Were the Wesleys Freemasons?

QUESTION: We recently heard a Methodist preacher say that John and Charles Wesley were Freemasons. Is there any foundation to this statement?

ANSWER: This is news to me. I have been reading about the Wesleys all my days, especially in Tyerman's three big volumes on John Wesley, and I have not found it. He evidently put on record everything he could find.

— Steele's Answers p. 193.

A Third Blessing?

QUESTION: Is there a third, distinctive blessing after entire sanctification called the baptism of the Spirit, the disciples having been entirely sanctified before Pentecost?

ANSWER: I find no proof of a distinct work of purifying before Pentecost at which time Peter testifies "their hearts were purified by faith" (Acts 15:9). There were many refreshings and begirdings of the Spirit subsequently, and there are experiences of sudden and great spiritual enlargement, but these are rare, and exceptional in preparation for some special work.

— Steele's Answers p. 193.

Did God Create Evil?

QUESTION: If sin originated in heaven, did not God create it?

ANSWER: Sin is not a substance, but the bad quality of a free act in violation of known law. If a son disobeys a good father to his great grief, is it the father's sin? He could have avoided that sin in only one way, by avoiding fatherhood. God could have avoided the incoming of sin by refraining from creating any free moral agents who are first causes of their own moral acts and hence responsible and punishable.

— Steele's Answers pp. 192, 193.

On 1 Corinthians 7:14

QUESTION: Explain I Cor. 7:14, "For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified in the wife and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified in the husband; else were your children unclean; but now are they holy."

ANSWER: It is not personal, internal sanctification, but dedication. In heathenism children from their conception were dedicated to idols and demons, at least seven. If one parent becomes a believer and the other consents to this change of religion, the supposition is that the newly born child is now, through the influence of the Christian partner, dedicated to God, and the consenting pagan parent has, to a certain extent, yielded to Christian influences. In India, he or she breaks caste by so doing, and is no longer regarded as a heathen. Such are now withdrawn from the pollutions of idolatry and are on the way to personal salvation. In this text "sanctify" is used in a peculiar sense.

— Steele's Answers p. 192.

Job's Restoration

QUESTION: After the Lord turned the captivity of Job we find all his servants, all his cattle, all his children are alive and that, through the care of his herdsmen, his stock of domestic animals was doubled. My theory is that the messengers who brought evil reports to Job were all liars inspired by Satan. Is not this true?

ANSWER: It is true that Satan is a liar, but this does not account for Job's boils; they were real. His losses were real also, for the possessions and the living children could not have been concealed from him during the long period of his trial. His subsequent wealth and second crop of children in his old age, like Abraham's second family, were preternatural, if not supernatural.

— Steele's Answers pp. 191, 192.

Was Judas Always a Devil?

QUESTION: Our minister thinks that Judas was always a devil. Is this true?

ANSWER: This theory implies the following difficulties: That Christ knowingly chose a devil, thus setting an example to his church to license bad men to preach; that Christ commissioned a devil to work miracles, even to raise the dead and to cast out devils, thus justifying the charge of his enemies that he cast out devils through a devil (Matt. 10:2-9). We should note that Jesus, speaking three years after the call of Judas, did not say he was a devil from the beginning, but is a devil now. A good man may backslide very far in three years. There was evidently a growth in badness in John 6:70, where he intimates that Judas is under the influence of the devil, just as he means that Peter is influenced by Satan when he calls him Satan (Matt. 16; 23). The growth of the spirit of greed six months afterwards reached its climax, in John 13:26, 27.

— Steele's Answers pp. 190, 191.

Marrying Unbelievers

QUESTION: (1) Has a Christian a right to marry a sinners (2) Has a minister a right to celebrate such a marriage?

ANSWER: There is no human law against it, nor any prohibition in the Decalogue, but an inspired apostle forbids it, "Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers" (II Cor. 6:14-17). "The apostle," says Wesley, "speaks especially of marriage and gives three arguments against it in the context." Many a Christian has made a shipwreck by violating this prohibition, thinking that conversion would be effected by home missionary work. But instead of that the unbelieving husband often perverts the Christian wife by urging her to go with him to the theater, the dance, the card party, and the Sunday excursion. (2) We have always admired the refusal of Spurgeon to celebrate the marriage of any member of his church with an unbeliever, though I have not always followed his example. He illustrates the delusion of the expectation of conversion after marriage on this wise: "It is like one standing on a table trying to lift them up to his level. The one below will almost certainly pull the other down." History proves this. Professedly Christian parents, who prefer for their daughter a rich sinner to a poor saint will have much to answer for in the day of judgment, and. often in this life sorrows follow such a marriage in the shape of divorce, or wicked, sons-in-law or ungodly grandchildren.

— Steele's Answers pp. 189, 190.

When Was Jesus Glorified?

QUESTION: When was Jesus glorified?

ANSWER: To glorify God or Christ is to make him known and acknowledged as being all that he claims to be. Christ is spoken of several times as being glorified (John 12:28; 13:31; 17:10); but in his prayer in John 17:1 he still prays for glorification. We infer that his body was not changed by his resurrection, it still being flesh and bones. (Luke 24:39). This glorification occurred after leaving the earth. It was too dazzling for mortals to see; it almost killed Saul of Tarsus and John (Acts 9:4; Rev. 1:17).

— Steele's Answers p. 189.

Christ Breathes the Spirit (John 20:22)

QUESTION: When Christ breathed on his disciples in John 20:22, in what capacity did they receive the Holy Spirit?

ANSWER: It is worthy of note that the same Greek word is here used as that in Gen. 2:7, to express the inspiration of the new, spiritual life of recreated humanity By "breathing," as Augustine observes, "Jesus shewed that the Spirit was not the Spirit of the Father only, but also his own," and as it is without the Greek article, it is a gift of the Spirit rather than the Person of the Spirit. This gift of spiritual life was necessary to their reception of the Personal Spirit at Pentecost. A dead soul can be inspired with life, but cannot actively receive the Personal Spirit in all his offices, especially that of entire sanctification.

— Steele's Answers pp. 188, 189.

Sanctification & the Lodge

QUESTION: Can a sanctified person retain the experience and carry insurance in a fraternal order, although he never attends the lodge or takes any part in the proceedings?

ANSWER: I infer that the new experience is subsequent to joining the order, which he has found not promotive of his spiritual life, and for this reason abstains from its meetings, but continues to pay the dues, because of the loss of money already paid for insurance should he now cease. Knowing, not from experience, but from observation, that membership in such orders is not helpful to the spiritual life, I would suggest to this brother that no financial loss, however great, can outweigh any spiritual loss, however small. Always give the spiritual and not the material side the benefit of your doubt.

— Steele's Answers p. 188.