John Wesley — "I have often thought that the reason why so few are saved, is, because so few ar…"
I have often thought that the reason why so few are saved, is, because so few are willing to be saved.
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More from John Wesley
"I have often thought that the difference between the Church of England and the Dissenters is not so great as some imagine."
"When I have money, I get rid of it quickly, lest it find a way into my heart."
"Though I am an old man, I am but a little child; for I am just beginning to learn the alphabet of salvation."
"I have learned to suffer in silence, and not to make my complaints known to any but God."
"I have been accounted a madman, a fool, a knave, a liar, a deceiver, and a devil."
About John Wesley (1703-1791)
English Anglican cleric and founder of Methodism, whose open-air preaching and class-meeting structure created the largest 18th-century evangelical revival. Closely associated with Charles Wesley (his hymn-writing brother) and George Whitefield (early co-revivalist, later doctrinal opponent). For an intellectual contrast, see George Whitefield, Calvinist evangelical revivalist — Whitefield's predestinarian Calvinism vs Wesley's free-grace Arminian theology split the early Methodist movement permanently in the 1739-41 break. The founding evangelical Calvinist-Arminian schism — the two parallel evangelical traditions American Christianity descends from.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Salvation is available to anyone, but most people resist its actual demands — surrender of pride, habitual sin, and self-will. Wesley isn't blaming God for limited reach; he's diagnosing human contradiction: people want the comfort of being saved without accepting the transformation it requires. The obstacle isn't divine scarcity but human reluctance to fully yield. Willingness, not opportunity, is the real bottleneck.
Relevance to John Wesley
Wesley's Arminian theology held that God's grace is freely offered to all, directly rejecting Calvinist predestination. He preached to miners, prisoners, and the destitute, watching thousands respond emotionally but fewer sustain changed lives. This quote distills his pastoral frustration: the gospel was proclaimed, the door was open, yet people chose comfort over conversion. His own relentless discipline — rising at 4am, riding 250,000 miles on horseback — embodied the willingness he urged in others.
The era
Eighteenth-century England was nominally Christian but spiritually stagnant — the Church of England served the propertied class while the industrial poor had little genuine religious engagement. Calvinist predestination dominated much Protestant thought, implying only the elect few could be saved. Wesley's quote challenged that fatalism directly: salvation wasn't restricted by divine election but by human choice. During the concurrent Great Awakening, this reframing of personal moral responsibility was both theologically and socially radical.
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