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GOD's True 3part Church

 
GOD's clear word gives us two pivotal verses, qualifying spiritual growth from
the mickey-mouth confessor level of faith to born again or Spirit filled Acts5:32,
then from born again into saint or overcomer level of faith Acts14:22.
 
GOD clearly states we must have a personal Pentecost experience to grow into
holiness Jn3:7 Acts1:8 for power to overcome, to abide, for full sanctification,
for soul-salvation Rom1:16; 8:1-4; 10:9,10 (14:17) 1Jn3:6,9 (2Thess2:13).
 
The following taken from The Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2003, by Roy Hattersley.
 

     John Wesley, born 300 years ago, on June 17, 1703, was the leader of what may be called the Second Reformation. With Methodism, he did not espouse a new theology. It was built on the ancient precept that GOD had sent His only begotten Son to save the world, although it claimed, contrary to Calvin's notion of predestination, that salvation was available to every man and woman of true faith.
 
Ps1:5.. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
 
Zech13.. 8 And it shall come to pass in all the land, says the LORD, two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, but one-third shall be left in it:

9 I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; and each one will say, ‘The LORD my GOD.’”
 
Mk4:28.. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.

And his idea of the "whole Christian" -- struggling, after the moment of personal Pentecost, to "imitate Christ" -- was acquired, second-hand, from more original thinkers. Wesley did not change Protestant belief. He revolutionized the way in which the Protestant church behaved.
 
 
 
1Pet4:18.. Now if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?
 
Mat3:11.. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (1Pet1:7)
 
Rev3:16.. Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
 
Rev16:19.. Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before GOD, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.

 
[See 3part Church links index]
 
 
GOD's true blessing and mercy are thru hard conditions, rarely lived,
so very few grow from called to chosen, few experience His agape level.
 
Deut5:9,10; 11:26-28 Jn14:15
 
Mat19:17b..if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.
 
Jn15:10..If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love,
just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
 
Heb5:9b..He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,
 
1Jn3:24a..Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him.
 
Rev22:14..Blessed are those do who His commandments, that they may have the right
to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.
 

      IF GOD has called you to be really like Jesus He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility. GOD's call will put such demands of obedience on you that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians. At times, He will let other people do things which He will not let you do.
      Other Christians who seem very religious will push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans. You cannot, and if you attempt it, you will meet with failure and rebuke from the LORD.
      Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their successes, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you to despise yourself and all your good works.
      Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely GOD will keep you poor. GOD wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence upon Him, that He may demonstrate His faithful love for you in supplying your needs day by day.
      GOD may let others be honored and put forward, and keep you hidden in obscurity in order to produce some fragrant fruit for his coming glory which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you small. He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit for it now. The reward for your work is held in the hands of Jesus, and you will not see it until He comes.
      The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you with a jealous love. He will rebuke you for the little words and feelings or for wasting your time. So make up your mind that GOD is an infinite Sovereign, and has a right to do as He pleases with His own. He does not owe you an explanation of these mysteries. But if you give yourself to be His child, He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and give you the precious blessings for those who belong, heart and soul, to Him.
      Settle it forever, then, that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit. It is His option to tie your tongue, or chain your hand, or close your eyes in ways that He does not seem to use with others. And when you are so possessed by the living GOD that your heart delights over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of Heaven.
 

Excerpted from Faith, Prayer & Tract League
 
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him into all things, which is the head, Christ.  Eph4
 
24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from
the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.
27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone
teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true,
and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.  1Jn2
 
TILL
 
6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.  1Jn2
 
6a Whoever abides in Him does not sin.  1Jn3
 
 
 
 
GOD's 3part church, 4 levels
 

16 That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all the saints what the width and length and depth and height -
19 To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of GOD.
 
13 Till we all come to the unity of the faith,.. and of the knowledge of the Son of GOD,.. to a perfect man,.. to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;    Eph3,4
 
2 A Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the LORD erected, and not man.
 
3 And behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All,
4 Which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant.
 
19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20 By a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, His flesh,
22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.    Heb8,9,10

GOD grows His church: from babes to children,
from children to young men or holy in Christ,
then a handful into His image Rom8:29 1Cor4:15.
 
GOD's 3rd part Zech13:9 is His grain, seed, holy,
Rom12:1 Phil3 1Pet2:5,9 1Cor1:30 1Jn3:6,
His true temple 1Cor3:16,17; 6 Eph2; 4:24; 5:27 now.
 
GOD's covenant or heavenly promise is in Christ,
if we continue to be sealed 2Cor1:20-22; 3:6; 5:5,
if we copy Abraham Rom4:12,16 Gal3 Jam1:12 now.
 
GOD's Holiest is thru His fire, His blood 1Jn1:7,
His water Jn3:5 Ps66:8-12 Rom6 Tit3:5 1Pet3:21,
all a Job33 experience and a work of obedient faith.
 
 
 
 
 
[see GOD's hard call: 1] [ 2 ]
 
GOD saves souls after His fire purging and testing
 

Job33..22 Yes, his soul draws near the pit, and his life to the executioners.
23 If there is a messenger for him, a mediator, one among a thousand, to show man His uprightness,
24 Then He is gracious to him, and says, 'Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom;'
25 His flesh shall be young like a child's, He shall return to the days of his youth.
26 He shall pray to GOD, and He will delight in him, he shall see His face with joy, for He restores to man His righteousness.
27 Then he looks at men and says, 'I have sinned, and perverted right, and it did not profit me.'
28 He will redeem his soul from going down to the pit, and his life shall see the light.
29 Behold, GOD works all these twice, thrice with a man,
30 To bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of life.

 
Ps66..8 Oh, bless our GOD, you peoples! And make the voice of His praise to be heard,
9 Who keeps our soul among the living, and does not allow our feet to be moved.
10 For You, O GOD, have tested us; You have refined us as silver refined.
11 You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs.
12 You have caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water, but You brought us out to abundance.

Ez18..4 "Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul who sins shall die."
20 "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself."

 
Mat10..28 "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."
 
Mat16..24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
25 "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
26 "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"

 
Acts14..22 Re-establishing the souls of the disciples, exhorting to continue in the faith, and we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of GOD.
 
Heb10..39 But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.
 
1Pet1..9 Receiving the end of your faith - the salvation of souls.

Rev6..9 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of GOD and for the testimony which they held.
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O LORD," holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"
11 Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they, was completed.

 
Rev20..4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them, the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of GOD, who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ.

 
[see Joni Tada: 1] [ 2 ]
 
[see GOD's hard call]
 
GOD alone purges and refines a few faithful souls, but most souls ever in sin,
so are destroyed in hell Ez18:4,20 Mat10:28, a truth rarely taught
by the current Judas church, witness Graham teaching "the soul is immortal."
 
GOD alone redeems lost, fallen souls, never thru mere confession, but
thru trials and tribulations to test our faith and love, as we obey His truth,
His voice, witness Abraham, Job, etc. His standards.
 
GOD in flesh, Jesus, was made as hagios (not as sinners), yet also
had to spiritually grow to subdue His flesh to become the
fullness of His being thru 3x7 yrs Lk2:42; 3:23; 12:50; 22:42.
 
 
 
[CCCInc. family #4 info links]
[hagios]
 
[Lk2:42]
 
 
GOD's promised gifts thru His Spirit power, experienced from Pentecost
thru Paul's lifelong ministry, continue today. GOD's power thru His Spirit
was never retracted, in fact, will continue till Rev11:7 2Thes2:7.
 

Jn4
14 "But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."        [note the future tense.]
 
Jn14
15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments.
16 "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever -
17 "The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
18 "1 will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
19 "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.        [Jn3:3 1Pet1:22,23]
20 "At that day you will know that I in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.        [after Eph4:15]
21 "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."        [Acts5:32 1Cor12:7]
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "LORD, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?"
23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.        [note His condition for a personal love relationship.]
24 "He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.
25 "These things I have spoken to you while being present with you.
26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.        [1Jn2:20-27]
27 "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
28 "You have heard Me say to you, 'I am going away and coming to you.' If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to the Father,' for My Father is greater than I.
29 "And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.
 
Jn15
26 "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.        [1Cor2]
27 "And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.     [Rom8:29 1Jn2:13a,14a level]
 
Jn16
7 "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.
13 "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.        [Ps25:14 Pr3:32 Amos3:7 Rev11]
14 "He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare to you.
15 "All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare to you.
16 "A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father."
25 "These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father.
 
Jn17
20 "1 do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
21 "That they all may be one, as You, Father, in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
22 "And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:
23 "I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
24 "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

 
 

Acts1
8 "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;        [if we obey, Acts5:32; 9:17 to see]
 
years after Acts 2...

merely born again...

Acts10
42 "And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He, who was ordained by GOD, Judge of the living and the dead.
43 "To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins."
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word.
45 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.
46 For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify GOD.
 
Acts16
6 Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.
7 After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them.
8 So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.
9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us."
 
Acts19
2 He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" So they said to him, "We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit."
3 And he said to them, "Into what then were you baptized?" So they said, "Into John's baptism."
4 Then Paul said, "John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus."
5 When they heard, they were baptized in the name of the LORD Jesus.
6 And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.
21 When these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome."        [an example of Amos 3:7]
 

those born again are yet to Eph4:15
 

Jn1
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of GOD, to those who believe into His name:
 

[CCCInc. Note: Jn3:15,16; 6:40 all say "believes into Him..may have life," in the Greek, proving Eph4:15 1Jn2:24,27.]
 

Rom1
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of GOD to salvation for everyone who believes,
 
2Tim2
10 Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
 
Heb10
36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of GOD, ye might receive the promise.   [Rom4:12,16 2Cor1:20]
37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
 
1Pet1
9 Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of souls.
 
 

so GOD established CCCInc. 7 Candlesticks
 
 

2Tim2
25 In humility correcting those who are in opposition, if GOD perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,
26 And they may come to their senses out of the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to his will.
 
2Tim3
4 Traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of GOD,
5 Having a form of GODliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
 

till His word is fulfilled, Rev10:7; 11:3-7
 

Rev11
7 And when they have completed their testimony, the beast who comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and will overcome them, and will kill them.
 
2Thes2
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains until He is taken out of the way.
 

CCCInc. Note: GOD's truth is clear in His dictated word.
 
John3:15 + 16  taken from the George Ricker Berry's Greek to English Interlinear New Testament
 
John6:40 taken from the George Ricker Berry's Greek to English Interlinear New Testament
 
CCCInc. Note: the Greek is the same: "may have"...yet to enter life.
 
 
 
John5:24 taken from the George Ricker Berry's Greek to English Interlinear New Testament
 
CCCInc. Note: have entered life.
 
1John1:7 taken from the George Ricker Berry's Greek to English Interlinear New Testament
1John1:9 taken from the George Ricker Berry's Greek to English Interlinear New Testament
 
The above text was taken from George Ricker Berry's Greek to English Interlinear New Testament,
found at any true Christian bookstore.
 
1Jn2:24,27 from the George Ricker Berry's
Greek-English Interlinear NT...
 


 
 
 
1Jn2:24,27 from the New King James Bible...
 

24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.

27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

 
...yet to abide.
 
 
Founder still sheds his light on Methodism
 

The 300th birthday of John Wesley has Methodists
contemplating his message and the direction of the church that
began in England and is the third largest Christian group in the U.S.
 

By Ron Grossman
The Wall Street Journal
June 20, 2003

     With birthday cakes and many hymns, followers of Methodism are currently celebrating the 300th anniversary of founder John Wesley's birth. Were he witness to the festivities, he might find all the frosting and candles a bit much. Disinclined to frivolity, he was uncomfortable with a fuss.
 
     But Wesley would have loved the singing. His approach to preaching was based on the premise that the quickest way to involve people's emotions was to encourage them to open their mouths in praise of the Lord.
 
     "Wesley was stern but brilliant, a man of learning, an administrative genius, opposed to the stiff and formal church of his day but yet not particularly warm himself," said C. Joseph Sprague, the Methodist bishop of Chicago. "He was a complex man."
 
     So, too, is his present-day church.
 
     Wesley, who lived and worked in 18th Century England, was passionately opposed to slavery, and his ideas inspired English abolitionists. Yet in this country, his movement split along racial lines. White Methodists chiefly belong to the United Methodist Church and smaller denominations, and black Methodists mostly to the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.
 
     For the poor, downtrodden
Wesley was especially concerned about the plight of the urban poor. What came to be called the "social gospel" traces to his feelings for the downtrodden masses, crowded into the slums of industrializing cities and then largely ignored by the Church of England.
 
     That commitment continues today.
 
     "John Wesley said we should work as hard as we can, so we can save as much as we can, so we can give as much as we could," said Rev. David Eichelberger, pastor of Fourth Street United Methodist Church in Aurora, which will cut a cake in Wesley's honor Sunday.
 
     Yet some Methodists argue the church is losing sight of its religious vision by focusing so intensely on working among the poor and outcast.
 
     "The national leadership is orientated to working to improve the lives of people, in the here and now, rather than preaching salvation for eternity," said Mark Tooley, director of the United Methodist Committee at the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative think-tank in Washington. "John Wesley would be chagrined to see some of those who call themselves Methodists."
 
 

 

     Yet then again, he might not. Wesley resisted specifying exactly how others should manifest their faith. He didn't even think he was founding a new denomination. The split between his followers and the Church of England came only after his death.
 
     Wesley was born in 1703, on June 17 according to the calendar then in use. England hadn't yet switched over to the modern calendar, according to which his date of birth would be June 28.
 
     The son of an Anglican clergyman, Wesley went to Oxford, as did his younger brother, Charles. With a few other serious-minded students, the Wesley brothers went at their religious studies with a rare intensity of purpose. Another student was prompted to observe: "I think we have got a new sect of Methodist," alluding to a school of ancient philosopher-physicians.
 
     The name stuck, and so did the Wesley brothers' faith. Yet Wesley was still groping for an appropriate form of religious expression, even when he and his brother went to Georgia in 1735 to preach among the Indians.
 
     Shortly after his return, Wesley had a profound religious experience.
 
     "I felt my heart strangely warmed," he reported. "I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation."
 
     It then chanced that Wesley was invited to preach to the workers of Bristol. To his surprise, he found himself preaching not in a church but in the open air--thus accidentally inaugurating the revival movement. It also launched the Methodist tradition of not waiting for the masses to come to church, but taking the faith to wherever they might be.
 
     The method produced immediate results, tapping into a vein of spiritual hunger ignored by the religious establishment. Thousands flocked to hear the new itinerant Methodist ministers--"some gaping, some laughing and some weeping," according to a witness.
 
     In his preaching, Wesley stripped down his message to the essential: The route to salvation is through opening up the human heart to God's love. To give that message emotional expression, his brother was to compose 6,000 hymns, the singing of which became a permanent feature of revivalism.
 
     By the time of his death in 1791, Wesley's movement was not only firmly planted in England but it also had a beachhead in America. Methodism quickly adapted to New World conditions--not all of them laudable. One Sunday morning in 1787, ushers told a group of black worshipers in St. George's Methodist Church in Philadelphia to wait in the balcony until white congregants had finished praying.
 
     "They walked straight out and started their own church, which led to the founding of the African Methodist Episcopal Church," said Bishop Z.L. Grady, who heads that denomination's Philadelphia district.
 
     As the United States grew, the Methodist camp meeting would be as much a part of westward expansion as the Conestoga wagon and Chisholm Trail cattle drives.

 

Circuit-riding ministers
Committed to bringing religion to the people, Methodism was ideally suited to a sparsely populated country with a population on the move. Circuit-riding ministers spent their lives constantly on the trail, often preaching to rough cowboys and frontier men.
 
     "A row was raised on Saturday by about 20 lewd fellows of the baser sort, who came upon the ground intoxicated, and vowed they would break up the meeting," 19th Century preacher James B. Finley wrote in his autobiography. "Brother Birkhammer, an exceedingly stout man, seized their bully leader and with one thrust of his brawny arm crushed him down between two benches."
 
     The circuit riders got impressive results: By 1870, 24 of the then 37 states had had Methodist governors. Today Methodists are the third largest Christian denomination in the U.S., exceeded by Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists.
 
     The movement's vigor--even its testy controversies--testifies to the continuing efficacy of the advice Wesley gave his early followers, almost three centuries ago:
 
     "Never rest again in the dead formality of religion. Pursue with your might in inward and outward holiness a steady imitation of Him who you worship; a still increasing resemblance of His imitable perfections--His justice, mercy, and truth."