ABSTRACT
The ‘official’ version of John Wesley’s conversion on 24 May 1738 is the published account in his Journal. The ‘official’ version includes four layers of testimony: core testimony, Aldersgate Memorandum, the 1738 journal, and the narrative of the first three journals. Each layer presents a different perspective of what Aldersgate meant to Wesley. This chapter examines Wesley’s core testimony on the night of 24 May 1738. It is shown that Wesley considered Aldersgate the moment when he entered a new saving relation with Christ, giving him an assurance of his justification and new birth.
The chapter also explores the Aldersgate Memorandum, which includes eighteen numbered paragraphs under the date of 24 May and was written within two weeks of Wesley’s conversion. The document narrates Wesley’s spiritual journey to gain an assurance of salvation from sin’s guilt and power, first by works of the law and then through faith in Christ. Closer analysis reveals that the Memorandum presents Wesley’s spiritual journey in three states: natural, legal, and evangelical. Aldersgate therefore represented Wesley’s transition from the legal to the evangelical state.
