Bobbie Alcanzo
11.9.15
TRL 200 – Fundamentals of Christian Theology
5A – Protestantism: The Evangelical Explosion
This episode of A History of Christianity goes more in depth into Protestantism and its spread to the New World in the 18th century. It elaborates on John Wesley and the Methodists, George Whitefield, and the First and Second Great Awakening.
John Wesley was an Anglican minister who co-founded Methodism along with his brother Charles. Both John and Charles were Church of England missionaries to the colony of Georgia in the New World, arriving in March 1736. It was their only occasion to visit America. However, their mission was not quite successful. Both brothers had “religious experiences” in 1738 after arriving home. John was deeply touched after a prayer meeting in London, and was successful in starting a “Methodist” movement in the Church of England in the years that followed. Methodism would spread to the American colonies when some of the believers made the voyage to the New World.…show more content… It was originally sought to reform the Church of England from within, but it became an autonomous church after separating away from Anglicanism. Methodism holds many of the basic Protestant Christian beliefs, including the inspiration and authority of scripture for faith and practice, the doctrines of the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus, and the necessity of grace to save humans from the consequences of sin. The two sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist are also practiced. John Wesley taught that Christians should strive to obtain holiness of life, called "perfect love”, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit. He established a system of small group meetings that were designed to encourage and support fellow Christians in lives of
