WesleyGospel Ministries

While they were in the field,
Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
–Genesis 4:8 (NIV)–

Separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
–Ephesians 2:12 (NIV)–

Your eyes
Your eyes
Your eyes search for me
Your eyes search for me
Your eyes search for me
Your eyes search for me
Your eyes
Your eyes search for me

For so long I’ve wanted to come home
Held back by lies of serpents and tongues of brothers
Turning a child into an enemy
Turning open arms into closed fists

I could see the reflection in the tears
That made their way down Your face
Onto the ground I kneel upon
They form a river that overtakes me
Compassion envelops me
I forgive and release
Forgive, release
Forgiven, released

–Zao, “Lies of Serpents, A River of Tears”–

—

There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains:
Lose all their guilty stains,
Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.

–William Cowper, “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood”–

Did God really say…

–Satan in Genesis 3:1–

CLASSIC (Pre-1900)

1. Paley – A Catechism of the Evidences of Christianity
2. Grotius – The Truth of the Christian Religion (Q&A editions)
3. Leslie – Short and Easy Method with the Deists (dialogue editions)
4. John Fletcher – A Rational Vindication of the Catholic Faith (dialogue)
5. Thomas Stackhouse – A Catechetical History of the Bible
6. Isaac Watts – A Defence of the Christian Revelation (Q&A eds)
7. John Leland – A View of the Principal Deistical Writers (dialogue eds)
8. Nathaniel Lardner – Credibility of the Gospel History (Q&A abridgements)
9. Richard Watson – Apology for Christianity (dialogue eds)
10. Bishop Porteus – Evidences of Christianity in Questions and Answers
11. Thomas Scott – Evidences of Christianity in Q&A
12. Horne – Introduction to Scripture in Q&A
13. Alexander McCaul – Old Paths (dialogue vs Jew)
14. Butler (abridged) – Analogy of Religion in Q&A
15. Doddridge – Rise and Progress (dialogue apologetic eds)

19th-Century “Infidel Objection” Manuals

16. Infidel Objections Answered – Rev. T. S. Green
17. Skepticism Answered – Henry Rogers
18. Christian Evidences in Q&A – J. A. Macdonald
19. Evidences of Christianity for Schools – J. B. Mozley
20. Deist Refuted – J. B. Prout
21. Christian Evidences Catechism – London Religious Tract Society
22. Evidences of Natural & Revealed Religion (Q&A) – Joseph Angus
23. Bible Difficulties Explained – John W. Haley (Q&A eds)
24. Manual of Christian Evidences (Q&A) – Archibald Alexander
25. Scripture Difficulties Explained (Q&A) – Henry Liddon

Early 20th Century

26. Torrey – Difficulties and Alleged Errors and Contradictions in the Bible
27. Torrey – Is the Bible the Inerrant Word of God?
28. Torrey – How to Bring Men to Christ (Q&A apologetic eds)
29. Wilkinson – Science and the Bible (Q&A)
30. Machen – What Is Faith? (dialogue format)
31. Girardeau – Discussions of Theological Questions
32. Sheed – Theology and Sanity (dialogue eds)
33. Chesterton – The Everlasting Man (dialogue eds)

MODERN CLASSIC Q&A APOLOGETICS

34. Geisler & Bocchino – Answering Islam
35. Geisler & Howe – When Critics Ask
36. Geisler – Christian Apologetics (Q&A eds)
37. McDowell – Evidence That Demands a Verdict (Q&A)
38. McDowell – More Than a Carpenter (Q&A)
39. Norman Geisler – Answering the Tough Questions
40. Lee Strobel – Case for Christ (interview Q&A)
41. Strobel – Case for Faith
42. Ravi Zacharias – Can Man Live Without God? (dialogue eds)
43. Zacharias – Jesus Among Other Gods
44. Peter Kreeft – Handbook of Christian Apologetics
45. Kreeft – Summa of the Summa (Q&A)
46. Kreeft – Between Heaven and Hell (dialogue)
47. Kreeft – Socrates Meets Jesus
48. Kreeft – Three Philosophies of Life
49. Kreeft – Because God Is Real
50. Kreeft – Yes or No?

BIBLE DIFFICULTIES / CONTRADICTIONS (Q&A)

51. Gleason Archer – Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties
52. Haley – Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible
53. Wenham – Christ and the Bible
54. Kaiser – Hard Sayings of the Bible
55. Geisler – Big Book of Bible Difficulties
56. Norman Geisler – Answering the Critics
57. Norman Geisler – Twelve Points That Show Christianity Is True
58. Habermas – The Case for the Resurrection
59. Habermas & Licona – The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus
60. Licona – Why Are There Differences in the Gospels?

ATHEISM / ISLAM / OTHER RELIGIONS (Q&A)

61. Geisler – Answering Atheism
62. Geisler – Answering the Cults
63. Geisler – Answering Islam
64. James White – The Forgotten Trinity (Q&A eds)
65. James White – Is the Mormon My Brother?
66. James White – The King James Only Controversy
67. White – What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qur’an
68. White – Scripture Alone
69. White – The Roman Catholic Controversy
70. Moreland – Scaling the Secular City

DIALOGUE APOLOGETICS – I’m personally not a fan. But there might be good answers.

71. C. S. Lewis – Mere Christianity (radio Q&A origin)
72. Lewis – God in the Dock
73. Lewis – Problem of Pain
74. Lewis – Miracles
75. Lewis – The Abolition of Man
76. Lewis – Reflections on the Psalms
77. Lewis – The Great Divorce
78. Lewis – Screwtape Letters
79. Lewis – Till We Have Faces
80. Lewis – Surprised by Joy

CATECHISM-STYLE APOLOGETICS

81. Catholic Answers – The Questions Catholics Ask
82. Catholic Answers – Why We’re Catholic
83. Frank Turek – I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Q&A)
84. Turek – Stealing from God
85. William Lane Craig – On Guard
86. Craig – Reasonable Faith (Q&A)
87. Craig – Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?
88. Craig – God, Are You There?
89. Craig – Is God a Delusion?
90. Craig – The Son Rises

MISSIONARY / STREET APOLOGETICS

91. Comfort – God Doesn’t Believe in Atheists
92. Comfort – Scientific Facts in the Bible
93. Comfort – You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence
94. Comfort – World Religions in a Nutshell
95. Comfort – How to Win Souls and Influence People
96. Comfort – Hell’s Best Kept Secret
97. Comfort – The Atheist Delusion
98. Comfort – Faith Is for Weak People
99. Comfort – Hollywood Heroes
100. Comfort – Evidence for the Existence of God

Do not quench the Spirit. 
Do not despise prophecies. 
Test all things; hold fast what is good.
–1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 (NKJV)–

It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
–Acts 2:17 (KJV)–

—

(1.) The text itself that Peter quotes, Acts 2:17-21. It refers to the last days, the TIMES OF THE GOSPEL, which are called the last days because the dispensation of God’s kingdom among men, which the gospel sets up, is the last dispensation of divine grace, and we are to look for no other than the CONTINUATION OF THIS TO THE END OF TIME. Or, in the last days, that is, a great while after the ceasing of prophecy in the Old-Testament church. Or, in the days immediately preceding the destruction of the Jewish nation, in the last days of that people, just before that great and notable day of the Lord spoken of, Acts 2:20. “It was prophesied of and promised, and therefore you ought to expect it, and not to be surprised at it; to desire it, and bid it welcome, and not to dispute it, as not worth taking notice of.” The apostle quotes the whole paragraph, for it is good to take scripture entire; now it was foretold.

[1.] That there should be a more plentiful and extensive effusion of the Spirit of grace from on high than had ever yet been. The prophets of the Old Testament had been filled with the Holy Ghost, and it was said of the people of Israel that God gave them his good Spirit to instruct them, Nehemiah 9:20. But now the Spirit shall be poured out, not only upon the Jews, but upon all flesh, Gentiles as well as Jews, though yet Peter himself did not understand it so, as appears, Acts 11:17. Or, upon all flesh, that is, upon some of all ranks and conditions of men. The Jewish doctors taught that the Spirit came only upon wise and rich men, and such as were of the seed of Israel; but God will not tie himself to their rules.

[2.] That the Spirit should be in them a Spirit of prophecy; by the Spirit they should be enabled to foretell things to come, and to preach the Gospel to every creature. This power shall be given without distinction of sex–not only your sons, but your daughters shall prophesy; without distinction of age–both your young men and your old men shall see VISIONS, and dream DREAMS, and in them RECEIVE DIVINE REVELATIONS, TO BE COMMUNICATED TO THE CHURCH; and without distinction of outward condition–even the servants and handmaids shall receive of the Spirit, and shall prophesy (Acts 2:18); or, in general, men and women, whom God calls his servants and his handmaids. In the beginning of the age of prophecy in the Old Testament there were schools of the prophets, and, before that, the Spirit of prophecy came upon the elders of Israel that were appointed to the government; but now the Spirit shall be poured out upon persons of inferior rank, and such as were not brought up in the schools of the prophets, for the kingdom of the Messiah is to be purely spiritual. The mention of the daughters (Acts 2:17) and the handmaidens (Acts 2:18) would make one think that the women who were taken notice of (Acts 1:14) received the EXTRAORDINARY GIFTS OF THE HOLY GHOST, as well as the men. Philip, the EVANGELIST, had four daughters who did prophesy (Acts 21:9), and St. Paul, finding abundance of the gifts both of tongues and prophecy in the church of Corinth, saw it needful to prohibit women’s use of those gifts in public, 1 Corinthians 14:26.

—MATTHEW HENRY’S COMMENTARY ON ACTS 2:17–

—

And your young men shall see visions — In young men the outward sense, are most vigorous, and the bodily strength is entire, whereby they are best qualified to SUSTAIN THE SHOCK WHICH USUALLY ATTENDS THE VISIONS OF GOD. In old men the internal senses are most vigorous, suited to divine dreams. Not that the old are wholly excluded from the former, nor the young from the latter.

—JOHN WESLEY’S EXPLANATORY NOTES
UPON THE WHOLE BIBLE ON ACTS 2:17–

—

By the Spirit is meant the gifts of the Spirit, the spirit of wisdom and knowledge, of understanding the mysteries of the Gospel, of EXPLAINING THE SCRIPTURES, and of SPEAKING WITH TONGUES; and by the pouring of it out, is intended the abundance and great plenty of the gifts and graces of the Spirit bestowed; but yet not all of him, or all his gifts and grace in the large extent of them: therefore it is said, not “my Spirit”, but “of my Spirit”, or “out of it”; as out of an unfathomable, immeasurable, and inexhaustible fountain and fulness:

and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy: or foretell things to come, as Agabus, and the four daughters of Philip the Evangelist, Acts 21:9

and your young men shall see visions; as Ananias, Acts 9:10, and Peter, Acts 10:17 and Paul when a young man, Acts 22:17 and John, the youngest of the apostles, Revelation 1:10 though he was in years, when he saw the visions in the Revelations:

and your old men shall dream dreams; or shall have night visions, as Paul at Troas, Acts 16:9 and in his voyage when at sea, Acts 27:23. The order of the words is inverted, this last clause stands first in Joel; perhaps the change is made, because the apostles were young men, on whom the Spirit was poured; and the thing was the more wonderful that so it should be, than if they had been old men.

—JOHN GILL’S EXPOSITION OF
THE ENTIRE BIBLE ON ACTS 2:17–

—

Your young men shall see visions. These were two of the various ways in which God revealed himself under the Old Testament. Sometimes he revealed himself by a symbol, which was a sufficient proof of the Divine presence: fire was the most ordinary, as it was the most expressive, symbol. Thus he appeared to Moses on Mount Horeb, and afterwards at Sinai to Abraham, Genesis 15:1-21; to Elijah, 1 Kings 19:11, 1 Kings 19:12. At other times he revealed himself by angelic ministry: this was frequent, especially in the days of the patriarchs, of which we find many instances in the book of Genesis.

By dreams he discovered his will in numerous instances: see the remarkable case of Joseph, Genesis 37:5, Genesis 37:9; of Jacob, Genesis 28:1; 46:2, of Pharaoh, Genesis 41:1-7; of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 4:10-17. For the different ways in which God communicated the knowledge of his will to mankind, see the note on Genesis 15:1.

—THE ADAM CLARKE COMMENTARY ON ACTS 2:17–

5.  Yea, so settled and rooted was I in these things, that they became as a second nature to me; the which, as I have also with soberness considered since, did so offend the Lord, that even in my childhood he did scare and affrighten me with fearful dreams, and did terrify me with fearful visions. For often, after I have spent this and the other day in sin, I have in my bed been greatly afflicted, while asleep, with the apprehensions of devils and wicked spirits, who still, as I then thought, laboured to draw me away with them, of which I could never be rid.

6.  Also I should, at these years, be greatly afflicted and troubled with the thoughts of the fearful torments of hell-fire; still fearing, that it would be my lot to be found at last among those devils and hellish fiends, who are there bound down with the chains and bonds of darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.

7.  These things, I say, when I was but a child, but nine or ten years old, did so distress my soul, that then in the midst of my many sports and childish vanities, amidst my vain companions, I was often much cast down, and afflicted in my mind therewith, yet could I not let go my sins: yea, I was also then so overcome with despair of life and heaven, that I should often wish, either that there had been no hell, or that I had been a devil; supposing they were only tormentors; that if it must needs be, that I went thither, I might be rather a tormentor, than be tormented myself.”

8. A while after those terrible dreams did leave me, which also I soon forgot; for my pleasures did quickly cut off the remembrance of them, as if they had never been: wherefore with more greediness, according to the strength of nature, I did still let loose the reins of my lust, and delighted in all transgressions against the law of God: so that until I came to the state of marriage, I was the very ringleader of all the youth that kept me company, in all manner of vice and ungodliness.

258.  Now was I as one awaked out of some troublesome sleep and dream; and listening to this heavenly sentence, I was as if I had heard it thus expounded to me: Sinner, thou thinkest, that because thy sins and infirmities, I cannot save thy soul; but behold My Son is by me, and upon Him I look, and not on thee, and shall deal with thee according as I am pleased with Him.  At this I was greatly lightened in my mind, and made to understand, that God could justify a sinner at any time; it was but His looking upon Christ, and imputing His benefits to us, and the work was forthwith done.

259.  And as I was thus in a muse, that Scripture also came with great power upon my spirit, Not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to His mercy He hath saved us, etc.  2 Tim. i. 9; Tit. iii. 5.  Now was I got on high, I saw myself within the arms of grace and mercy; and though I was before afraid to think of a dying hour, yet, now I cried, Let me die: Now death was lovely and beautiful in my sight, for I saw We shall never live indeed, till we be gone to the other world.  Oh! methought this life is but a slumber, in comparison with that above.  At this time also I saw more in these words, Heirs of God, Rom. viii. 17, than ever I shall be able to express while I live in this world: Heirs of God!  God Himself is the portion of the saints.  This I saw and wondered at, but cannot tell you what I saw.

260.  Again, as I was at another time very ill and weak, all that time also the tempter did beset me strongly (for I find he is much for assaulting the soul; when it begins to approach towards the grave, then is his opportunity), labouring to hide from me my former experience of God’s goodness: also setting before me the terrors of death, and the judgment of God, insomuch that at this time, through my fear of miscarrying for ever (should I now die), I was as one dead before death came, and was as if I had felt myself already descending into the pit; methought I said, There were no way, but to hell I must: but behold, just as I was in the midst of those fears, these words of the angel’s carrying Lazarus into Abraham’s bosom darted in upon me, as who should say, So it shall be with thee when thou dost leave this world.  This did sweetly revive my spirit, and help me to hope in God; which when I had with comfort mused on a while, that word fell with great weight upon my mind, O death, where is thy sting?  O grave, where is thy victory?  1 Cor. xv. 55.  At this I became both well in body and mind at once, for my sickness did presently vanish, and I walked comfortably in my work for God again.

261.  At another time, though just before I was pretty well and savoury in my spirit, yet suddenly there fell upon me a great cloud of darkness, which did so hide from me the things of God and Christ, that I was as if I had never seen or known them in my life: I was also so over-run in my soul with a senseless heartless frame of spirit, that I could not feel my soul to move or stir after grace and life by Christ; I was as if my loins were broken, or as if my hands and feet had been tied or bound with chains.  At this time also I felt some weakness to seize upon my outward man, which made still the other affliction the more heavy and uncomfortable to me.

262.  After I had been in this condition some three or four days, as I was sitting by the fire, I suddenly felt this word to sound in my heart, I must go to Jesus.  At this my former darkness and atheism fled away, and the blessed things of heaven were set in my view.  While I was on this sudden thus overtaken with surprise, Wife (said I), is there ever such a Scripture, I must go to Jesus?  She said, she could not tell; therefore I sat musing still, to see if I could remember such a place: I had not sat above two or three minutes, but that came bolting in upon me, And to an innumerable company of angels; and withal, Hebrews twelfth, about the mount Sion, was set before mine eyes–Hebrews 12:22-24.

–JOHN BUNYAN’S GRACE ABOUNDING
TO THE CHIEF OF SINNERS—

—

John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (Bridge-Logos, 2014).

—. Visions of Heaven and Hell (Whitaker House, 1998).

Bill Wiese, 23 Minutes In Hell (Charisma House, 2006).

Mary K. Baxter, A Divine Revelation of Hell (Whitaker House, 1993).

David Wilkerson, The Vision (Spire Books, 1974).

Jeff Doles, Miracles and Manifestations (Walking Barefoot Ministries, 2007).

Ira Milligan, Understanding the Dreams You Dream (Destiny Image, 1997).

Archibald Alexander, Thoughts on Religious Experience (Banner of Truth, 1996), ch. 7.

Daniel Jennings, The Supernatural Occurrences of John Wesley.

—. The Supernatural Occurrences of Charles G. Finney.