John Wesley, The Founder Of Methodism’s, 18th
Century U.F.O. Investigation
Daniel R. Jennings
{Disclaimer:
By presenting this article I am in no way wanting to encourage belief in UFOs
or Extra Terrestrials as beings from another planet who are visiting our world.
I simply do not believe that is the case and it is clear to any discerning
Christian that the field of ufology so often becomes occultic in nature. See my
article Similarities
Between UFO Encounters And Demonic Encounters for numerous examples of this.
Still, people do often see things in the sky for which there is no immediate or
rational explanation and in the following narrative two men did claim to see
something in the sky that they could not explain. What makes their case unique
is that one of the most influential men in church history took the time to
investigate it and record his findings, which I find to be interesting.}
John Wesley was an
18th century Anglican priest who is remembered for his theological
ideas regarding holiness and for being the founder of the Methodist
Church. His life is best studied by a
reading of his journal which has been published numerous times since he first
had it printed in the 1700’s. It was while reading through this diary that I
stumbled across a centuries old U.F.O. sighting that he investigated and
recorded the results of, which happened in none other place than the Penzance
Triangle. Here, for the first time, I
present the complete text of his investigation followed by some observations.
Sun. September 7, 1755. - Last year, a strange
letter, written at Penzance, was inserted in the public papers. Today I spoke
to the two persons who occasioned that letter. They are of St. Just parish,
sensible men, and no Methodists. The name of one is James Tregeer; of the
other, Thomas Sackerly. I received the account from James, two or three hours
before Thomas came: But there was no material difference. In July was
twelvemonth, they both said, as they were walking from St. Just church town
toward Sancreet, Thomas, happening to look up, cried out, "James, look,
look! What is that in the sky?" The first appearance, as James expressed
it, was, three large columns of horsemen, swiftly pressing on, as in a fight
from southwest to northeast; a broad streak of sky being between each column.
Sometimes they seemed to run thick together; then to thin their ranks.
Afterward they saw a large fleet of three mast ships, in full sail toward the
Lizard Point.
This continued above a quarter of an
hour: Then, all disappearing, they went on their way. The meaning of this, if
it was real, (which I do not affirm,) time only can show.
A number of things
can be drawn from this short entry. 1.)
The witnesses were walking from St. Just parish, a small town about eight miles
from Penzance thus putting them within the Penzance Triangle; 2.) Wesley’s impression
of the men was that they were “sensible men”.
Sensible implies that one exhibits the ability to use reason and sound
judgment. In other words, the men
appeared to be intelligent enough to not be mistaken about what they claimed to
have saw; 3.) Upon examining the men somewhat independently of each other there
were no discrepancies in their stories; 4.) These individuals were willing to
risk their reputations by recording their unusual sighting in a letter and then
allowing it to be placed within various newspapers; 5.) The appearances
involved different types of objects flying through the sky which resembled
horsemen and mast ships with full sails up; 6.) The event lasted for more than
fifteen minutes; and 7.) Like most unidentified flying object sightings, after
it was over the witnesses were left with nothing more to do than go on their
way.
Like Wesley, I will
leave it up to the reader to decide what this was-a hoax, a
misidentification of natural phenomena, or something else entirely.