WesleyGospel Ministries

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
–John 10:27-28 (ESV)–

He is our God,
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
    as on the day at Massah in the wilderness.
–Psalm 95:7-8 (ESV)–

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Taken together, the two books below by Corner and Shank are possibly the most comprehensive Wesleyan-Arminian treatments of conditional security. They respond thoroughly to the popular “once saved, always saved” Bible verses, often used by Southern Baptist pastors to teach that unconditional eternal security is the lived reality of salvation. The ridiculous Baptist concept that a backslidden and relapsed alcoholic, atheistic, agnostic, drug addicted, porn addicted, wife beating, raping, murdering, business idolizing, criminal, habitually lying, gratuitously cussing, gang member, who might also be a homosexual, burglar, child molester, and sex offender involved in satanic ritual abuse will be saved from Hell and definitely go to Heaven, simply because he really believed in Jesus once before in his life and got baptized a long time ago. Yes, there actually are Baptist pastors who believe in this. Not all of them are like this, but many of them do believe like that. It makes you think twice about attending and tithing to just any Baptist church. They think this belief makes man look humble and that it glorifies the kindness, grace, and mercy of God. This is the main problem with all of Calvinism when its pulled into one focal point. The pastors of the following denominations would take sides with Corner and Shank against the Baptists: the Free Will Baptist Church, Church of the Nazarene (conservative ones), the Christian and Missionary Alliance (conservative ones), the Free Methodist Church, the Wesleyan Church, the Pentecostal Holiness Church, Assemblies of God, the Southern Methodist Church, the Global Methodist Church, Church of Christ, and Church of God (Cleveland).

Daniel Corner, The Believer’s Conditional Security (EO, 1997). 800 pages.

Robert Shank, Life in the Son (Bethany House, 1989). 400 pages.

If you’re concerned about theological drift in Church of the Nazarene, so much that you’d hesitate to send your kids to one of their schools, then consider a more conservative Wesleyan-holiness school, such as Allegheny Wesleyan College, Oklahoma Wesleyan University, or Ohio Christian University. Always audit Bible classes. Lookout for unbelieving deconstruction professors.
–J.B.–

Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
–Romans 7:21-25 (NIV)–

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John Wesley’s sermon “On Sin In Believers,” and its clarification by Dr. Oden, should prevent a person from falling into the error of sinless perfectionism or the delusion of perfect holiness, and from falling into Charles Finney’s error of misinterpreting Romans 7:14-25 exclusively as the past tense experience of an unsaved man. But make no mistake: the following sermon collections by Finney might be some of the most morally forceful, mind-altering sermons ever preached, in terms of actually helping to change the mind of an addict to the mind of an overcomer, to a man who has broken free from his habitual sinful addictions and found freedom, peace of mind, and almost total victory in Christ.

Dr. Thomas C. Oden, John Wesley’s Scriptural Christianity (Zondervan, 1994), p. 334.

Charles G. Finney, True and False Repentance (Kregel, 1975).

—. Victory Over the World (Kregel, 1975).

—. The Guilt of Sin (Kregel, 1975).

—. True Saints (Kregel, 1975).

Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into Hell.
–Jesus Christ in Matthew 5:28-29 (KJV)–

God didn’t call us to be
sexually immoral but to be holy.
–1 Thessalonians 4:7 (GW)–

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As a man may die of an inward bleeding,
so he may be damned for the inward boilings of lust,
if they be not mortified.
–Thomas Watson–

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Tertullian, “On Modesty,” in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4, trans. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913), pp. 74-101.

David Wilkerson, Set the Trumpet to Thy Mouth (Whitaker House, 1993), ch. 2.

Dr. John R. Rice, Adultery and Sex Perversion (Sword of the Lord, 1978).

Dr. John Owen, Impure Lust (Banner of Truth, 2008).

Richard Baxter, A Christian Directory, “Directions Against Fornication” (1.5).

Thomas Watson, The Ten Commandments (Banner of Truth, 1965), 2.7.

Whenever the spirit from God came on Saul, David would take up his lyre and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.
–1 Samuel 16:23 (NIV)–

Charity…rejoices not in iniquity,
but rejoices in the truth.
–1 Corinthians 13:6 (KJV)–

He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again…He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
–2 Corinthians 5:15, 21 (KJV)–

His own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness.
–1 Peter 2:24 (KJV)–

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Jonathan Edwards, “All True Grace In the Heart Tends to Holy Practice In the Life,” in Charity and Its Fruits (Banner of Truth, 2023).

Dr. John Gerstner, Jonathan Edwards: A Mini-Theology (Tyndale, 1987).

Dr. Thomas C. Oden, John Wesley’s Scriptural Christianity (Zondervan, 1994).

Dr. Kenneth J. Collins, Wesley on Salvation (Zondervan, 1989).

Dr. Harald Lindstrom, Wesley and Sanctification (Zondervan, 1984).