmured.

"If I baptize you," the preacher said, "you'll be able to go to the Kingdom of Christ.... You won't be the same again," the preacher said. "You'll count."

After baptism, the preacher declared: "You count now. You didn't count before."(10)

COMMENT

In Wesley's theology of the Kingdom, clear lines of continuity exist between ~1) the kingdom inaugurated in conversion and sanctification leading to holiness and happiness, ~2) the Kingdom incarnated in and extended through the church (the fellowship, i.e., society, of believing, holy persons), and ~3) the kingdom in glory, the complement and perfection of the kingdom on earth. Unlike some, who see no connection between hope and the future achievement of hope's content, Wesley believes in the dynamic unity of first fruits and final harvest. An essential identity exists between beginning and completion.

EXTENSION OF THE KINGDOM

Recognizing the unity or connectedness of Wesley's theology of the kingdom, we may inquire concerning his strategy for the extension of the kingdom here on earth. I have sought elsewhere to show the theology for social reformation which Wesley gave his heirs.(11)

Critical to that analysis are the trinitarian themes focusing on the creation of persons as moral and spiritual beings, made in God's image; on the words of Christ as reconciler and example; and on the Spirit as God's presence among us for empowerment and our "presence" in the world. The church is the earthly vehicle of that divine work.

The Royalty of Christ

Basic to the expansion of the kingdom in the world and the transformation of society is Christ's royal preeminence. In establishing the premise of Christ's authority Wesley recognizes the continuing patience Christ displays toward earthly powers. Human authority, whether founded in democratic or totalitarian governments, is always sustained uncertainly. Monarchs wear their crowns nervously, presidents and prime ministers always walk the tight rope over questions of personal ambition, popular sovereignty, and political opposition. King Jesus bears with patient tolerance the rebellion and usurpation of power; power originally given by God to those who hold it.

Since Christ is king, to be revealed in full splendor in the consummation, "The apocalypse of Jesus Christ" (Revelation 1:1), the church may resist evil powers in the sure promise that its work in the world will be crowned with grace and, finally, glory. The Methodists sang their song of praise to Jesus the King:(12)

"Messiah, Prince of Peace, Where men each other tear;

Where war is learned they must confess; Thy kingdom is not there.

But shall he (Satan) still devour The souls redeemed by Thee?

Jesus, stir up Thy glorious power And end the apostasy!

No. 447

Again,

O come, Thou Radiant Morning Star, Again in human darkness, shine!

Arise resplendent from afar! Assert Thy royalty divine!

Thy sway over all the earth maintain, And now begin Thy glorious reign.

No. 445

The theology of the kingdom abounds in the hymns of Charles Wesley, in the hymnal edited by John. A review of 280 hymns shows the king/kingdom theme in one out of six. The themes of the kingdom seen in Wesley's theology are in the hymns:

"To us it is given in Jesus to know A kingdom of heaven, a heaven below"

No. 19

Again,

"Find on earth the life of heaven: Life the life of heaven above, All the life of glorious love."

No. 20

Or,

"How can it be, Thou Heavenly King, That Thou should'st us to glory bring; Make slaves the partners of Thy throne.

No. 26

And,

"Bold I approach the eternal throne And claim the crown through Christ my own."

No. 201

Again,

"The unspeakable grace He obtained for our race, And the spirit of faith He imparts; Then, then we conceive how in heaven they live By the kingdom of God in our hearts."

No. 488

And, last,

1. The Lord is King, and earth submits,

However impatient, to His sway;

Between the Cherubim He sits,

And makes His restless foes obey.

2. All power to our Jesus given

Over earth's rebellious sons He reigns;

He mildly rules the hosts of heaven;

And holds the powers of hell in chains.

3. In vain doth Satan rage his hour,

Beyond his chain he cannot go;

Our Jesus shall stir up His power,

And soon avenge us of our foe.

7. Come, glorious Lord, the rebels spurn;

Scatter Thy foes, victorious King:

And Gath and Askelon shall mourn,

And all the sons of God shall sing:

8. Shall magnify the sovereign grace

Of Him that sits upon the throne;

And earth and heaven conspire to praise

Jehovah, and His conquering Son.

No. 280

The royalty of Christ means that the kingdom of God, manifested in our hearts and in the ecclesia will be victorious in God's world. The time between the times shall be viewed hopefully. Wesley's approach contradicts the apocalpytic pessimism of some pre-millennialist theology. May we repeat that Christ's reign in foretaste and fulfillment cannot be separated. Wesleyans are to live in the sure persuasion that the quest for holiness-perfect love for God and our neighbor-is a participation in the blessed hope. They are to live hopefully. That counsel stands despite human inclinations to agree with Alasdair MacIntyre: "I am not a pessimist. Pessimists are people who believe something dreadful is about to happen. I believe it's already happened." (13)

Entrance and Participation-Conversion and Sanctification

Wesley's theology makes conversion the rite of initiation into the kingdom, and sanctification the pilgrimage through the kingdom on earth until the glory of heaven is reached. Conversion conveys citizenship, making us subjects. For Wesley, the kingdom exists in the happiness and holiness of those who have received Christ as king. Conversion creates the moral and spiritual transformation which releases us from the autonomy of our self contained lives into the freedom of the Son.

Those who are converted enter into a new level of loves. New motivational directions are opened. While prevenient grace makes it possible for all humanity to express degrees of love and friendship for others, the unregenerated nature is expressed by a will-to-power, our inclination to be anchored autonomously, rather than being rooted and grounded in God.(14)

Much significant debate has occurred over Wesley' s movement from personal to social salvation. Through Rauschenbusch and many more we have learned of the sterility of personal regeneration which experiences arrested development when it is turned inward. Wesley has taught us that conversion changes our very nature from self love, which may be expressed by a circular analogy, to Christian love, which may be characterized by a cruciform figure reaching upward and outward, to God and neighbor. Theodore Runyon writes, "Conversion is decisive for Wesley because it is a participation in a new ontological reality, God's own renewing of the cosmos." It achieves significance as a "sign of eschatological renewal.(15)

The fundamental preparation for the kingdom is grace. Conversion is the decisive inaugural aspect of the divine kingdom. Through the church in this present age this moves finally to eschatological renewal or cosmic transformation. Let no one doubt the Wesleyan hope of "the universal restoration, which is to succeed the universal destruction...." "For all the earth shall be a more beautiful Paradise than Adam ever saw." And the world of humanity will be "an unmixed state of holiness and happiness, far superior to that which Adam enjoyed in Paradise."(16)

Wesley s sermon on "The Lord's Prayer" describes the meaning of sanctification in the kingdom of God:

The meaning [of "Thy will be done"] is, that all the inhabitants of the earth, even the whole race of mankind, may do the will of their Father, . . . as willingly as the holy angels: . . . yea, and that they may do it perfectly. . . (17)

James Logan rightly interprets Wesley's theology:

The crucial importance of this passage is that within the framework of a doctrine of the Kingdom, Wesley states the theological goal itself-"may do it perfectly" or perfection. In contrast to Calvinism, . . . Wesley held to the possibility of doing the perfect will of God within the scope of time and history. When this teleological goal is set beyond history an ethical nerve is severed. When this same teleological goal is set within history an ethical dynamic is unleashed, which in the truest sense is both inwardly and outwardly, in Niebuhr's term, "transformationist."

The Kingdom in the Earthly Society of Believers

Following the theological commitments of the Anglican Church, Wesley recognizes the church as men and women who have achieved a fiduciary relationship with Christ. The church is comprised of the regenerate. The Thirty-nine Articles stressed living faith, not simply assent, as the basis for membership in the church. The church is a grafted fellowship ("grafted into Christ by baptism"-Acts 5:11).

The ecclesia is characterized by the preaching of the pure word of God (Thirty-nine Articles). The New Testament church is a company "called by the gospel" (Acts 5:11). With regard to kingdom theology, preaching is critical to the expansion of the kingdom. In the "General Spread of the Gospel," Wesley asserts the growth of the gospel in the world, until the time the Word has covered the earth. Wesley does not see the gradual diminishing, but the enlargement of the Word's power throughout society and history. God is "already renewing the face of the earth: And we have strong reason to hope . . . that he will never intermit this blessed work of his Spirit . . . until he hath put a period to sin and misery, and infirmity, and death, and re-established universal holiness and happiness...."(19)

How does the church become a transforming agency in the world? How does it penetrate the age and produce reform? By the preached Word. By the Word of God spoken to the political, economic, social, sexual and class circumstances! To reform the nation and the church by the preaching of the Gospel! The Methodists joined reform and the preaching of Scriptural holiness. Later Methodists recognized that the conjunction "and" became the preposition "by" in Wesley's ministry and, sometimes in America, they began to express it with the preposition.(20)

Wesley's doctrine of the church identifies its social character. In his sermon on Matthew 5:13-16, on salt and light, Wesley insists that Christianity is social. Its genius is discovered through public and social expression. The church is called to transform society through the gospel and the gospel spreads through the world in a gradual way (seed to tree, yeast through flour).

Wesley's gradualism is evident in his tract on slavery and his "Reformation of Manners," as well as in the parables. Those who demand immediate change in social abuses sometimes find difficulty with Wesley's strategy for social change. Wesley called for reformation, the use of the law of God as a canon showing the need for social change. He stresses the abolition of slavery as a firm principle based on natural law and salvation history. But, permit a caveat! Do not confuse strategy with principle in reviewing Wesley's ethics. The principle he evoked is this: Slavery is absolutely contrary to God's law, to justice, mercy and truth. That is specific! The strategy is realistic, evidenced in Wesley's gradualism. Wesley doesn't approve the continued practice of slavery, but he is thoroughly aware of entrenched evil, of original sin. Liberal theology sought the goal of freedom without an adequate sense of the sinfulness in the world and the church which digs in and refuses to give up vested interests.

Wesley believed that war is grounded in sin and pride. Kings call their followers to war for selfish ends, for more territory or power. But with the spread of the gospel, war will finally be finished. Jesus' kingdom is a kingdom of peace. "Messiah, prince of Peace. Jesus stir up Thy glorious power, and end the apostasy!"

Whatever the evils of society-slavery, war, poverty-the gospel becomes the critical catalyst which re-motivates and empowers, it presents Christian morality as the criteria for judging social behavior, and bestows the power for challenging and renewing it. Wesley held no tolerance for the delays which prevent or divert necessary social changes. Rather, he knew that evil will never easily yield its control, the "powers" will not give up their power, until the greater power of Christ prevails.(21) Poverty will exist as long as greed and ignorance last. The church cannot will poverty to end, but it can feed the hungry, clothe the naked, or as Wesley said, "give all you can." The strategy is the achievement of the goal as quickly as possible. There can be no tolerance of delay; there must be no doubt about the conflicts which will arise. Do not expect evil to disappear by incantations or by political, ecclesiastical, or judicial pronouncements, which are too often part of the problem and not the solution. Pray for a brave heart. A pure heart! Pray continually "Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." And, the sooner, the better. "Come quickly, Lord Jesus."

FOOTNOTES

1 The Protestant Tradition (Cambridge: University Press, 1955), 265ff.

2 See my To Reform the Nation (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,1984),172, n.8.

3 The Kingdom of God in America, cited by Alec Vidler, The Church in an Age of Revolution (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1961), 212-13.

4 See Hu~h Kerr, "Not Like They Used To," Theology Today (April,1975),3-5.

5 "Wesleyan Theology: Heritage and Task," in Wesleyan Theology Today, ed. Theodore Runyon (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1985), 33, 36-37.

6 "John Wesley's Teleological Hermeneutic," (Ph.D. dissertation, Emory University, 1981), 258, 59, 241.

7 John Wesley, "Upon Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount: V" in The Standard Sermons, I, ed. Edward H. Sugden, 5th ed. (London: Epworth Press,1961), 436, 37.

8 Scripture references in this paper usually refer to Wesley's Notes on the New Testament as well as Scripture passages. In the former sense, they serve as footnotes.

9 Bence, 222 n.1.

l0 °Ray S. Anderson, On Being Human (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,1982),176, 179-80.

11 To Reform the Nation.

12 See John Wesley, Hymn Book (London: Wm. Reed, 1864), The numbers are for the hymns.

13 Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue (South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), cited by Warren Bryan Martin, "Education for Character," Faculty Dialogue, No. 5 (Winter, 1985-86), 10.

14 Hendrikus Berkhof writes: "Sin is the refusal to find our anchoring there [in God]. Refusing the anchoring in God, one may try to find it in the world, or unanchored choose for one's own autonomous I." Christian Faith (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979). 189, 90.

15 "What Is Methodism's Theological Contribution Today," in Wesleyan Theology Today, 11.

16 Wesley "The New Creation" Works VI, 290, 294-96.

17 Works, V, 337.

18 "Toward a Wesleyan Social Ethic," Wesleyan Theology Today, 368.

19 Works, VI, 288. See Works V, 337.

20 See my "Reformation and Perfection: The Social Gospel of Bishop Peck," Methodist History (January, 1978). Professor Logan asserts that "the mandate to 'spread scriptural holiness throughout the land' carries with it the assumption that social structures as well as individuals can be transformed and brought more and more into conformity with the divine law "Wesleyan Theology Today, 368, 369.

21 Wesley's gradualism should not be interpreted within the progress mentality characteristic of a century later. The sanctification of individuals is not uniform or continuous lacking deficiencies or failures. The same is true of society. However, the kingdom grows and the king finally reigns absolutely.

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