5 Questions Charles Simeon asked John Wesley

Charles Simeon (1759 – 1836), a Calvinist, was an influential English clergyman. John Wesley (1703 - 1791), an Arminian, was the founder of the Methodist church. In an attempt to resolve any differences between them, Simeon asked Wesley the following questions:

1. Do you feel yourself a depraved creature, so depraved that you would never have thought of turning to God if God had not first put it into your heart?
2. Do you utterly despair of recommending yourself to God by anything you can do; and look for salvation solely through the blood and righteousness of Christ?
3. Supposing you were first saved by Christ, are you not somehow or other to save yourself afterwards by your own works?
4. Allowing then that you were first turned by the grace of God, are you not in some way or other to keep yourself by your own power?
5. What, then, are you to be upheld every hour and every moment by God, as much as an infant in its mother's arms?
6. Is all your hope in the grace and mercy of God to preserve you unto his heavenly kingdom?

Wesley affirmed all the questions that Simeon asked him. Then Simeon said, "This is my Calvinism; this is my election, my justification by faith, my final perseverance: it is in substance all that I hold, and as I hold it; and therefore, if you please, instead of searching out terms and phrases to be a ground of contention between us, we will cordially unite in those things wherein we agree."

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