(The picture above is where Charles Wesley and George Whitefield walked and prayed together while living in Oxford, England.)
The Holy Club was a small group of college students at Christ Church in Oxford, England. The club was founded by John and Charles Wesley in 1729 - in reaction to the dead religion, they observed at Oxford. Mocking students nicknamed this group The Holy Club. They were also known as Bible Moths, Bible Bigots, Sacramentarians, and Methodists. These men were perceived as fanatics because they refused to partake in worldly activities with the other students. They prayed and studied the Bible together. They fasted and took the sacraments and read and discussed books. This group of young men was focused on spiritual growth and ministering to prisoners and the poor.
George Whitefield would become one of the most effective Evangelists of that era. He was about 19 years old when he joined this group. The Wesley brothers influenced the founding of the Methodist Church. Their goal was not to divide the Church Of England but to see it reformed. The establishment of the Methodist Church was not John or Charles's idea - they never left the Anglican Church.
The Church of England was full of compromise at that time. Whitefield, in particular, resorted to extreme measures to ensure his salvation. His health declined from excessive fasting and neglect of his body in hopes of earning his salvation. Try as they did - their good works could not save them. John and Charles Wesley sailed to America as missionaries in search of redemption. That did not work!
On one voyage, John was on board with Moravian Christians. When a massive storm began, John feared for his life. He noticed that the Morivians had no fear as they sang hymns. The faith of the Morivians impacted Wesley's life dramatically. These three men experienced true salvation when they discovered child-like faith.
The rediscovery of Justification by Faith Alone was the key. They each read a book by Henry Scougal, "The Life Of God In The Soul Of Man." That book had a profound impact on all three men. All three came to see the need to experience the life of God on a personal level. True salvation comes from experiential knowledge and encounter with Jesus.
This was Whitefield's response after reading Henry Scougal's book:
"Shall I burn this book? Shall I throw it down? Or shall I search it? I did search it, and holding the book in my hand I thus addressed the God of heaven and earth: 'Lord, if I am not a Christian, or if not a real one, for Jesus Christ's sake show me what Christianity is, that I may not be damned at last!' God soon showed me, for in reading a few lines further, that 'true Christianity is a union of the soul with God, and Christ formed within us,' a ray of divine light was instantaneously darted into my soul, and from that moment, and not till then, did I know I must become a new creature." (1)
Speaking of his salvation experience, Whitefield wrote:
"I know the place: it may be superstitious, perhaps, but whenever I go to Oxford I cannot help running to that place where Jesus Christ first revealed himself to me, and gave me the new birth."
John Wesley describes his salvation experience this way:
"In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." (2)
Charles trusted Christ through conversations with the Moravian Peter Böhler (who had influenced John) and his discovery of the gospel in Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians. He writes:
"I marveled that we were so soon, and so entirely, removed from him that called us into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. Who would believe our Church had been founded on this important article of justification by faith alone! I am astonished I should ever think this a new doctrine, especially while our Articles and Homilies stand unrepealed, and the key of knowledge is not yet taken away." (3)
Charles's encounter with God happened three days earlier than John's. He wrote this hymn:
"Where shall my wondering soul begin
How shall I all to heaven aspire?
A slave redeemed from death and sin,
A brand plucked from eternal fire,
How shall I equal triumphs raise,
Or sing my great Deliverer's praise?
Flowing from the complete assurance they felt in God's love and forgiveness, their faith was lived out in lives that went on to influence millions.
Charles went on to write over 6,000 hymns, while John used his organizing genius to turn a spontaneous movement into the structured body which became the origin of today's world-wide Methodist Church". (4)
(1) Goerge Whitefield: God's Anointed Servant In The Great Revival, Kindle, location 17.
(2) Wesley and the Anglicans p 59
(3) Charles Wesley (Kimbrough and Newport, Manuscript Journal, 1:100)
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