John Wesley taught that people cannot have the kind of the faith that brings them into a new or deeper experience of God's grace unless they first had "a Divine evidence and conviction... that God hath promised it in the Holy Scripture."

So, if a particular experience is not clearly promised in the Scriptures, we have no basis for expecting it.

And he said: "Till we are thoroughly satisfied of this, there is no moving one step farther."

Several years ago (I don't know how many) I picked up a study Bible called The Wesley Bible. Albert F. Harper is listed as being the general editor of this study Bible. It is based on  the New King James Version (actually, not one of my favorite translations). I have used it a little bit, from time to time.

One of the intentions of Dr. Harper is to use the notes and helps in this study Bible to defend the Wesleyan doctrine of Christian Perfection or "entire sanctification."

In the notes in the back of this Bible it says that Wesley based his teaching on Christian Perfection primarily on thirty texts of Scripture. There is no footnote to substantiate this claim. I'm not sure how the editor arrived at this conclusion.

But, let's assume he is right. Wesley's doctrine is built on the thirty Scripture texts listed in The Wesley Bible.

Well, since John Wesley said no one should be pressed to seek any experience of God that wasn't promised in the Scriptures, then Wesley's teaching stands or falls with these scriptures.

So, I will be beginning a series of posts which will cite each of these thirty primary Scripture texts, along with the meanings the early Methodist found in them. I will quote each text. Then they will be followed by comments from John Wesley himself, as well as some of his early followers: John Fletcher, Adam Clarke and Joseph Benson (and others maybe if I can find something interesting).

It is for the reader to decide if they have interpreted these correctly or not.

These will be posted (as always) for information and possible discussion. It is not assumed that because Wesley or his followers said a certain thing, everyone else is somehow obligated to agree.

It will take me a very long time to go through all thirty texts.

I will post these periodically.

[Additional posts in this series may be found on the Wesleyanism page and on the Bible Studies page listed as “The Thirty Texts of John Wesley.”]

— Craig L. Adams