Thursday, May 21, 2026

It is the 21st of May 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

Let’s all get on the same page. The “Methodist” Church is the product of the Wesley Brothers- Big brother John and Charles. They were the sons of an Anglican rector, and while at Oxford, they formed “Holy Clubs”- groups like modern-day “small groups” that emphasized frequent communion and confession, visiting prisoners, and seeking a holy life. Their detractors, seeing an overemphasis on the strict “methods of living,” began to call them “methodists”.

 

John would go on to be the famous preacher and theologian, while Charles would be not only the hymn writer for the Methodists, but for all Christians with hits like: Hark the Herald Angels Sing, O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing, Christ the Lord is Risen Today, and And Can it Be, this last hymn being the topic and tie-in today’s date.

 

An often overlooked aspect of the Wesleys’ story is their post-Oxford life as failed missionaries to the Georgia Colony- a story that is sometimes summed up in John’s famous quote, “I went to America, to convert the Indians; but oh! who shall convert me? Who, what is He that will deliver me from this evil heart of mischief?”

 

Their zeal for piety had overshadowed the gospel, and it took a storm, some Moravians, and a failed mission to help get them right.

 

Wesley’s father, Samuel, was friends with James Oglethorpe, Georgia’s “founder,” and he took the boys on as a secretary, minister, and missionary. On the trip over, aboard the Simmonds, a storm hit- when the Moravians didn’t panic but began to sing hymns, it left an indelible print on the brothers who would later see out the Moravians for spiritual advice. They would, in turn, point the brothers to the centrality of the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and that one finds their assurance not in their own works, but in that doctrine.

 

The mission still went terribly; Charles was overly strict, and John could be petty (especially with the woman who left him for another man). They came back to England, assured of their failures in ministry. The story of John will take you to the story of Aldersgate and that faithful May 24th in 1738, and his hearing from the preface to the book of Romans by Martin Luther.

 

But what of Charles? What was the thing that flipped the switch in him- from failed missionary and one trusting in their own works for assurance? It came just 3 days prior, on this, the 21st of May.

 

Another Moravian (these are, broadly, descendants of Jan Hus and forerunners of the 16th-century Reformation), Peter Bohler, was on his way to Georgia when he stopped in London. Charles befriended him, remembering those Moravians on the Simmonds, and helped to teach him English. Meanwhile, Peter began to push Charles towards an understanding of his salvation that was wholly dependent on the work of Christ and in faith alone. Both Wesleys received an Anglican education, but had yet to come to understand the radical nature of the Reformation doctrines.

 

It was on this, the 21st of May in 1738, which was Pentecost Sunday, that while recovering from pleurisy, I spent the night in prayer. He recorded in his journal that he had come to understand Justification by faith alone and “I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ.” He would open his Bible to the Psalms and read Psalm 40:3 “He has put a new song in my mouth”- the prolific hymn writer who began to write from his own experience “And Can It Be”, these specific lines perhaps now enlightened:

 

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.

 

He would write over 6,000 hymns- and regardless of where the theology would go, or the church body… it was on this day, 3 days before his brother, that the objective truth of the Gospel- Christ for You- by grace alone through faith alone on account of Christ alone, awakened one of the great hymn writers in history.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Acts 2, as we are approaching Pentecost:

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 21st of May 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who knows we don’t say that word anymore… they are the Guardians… Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who had to look it up- pleurisy is an inflammation in the lungs… apparently it hurts…. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.