My last post about my old seminary chapel at Asbury started me reminiscing about the blessings of being able to worship there. One of my favorite hymns to sing in that chapel, packed with seminarians and our professors and with Albin Whitworth playing the pipe organ, was Charles Wesley’s And Can It Be.
The lyrics of this hymn are very rich and I always loved singing the very monergistic recounting of Charles' own conversion:
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
fast bound in sin and nature's night;
thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
my chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.
3 comments:
Hi Matt,
I've never heard Wesley described as monergistic before. Regardless, this is another beautiful music post--thank you for sharing.
So, are you going to cheer for California or Texas this series?
Have a great day!
~SP
Hey SP,
Texas all the way. You're right that the Wesleys are not usually described as monergistic. But I also don't think the theology of the Wesleys would fit at all with "synergists" or many Arminians today - they believed we were totally depraved and therefore dead or, in this case, asleep in our sins.
Matt
... I should say, they believed we were dead in our sins apart from the grace of God - they certainly didn't believe Christians were dead in their sins but this was not the result of some good work, it was the result of God's saving grace in Jesus Christ.
Post a Comment