Good evangelicals can tell you the day they were saved and the day they bought their first game console.  When I was in 5th grade, my mom told me I had to save my own money to get a Super Nintendo Entertainment System.  All we had was an Atari.  By the time I had raised $100, my Dad decided it would take forever and just covered the other half for me without Mom knowing… This is how salvation worked in Medieval Catholic theology…you do as many good works as you can, it will never be enough, but it will at least cut some time in Purgatory, and Jesus will make up the difference.

This is not actually how United Methodists (or Protestants in general) believe justification works.

Mother of Methodism, Susannah Wesley once said, “I verily think one great reason why Christians are so often subject to despond is that they look more to themselves than to their Saviour: they would establish a righteousness of their own to rest on, without advertising enough to the sacrifice of Christ, by which we alone are justified before God.”  Funny how it took her own sons forever to get this…  But the Protestant Reformation emphasized a full trust in the work of God alone, not human effort.  Justification by faith alone, is the work of God through the cross of Jesus… John Wesley emphasized (a la Augustine) that this combats human pride, because we have nothing that didn’t first come from God.

This week continues my reworking of old comics for a compilation book that I hope will get published.  The goal is to provide a little more consistency in the artwork across all my comics, add new written content and new artwork, and see if some publishers will be interested in printing and marketing the book.  If nobody takes it, I will do some sort of Kickstarter campaign to self-publish, giving a copy of the book to everyone who contributes a minimum amount.  Thanks to everyone for your tremendous support of Wesley Bros Comics!  If you’re looking for a way to contribute a small amount now, Patreon works like a an NPR pledge, where you can contribute a small amount monthly to help keep the comic alive.  Click here to check out my Patreon.