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CONSIDER WESLEY

In my previous essay I noted that Wesley, in The General Spread of the Gospel (1783), intended to address the issue of theodicy, but had valuable insights on a number of other topics. It was these topics that I intended to discuss. That was before the events of September 11. Now I find it difficult not to examine how Wesley addresses the problem of why God would allow widespread human suffering. But in doing so I will need to refer to another sermon, God’s Love to Fallen Man (1782), which offers deeper insight into the issue.

He begins The General Spread of the Gospel with a tour of world religions, moving from the “heathen” to the “Mohametans,” the various branches of eastern Christianity, and ending with western Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. It is a dismal survey. Everywhere, sin abounds; it is the one thing that everyone from the inhabitants of the South Sea islands to the respectable occupants of church pews in London have in equal measure.

But if this is the state of humanity, “how astonishing is this, if there is a God in heaven!” “How,” Wesley asks, “is it possible to reconcile this with either the wisdom or goodness of God?” Only if “things will not always be so”; that God “will arise and maintain his own cause.” Only if this present evil is the prelude to a time when “The loving knowledge of God, producing uniform, uninterrupted holiness and happiness, shall cover the earth, shall fill every soul of man” (§8).

This is Wesley’s vision: the church itself will be renewed in holiness, and attract the interest of non-Christians. Because the good news of Jesus Christ is now manifested in holiness of heart and life, the message will have credibility, and the entire world will be converted. Violence will end, and the peace and love of God will reign throughout the earth. At the heart of this vision is the kind of persons we are to become, reflecting in our own hearts and lives the love which characterizes God.

Three central points are instructive for us in this time of suffering, uncertainty, and conflict. First, Wesley is clear that all people and nations are fallen, and particularly decries the so-called Christians who have victimized other people. While we can rightly seek justice for and alleviate the sufferings of victims wherever they are, we cannot act as if we are thoroughly “good” in contrast to our enemies who are evil. Such pretense would actually imitate the ideological extremists we oppose.
 
Second, in God’s Love to Fallen Man Wesley argues that due to Adam’s fall into sin humanity now “has the capacity of attaining more holiness and happiness on earth than it would have been possible for them to attain if Adam had not fallen” (§ I.l). This is because without the fall there would have been no reason for the cross, and without the cross we would not know the depth of God’s love. We certainly could have had faith in God and loved God, but not as the God who has loved us even unto death on a cross.

God’s salvific intent is for us to love as God has loved us. The knowledge of God’s love in the cross of Jesus Christ enables us to reflect in greater degree God’s love in our own lives. This means our love for God and neighbor is much deeper as a reflection of this love than it would be had there been no cross. To love as God has loved us in the cross ultimately means that we love even our enemies.

Third, because the fall has created a world of suffering, Wesley believes it also gives us opportunities to grow in Christian character. Our suffering enables growth in faith, patience, meekness, gentleness, and longsuffering. It gives us an opportunity to return good for evil. The suffering of others enables us to do good, and thereby grow in compassion. Thus the experience of evil becomes an occasion for God to remake us more fully in God’s image.

Whether this argument is convincing as an answer to the problem of suffering is debatable. But it does raise this question for us in the midst of our current conflict with terrorism: As we mobilize to bring justice and put an end to terrorism, what kind of people are we becoming? Wesley would urge us to see these terrible events as opportunities for good, and seek to be remade more fully into the image of God who is love.

By Dr. Henry H. Knight III, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Evangelism, Saint Paul School of Theology.