Explanatory Comments on the
Methodist Articles of Religion

Article 2.-Of the Word, or Son of God, Who Was Made Very Man
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

According to the Bible, man has a tripartite nature, i.e., (1) physical body, (2) soul,  and (3) spirit. Our true nature consists of our spirit and soul, and they live in a body.  When we die, our spirit and soul leave our physical body.  Our soul is our will, emotions, thoughts, etc., i.e., our 'mind' as opposed to our physical brain. Jesus became fully human. He was not just God in the form of a human. On the other hand, when He became human He did not cease to be God. He is unique in that at the same time He was fully human and fully God.

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Article 5.-Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

This is a statement of the Protestant doctrine of sola scriptura (only Scripture): all information necessary to be saved is contained in the Old and New Testaments. This is a direct refutation of the Catholic doctrine that the Apocrypha are canonical and that Roman Catholic Church tradition, edicts of Roman Catholic Church councils and certain declarations of the Pope and Roman Catholic bishops and cardinals are equal to the Bible in authority and acceptance of these additional teachings are necessary for salvation.

The Apocrypha are seven books and several additions to certain Old Testament books, written during the Intertestamental period, i.e., the period between the Old and the New Testaments. They provide useful historical information but contain historical errors and teachings that contradict the Bible, e.g., prayers for the (physically) dead and the giving of alms to obtain remission of sins.

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Article 6.-Of the Old Testament
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

In the Old Testament, God handed down three types of laws: (1) moral, (2) ceremonial and ritual, and (3) criminal/civil. We are required to follow the moral laws, e.g., the laws against incest, homosexual activity, adultery, theft, etc. We are not required to follow the ceremonial laws, e.g., burnt offerings, guilt offerings, etc. We are also not required to follow the specific criminal and civil laws, e.g., Deuteronomy 19.

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Article 7.-Of Original or Birth Sin
Article 8.-Of Free Will
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

Pelagius was a British monk (ca. 400 A.D.) who taught that people are inherently good and we sin because we follow the example of sinners. These two Articles express the Calvinist teaching of total depravity, i.e., man inherits a spiritual infection of sin through the paternal bloodline. In other words, if you had a human father, you have a sinful nature. Without God's grace it is impossible for anyone to turn to God, accept Him and/or live righteously.

Within Protestantism there are two basic views of the relationship between God and Man with regard to salvation.  These are referred to as Calvinism, named for Swiss theologian John Calvin, and Arminianism, named for Dutch theologian Jacob Arminius, a successor of Calvin.

Methodism largely falls in the Arminian view.  However, Methodists agree with the Calvinist view of total depravity, i.e., as a result of original sin no man can come to God unless God draws that person near with prevenient grace.  "Grace" means "unmerited, unearned favor". "Prevenient" means "comes before."  Prevenient grace means God drawing us to Him before we accept Him, even though we have done nothing to deserve being drawn.  God does this because of His mercy, love and compassion, because it is His will that none should perish; this does not mean that no one will perish, i.e., go to Hell; it means God does not want to send anyone to Hell.

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Article 9.-Of the Justification of Man
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

For 1000 years, (around 400-1400 A.D.) the Roman Catholic Church was Christianity in the West.  Beginning with Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformers protested that teachings of the Bible had become grossly distorted with traditions of men and that the Catholic Church needed to reform its teachings to conform to the Bible.  This article affirms the biblical teaching of justification and refutes the Roman Catholic view.

More specifically, Roman Catholicism teaches that a person is justified (saved from his sins) by being baptized into the Catholic Church, i.e., baptism is necessary for salvation.  Catholicism also teaches that a person must remain in the Roman Catholic Church and participate in Catholic sacraments in order to be saved.

Catholicism teaches that every time a person commits a mortal sin (certain types of sin, e.g., adultery, fornication, murder, missing Sunday Mass without good  reason, non-trivial theft) he loses his salvation. If he confesses his sins to a priest and does penance his sins are forgiven and he gains his salvation again. The idea is to try not to commit any mortal sins, and when he does, to get them forgiven as soon as possible. Hopefully, if he has committed a mortal sin he won't die before confessing it to a Catholic priest and doing penance. Even if he has accepted Jesus, if he dies with even just one mortal sin on his soul he still will go to Hell.

The Bible says we are justified solely by faith in Jesus Christ, not by works, lest any man boast. When we accept Jesus as our Lord (Romans 10:9) God gives us credit for the perfect life Jesus lived. This is called imputed righteousness. (To better understand this, consider Harry, who drives for Federal Express.  If Harry causes an accident, Federal Express is also liable, because an employee's negligence is imputed to his employer.)

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Article 10.-Of Good Works
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

Many people believe they can make up for sins by doing good works.  The Catholic Church teaches that sins are forgiven by doing penance prescribed by a Roman Catholic priest at Confession/Reconciliation. The Catholic Church teaches that Catholics can store up 'payment' for sins by obtaining indulgences. These indulgences will reduce a person's punishment in purgatory. Indulgences are obtained by doing good works, studying the Bible, making donations, etc.

This Article makes it clear that sins are not forgiven by doing good works. It also addresses the proper place of good works in the life of the Christian. "Faith without works is dead." A person who only has an intellectual belief is not a Christian, even though he believes: (a) Jesus is God, (b) we should try to live the way Jesus said to live and (c) Jesus came back from the dead.

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Article 12.-Of Sin After Justification
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

This Article addresses three issues:

(1) Blasphemy of the Holy Ghost is the unpardonable sin.  A person who commits blasphemy of the Holy Ghost after being saved will lose his salvation.

Blasphemy of the Holy Ghost means that the person becomes completely convinced that the God of the Bible is not the real God. If that is the case, the person won't care what the God of the Bible says or thinks, since that person doesn't believe the God of the Bible exists. Note that Romans 10:9 says "If you confess ... and believe ...".  It does not say "If you confessed sometime in the past" and "if at sometime in the past you believed ..."

Calvinism teaches "Once saved, always saved", i.e., once a person accepts Jesus he cannot lose his salvation under any circumstances.  Article XII denies that, based on scriptures such as Hebrews 6:4-6 and Colossians 1:21-23.

(2) Backsliders should not be cast out of the congregation if they are willing to repent.

(3) Becoming a Christian does not mean a person will never commit another sin. John 3:8-9 means that a person who sins as a way of life, as a regular practice, is not saved. It does not mean that anyone who sins is not saved or that every time a person commits any sin he loses his salvation.

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Article 13.-Of the Church
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

This Article addresses several matters:

(1) The Church of Christ is any congregation of believers, not just the Roman Catholic Church.

(2) The pure word of God must be taught, and only the two sacraments ordained by Christ must be given. This excludes the Roman Catholic Church, since it teaches a different gospel based on the Apocrypha, purgatory, sacerdotalism (priests acting as intercessors with God, as in the Old Testament), and five additional sacraments not ordained by Christ.

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Article 14.-Of Purgatory
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

This Article refutes various Roman Catholic doctrines.

(1) Roman Catholicism teaches that there are two types of post-death punishment: (1) a person who dies with any unforgiven mortal sins on his soul will suffer eternal punishment in Hell; (2) a person who dies with no unforgiven mortal sins will suffer temporal (temporary) punishment in Purgatory. In Purgatory, God makes the person truly righteous; in Purgatory, the person is punished for venial sins (not as serious as mortal sins) and for mortal sins that were forgiven! This 'temporary' punishment could last millions of years!

(2) Roman Catholicism teaches that Catholics should pray for the (physically) dead, offer Masses for the (physically) dead, etc., since such actions generate grace that will reduce the dead person's time in Purgatory.

(3) This Article refutes the Catholic practice of 'adoration' (called 'veneration') of images and relics. (It should be noted that Catholics who understand their religion's teachings do not worship images or relics; this is a common misconception, particularly by Protestants.)

(4) This Article also refutes the Catholic teaching that Christians should pray to (departed) saints. In theory, the person praying asks the saint for intercessory prayer. In practice,  the person praying asks the saint to do the action (e.g., "St. Christopher, keep me safe in my travels.").

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Article 15.-Speaking in Such a Tongue as the People Understand
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

This is not referring to 'speaking in tongues'. Until Vatican II, Roman Catholic Masses were conducted mainly in Latin, not the local language. This Article rejects this practice, since the congregation cannot understand what is happening.

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Article 16.-Of the Sacraments
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

This Article refutes Catholic theology regarding the number, nature, and importance of sacraments. In Catholicism, participation in the sacraments is necessary for salvation. The Catholic Council of Trent declared that there are seven sacraments and anyone who disagrees is anathema (i.e., 'cursed by God'). Protestants hold that there are only two sacraments, those instituted by Christ: baptism and the Lord's Supper.

This Article states that the additional Catholic sacraments are a distortion of the actions of the early apostles or they wrongly elevate a mere status to the level of a sacrament. Those items refuted are: confirmation (roughly, the Catholic equivalent of a Jewish bar-mitzvah), penance (doing works specified by a priest in order to obtain forgiveness of sins), holy orders (ordination), matrimony (a status), and extreme unction (a special blessing shortly before death).

Regarding 'the sacraments were not ordained to be gazed upon', this refutes the Roman Catholic practice of holding up the Eucharist (the bread after it has been consecrated) and the chalice of wine and announcing that they have become the actual physical body and blood of Christ and having the congregation bow down and worship the 'body' and the 'blood' and respond "Amen." See the commentary to Article 18 below for more details.

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Article 17.- Of Baptism
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

Article 17 addresses the nature of the sacrament of baptism and the issue paedobaptism. Some denominations hold that only believers should be baptized. Methodists believe that baptism can also serve as a sign of God's working in regenerating a person. Hence, baptism of infants is a suitable practice.

The issue of paedobaptism is not raised in the Bible.  It is true that every person mentioned in the Bible as being baptized was a believer. But that does not mean unnamed persons were not baptized, including infants.

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Article 18.-- Of the Lord's Supper
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

In Roman Catholic theology, God's "grace" is sort of a spiritual power that can be merited by doing good works and participating in the Catholic sacraments. Catholicism teaches that participation in the sacraments is necessary for salvation.

Roman Catholicism teaches that when the bread and wine is consecrated for Holy Communion it miraculously transforms into the actual, physical body and actual, physical blood of Jesus.  (Catholics generally refer to this sacrament as "Communion", not "the Lord's Supper.") This alleged transformation is called transubstantiation, i.e., "change of substance". Catholicism teaches that when the person eats the elements of Communion he is literally eating the flesh of Jesus and drinking Jesus' blood.  Catholics are required to believe this.

At Roman Catholic Communion, the 'transformed' bread and wine are held up and worshiped, as described above in the commentary to Article 16.

Protestants believe that a sacrament is an external sign of an inner working of God's grace. The sacrament is not the method of obtaining God's grace. "Grace" is unmerited favor. In claiming that there is an actual, physical transformation and that the 'transformed' elements should be worshiped, Roman Catholicism, with no basis in Scripture, overthrows the nature of a sacrament and requires Catholics to engage in idolatry. (It should be remembered that Jesus' physical body was created.)

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Article 19.- Of Both Kinds
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

When the Lord's Supper was practiced by early Christians, standard practice was for the recipient to partake of both bread and the wine. At some point, the Catholic Church started giving out only the Eucharist (bread) to the laymen.  Only the clergy were permitted to partake of the wine. This Article condemns that practice because the sacrament ordained by Christ included both. The Catholic Church only resumed giving both items to laymen after Vatican II, in the mid-1960's.

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Article 20.-Of the One Oblation of Christ
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

This Article condemns the Roman Catholic practice of "offering the sacrifice of the Mass." Roman Catholicism teaches that Christ is resacrificed at each Catholic Mass, but now in an unbloody manner.  According to Catholic theology, this continuing series of sacrifices is necessary for the forgiveness of sins.

The Catholic perspective on salvation is largely 'judaized' Christianity.  In the days of the Apostles, many Jewish Christians believed that Christians had to follow all the requirements of the Mosaic Law, e.g., circumcision, the system of offerings, going to a priest to have sins forgiven, making sacrifices as atonement for sins, etc.  A system that requires some type of "priest" to act as an intercessor between the layperson and God is known as a sacerdotal system (from the Latin word sacerdote, meaning "priest".)

Roman Catholicism also teaches that Christ's sacrifice only satisfies the requirement of eternal punishment for sin..  It teaches that a person must be objectively holy, i.e., actually righteous (sanctified) before he can enter Heaven.  This is accomplished by doing good works, and if the person is not completely holy when he dies, this sanctification process continues in Purgatory, perhaps for millions of years.

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Article 21.-Of the Marriage of Ministers
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

In the early years of Christianity, ministers commonly married. Paul even states that bishops and deacons should not have more than one wife. Simon Peter - one of Jesus' apostles - was married.  For centuries, early Roman Catholic clergy were permitted to marry.

A bishopric is the district a bishop presides over.  As the medieval Roman Catholic Church became corrupt, bishops started considering their bishoprics as personal property and started passing them down to their sons. Eventually the corruption became so widespread that the Vatican banned marriage by Catholic clergy, requiring all clergy to take an oath of celibacy. The only exception is cultures where no one takes a man seriously unless he is married.

There is no scriptural basis for the Catholic prohibition on marriage of clergy. However, in an effort to claim a scriptural basis, the Catholic Church claims that it is based on the passage that "A man cannot serve two masters."

Article 21 refutes the Roman Catholic ban on marriage of clergy.  It should be noted the Byzantine-rite Roman Catholic priests normally do marry.

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Article 22.-Of the Rites and Ceremonies of Churches
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

Methodist religious services are not required to follow a rigid pattern (like the Catholic Mass, for example).  Obviously, in such circumstances, various people may object because "That isn't the way we do it/did it."  If such a person chooses on his own accord to go against reasonable practices, he should be openly and publicly rebuked, to deter others from causing disruption and division.

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Article 23.-Of the Rulers of the United States of America
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

John Wesley, founder of Methodism, was a priest in the Anglican Church (the Church of England).  He spent most of his life in Great Britain. However, Methodism caught on in the United States to a large degree.  This Article makes it clear that Christians are not free to ignore the laws and requirements of the national and state governments, and that the United States is not required to follow the laws or dictates of some other nation such as Great Britain or the Papacy.

Compare: Article 37 of the Church of England: Of the Civil Magistrates

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Article 24.-Of Christian Men's Goods
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

It has been pointed out that the early apostolic church practiced a form of Marxism (not communism), i.e., "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." Individual Christians put their property in a common fund.

This 'common fund' practice was not required. Early Christians were severely persecuted and it was a survival tactic.  (In the Book of Acts, Ananias and his wife did not die because they refused to give all their property, they died because they lied, claiming they had given all when, in fact, they had only given part.)

This Article makes it clear that Christians may own private property, and that the Church and individual Christians do not have any claim to a Christians' property merely because the owner is Christian.

This Article also makes it clear that even though a Christian may own private property, he still should give liberally in accordance with Christian values of charity, etc.

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Article 25.-Of a Christian Man's Oath
[Unofficial explanatory comments]

In certain passages of the gospels Jesus says not to swear an oath. Some religions and some Christian denominations interpret such sections as a total prohibition on making statements under oath.  The Methodist interpretation is that Jesus was prohibiting rash swearing without due regard for the importance of giving one's oath.