I.
United Methodist Doctrinal Standards
To begin, The United Methodist Church has clearly defined standards of doctrine listed in The Book of Discipline. They are The Articles of Religion, The Confession of Faith, John Wesley’s
Standard Sermons, and his Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament. They are protected in our Constitution by
the first and second Restrictive Rules, which state that the General conference shall not “revoke, alter, or change”
these “established standards of doctrine.” However, there are many United Methodists who are unaware of these
standards, or reduce them to historic non-binding statements in Methodism, or disagree with and overlook them.
II.
The History of Doctrinal Standards in The United Methodist Church
United Methodist doctrinal standards have a history of development. Knowledge of their history helps to identify the sources of our standards and to understand
much of the doctrinal debate presently existing in the denomination. There are
seven important conferences to keep in mind.
A.
The First American Methodist Conference – 1773
The first conference of Methodist preachers in the American colonies took place in Philadelphia in 1773. The ten men who attended made several important decisions. They
accepted John Wesley’s authority, adopted The Minutes of the 1770 Conference in Great Britain as a Discipline, decided
to meet in regular conferences, and retained their ties to the Anglican Church.
Most importantly for our study, they agreed that they would not preach or teach anything contrary to Wesley’s
Standard Sermons and Explanatory Notes. Wesley’s Sermons
and Explanatory Notes became doctrinal standards in American Methodism.
B.
The Christmas Conference – 1784
In December 1784 at Lovely Lane Chapel in Baltimore, Maryland, American Methodism severed its ties with the Anglican
Church (the Episcopal Church in America) and British Methodism to form a new denomination: The Methodist Episcopal Church
in America. Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke were consecrated as General Superintendents. They decided to meet every quadrennium (four years) for General Conference. John Wesley
prepared from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer an order of worship, The Sunday Service of the Methodists in North
America, which was adopted by the conference but largely ignored. Wesley
also submitted a revision of the Anglican Church’s Thirty-Nine Articles to the Conference and they were accepted as
well. In Methodism’s Articles of Religion Wesley dropped fifteen of the
Anglican articles and added one (Article 25) for a total of 25 Articles. Most
importantly, The Articles of Religion became a doctrinal standard at this Conference, in addition to the Sermons and
Explanatory Notes.
In many ways, The Methodist Episcopal Church in America at the Christmas Conference mirrored the Anglican Church. The Anglicans had The Thirty-Nine Articles and the Methodists had Twenty-Five Articles. The Anglicans had The Book of Common Prayer and the Methodists The Sunday
Service. The Anglicans had Thomas Cranmer’s Homilies and the
Methodists had Wesley’s Standard Sermons
C.
The Constitutional Conference – General Conference 1808.
The General Conference of 1808 provided the first constitution for The Methodist Episcopal Church in America. The
First Restrictive Rule of that Constitution (which is still the First Restrictive Rule in today’s Constitution in the
Discipline) states “the General Conference shall not revoke, alter, or change our Articles of Religion or establish
any new standards or rules of doctrine contrary to our present existing and established standards of doctrine.” This rule specifies the Articles of Religion as a doctrinal standard and, though not
clearly spelled out, refers to Wesley’s Sermon’s and Explanatory Notes (“present and existing
standards of doctrine”).
D.
The Constitutional Amendment Conference – General Conference 1832
The General Conference of 1832 adopted certain rules by which the Constitution of The Methodist Episcopal Church in
America could be amended. Specifically, they established that any part of the
denomination’s constitution could be changed with a ¾ approval of General conference. However, the first restrictive
rule could not be changed. Therefore, this Conference moved to further protect
Methodism’s standards of doctrine from change.
In the next 140 years, the doctrinal standards remained unchanged. However,
the theological shifts which took place in these years were staggering. Beliefs
and practices in the church changed greatly. These transitions would lead to
the confusion and complexity of United Methodist doctrine and theology in the last quarter of the twentieth century.
E.
The Uniting Conference – General Conference 1968
In 1968 The Methodist Church joined with The Evangelical United Brethren
Church to form The United Methodist Church. The Evangelical United Brethren’s Confession of Faith was added to Methodism’s
doctrinal standards and protected in The Constitution by the Second Restrictive Rule.
However, there were many questions about doctrine and theology which arose as a result of the merger of the two denominations.
Many of these questions arose out of having to reexamine Methodism’s doctrinal standards which had been largely ignored
and forgotten over the years. A committee was appointed, chaired by Albert Outler, to study the situation and make a proposal
at the 1972 General Conference.
F.
The New Theological Statement Conference – General Conference 1972
In the 1972 General Conference a new theological statement was proposed and
accepted in fifteen minutes. Believe it or not! This statement about the way
United Methodists view theology was a bombshell that hit the denomination and brought into question the doctrinal standards
of the church. The statement brought this about in two ways.
First, the statement emphatically affirmed contemporary theological pluralism. John Wesley’s “catholic spirit,” which was intended to foster tolerance
of various Christian groups who shared doctrinal essentials but disagreed in doctrinal non-essentials (modes of worship, baptism,
forms of church government, etc), was loosely interpreted to cover radical pluralism in regard to Methodist doctrine and theology. The doctrinal standards were relegated as “landmark documents.” They were revered but no longer held any juridical weight. The clear line between
doctrine (basic norms of Christian belief) and theology (the discerning, elaboration, and application of doctrine) was obscured.
Second, the statement adopted four sources for theology – scripture,
tradition, reason, and experience (“The Wesleyan Quadrilateral”). With the adoption of pluralism The United Methodist
Church shifted from a denomination which believed certain doctrinal truths to a church identified by its way of doing theology.
Further, the primacy of Scripture was not clearly delineated. So Methodist theology
under the guise of pluralism could, and in many cases did, have reason or experience, as the principal source for its thought.
The result was a church Discipline in which the Constitution was in conflict with its Theological Statement. The Constitution maintained the “unalterable” doctrinal standards of the
church, while the Theological Statement reduced them to “landmark documents” with little legal weight.
G.
Theological Statement Revised – General Conference 1988.
In 1972, Albert Outler believed the new theological statement in United Methodism would be used in the denomination
for many years. However, it plunged the church into further doctrinal and theological confusion. Work began quickly to change The Discipline. However,
it was not until 1988 that change took place. The 1988 General Conference moved
to once again restore Doctrinal Standards into the theological statement in United Methodism.
Specifically, the revised Theological Statement made at least three important
moves. First, the Theological Statement dropped the word “pluralism” and affirmed the “integrity of basic
Christian truth” and “fidelity to the apostolic faith.” The
General Conference recognized that giving pluralism a footing in the 1972 Statement was a mistake. The clear line between
doctrine and theology was restored. The concept of a “catholic spirit”
was restored to John Wesley’s understanding; “opinions” are tolerated “which do not strike at the
root of Christianity.”
Second, The Articles of Religion, The Confession of Faith, Wesley’s Standard Sermons, and Explanatory
Notes are once again established as standards of doctrine and not “landmark documents.” As such, the Wesleyan order of salvation is explicated: prevenient grace, justification and assurance,
sanctification, faith and good works, and mission. The United Methodist Church
returns to her biblical, orthodox roots and her particular Wesleyan distinctives.
Finally, the primacy of Scripture was clarified as a source and a criterion
for theology. Tradition, reason, and experience must be judged and evaluated
by Scriptural norms. Scripture is now like a mobile of the solar system: Scripture is the sun, and tradition, reason, and
experience are the planets orbiting around it.
Although
this document has weaknesses, it does give us the right to press for doctrinal integrity at all levels of the denomination.
III.
Ignorance of United Methodist Doctrinal Standards
There
are many reasons for the confusion, ignorance and disregard of the standards of doctrine in The United Methodist Church.
First, there is a long history of it: a 140 - year period from 1832 –
1972 in which our doctrinal standards were primarily ignored or forgotten. The
theological currents of the day gave greater direction to Methodist theological thought than the doctrinal standards delineated
in the church’s Disciplines. For example, in the first half of the nineteenth
century, Methodism with its doctrinal standards modeled after the Anglican standards and the English Reformation (articles
of religion, homilies, liturgies) was impacted by Europe and the Continental reformation’s model of doctrinal standards
(complete systematic treatments of the Christian faith). The Continental reformation’s
model predominated the American scene and impacted Methodism. Also, in the latter
half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century with the rise of Liberalism, John Wesley's works
were hardly read or studied in Methodist seminaries.
Second, from 1972 to 1988 our denomination was explicitly pluralistic. Although our Constitution safeguarded our doctrinal
standards, the Theological Statement of the Discipline relegated these standards to just “historical landmarks”
and practically placed reason and experience on the same level as scripture. Many
pastors, seminary professors, and leaders of our General Boards and Agencies were brought in, nourished and trained under
these assumptions.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we must remember that The United Methodist Church has clearly established standards of doctrine set
forth in the Discipline and protected by the church’s Constitution. Thankfully, while there have been
periods in which these standards have been ignored, forgotten, or disregarded, we are legally bound to them. Even more thankfully,
they root us in the evangelical orthodox faith and in our own Wesleyan distinctives.
