Predestination

Methodism explicitly rejects the Calvinist doctrine of unconditional election and double predestination. John Wesley's conversion experience and subsequent theological development led him firmly into the Arminian camp. His sermon 'Free Grace' (1739) was a public and sustained attack on Calvinist predestination, arguing that it is inconsistent with the justice, love, and goodness of God to decree damnation for specific individuals irrespective of their response. This led to a famous and lasting controversy with George Whitefield.

Methodist theology teaches conditional election: God has elected to salvation all who believe in Christ, based on God's foreknowledge of their faith, which is itself enabled by prevenient grace. God genuinely desires all to be saved (not merely a limited elect), offers grace to all, and holds all responsible for their response. This is not Pelagianism — grace is prior to and necessary for any human response — but it denies that saving grace is irresistibly given only to a predetermined elect. The possibility of apostasy (losing salvation through persistent willful sin and unbelief) follows from this Arminian framework.