The Andrew Fuller Center Review – EDIT - Word of Truth

was also expressed by emphasizing the
cross’s connection and interrelation with
other themes in doctrine, practice, and,
therefore, preaching. Early in his Kettering
ministry, he wrote in his diary,
“‘Christ, and his cross be all my theme.’
Surely I love his name, and wish to make
it the centre in which all the lines of my
ministry might meet!” 32 Later, to his
father-in-law, Fuller wrote from Ireland,
“ e doctrine of the cross is more dear
to me than when I went. I wish I may
never preach another sermon but what
shall bear some relation to it.” 33 Fuller
believed that the whole of Scripture
bears witness to Jesus, and that, therefore,
expositions of any part of the Bible
inevitably manifest something of his
person or work: “If you preach Christ,
you need not fear for want of matter. His
person and work are rich in fullness. Every
Divine attribute is seen in him. All
the types pre gure him. e prophecies
point to him. Every truth bears relation
to him. e law itself must be so explained
and enforced as to lead to him.” 34
Re ecting on systematic theology, Fuller
asserted that “the centre of Christianity
[is] the doctrine of the cross,” and that
“the whole of the Christian system appears
to be presupposed by it, included in
it, or to arise from it.” 35 Fuller’s preaching
could be distinguished from Deistic
or moralistic—or even generally orthodox—preaching
by the centrality of the
cross of Christ, and it is that prominence
which marks it as evangelical.
Zeal for conversion
Fuller urged preachers to have a “zealous
perseverance in the use of all possible
means for the conversion of sinners.”
36 Such a zeal for conversion, or
conversionism, has been identi ed by
David Bebbington as another of the
de ning characteristics of evangelicalism.
37 e emergence of such urgency
about conversion was the most signi -
cant development in Andrew Fuller’s
pastoral theology. Fuller had grown up
in a high Calvinist church in which the
preacher had “little or nothing to say
to the unconverted,” and as a young
preacher himself he did not dare to “address
an invitation to the unconverted to
come to Jesus,” 38 a reticence grounded
in a theological system which did not
want to presume spiritual ability. From
being reticent to o er his hearers the
gospel, Fuller went on to write e Gospel
Worthy of All Acceptation (1781), in
which he made the case that all people
not only have the capacity to respond
to the gospel, but, indeed, have an obligation
to do so: “Unconverted sinners
are commanded, exhorted, and invited
to believe in Christ for salvation.” 39 As
David Bebbington has observed, Fuller’s
articulation of “duty faith,” or the obligation
of all people to respond to the
gospel, was the essential di erence between
evangelical and high Calvinists,
who otherwise shared a great fund of
orthodox and Calvinist theology, a difference
with great practical, or we might
say pastoral, implications: “If believing
was an obligation, preachers could press
it on whole congregations. If it was not,
they could merely describe it in the hope
that God would rouse certain predetermined
hearers to faith.” 40
is duty on the part of hearers corresponded
to the obligation of preachers:
“It is the duty of ministers not only
to exhort their carnal auditors to believe
in Jesus Christ for the salvation of their
n a day when Particular Baptists
were declining in the face of
Hyper-Calvinism, Caleb Evans
(1737–1791) promoted a cross-centered
piety that emphasized the accessibility
of salvation through the atoning work
of Christ. As a pastor and educator
this evangelistic perspective was passed
down to his congregation and students
at the Bristol Baptist Academy, where he
served as the principal, thus helping to
both sustain and revitalize the Particular
Baptist movement.
Historian David Bebbington captures
the importance of eighteenth-century
Particular Baptist crucicentrism when
he states that “the death of Christ was
not so much a portion of the body of
Christian doctrine as its life-blood.” 1
is sentiment is shared by Evans who
considered the “whole system of salvation”
as one “through the blood of the
lamb.” 2 I
In Evans’ thought, Christ is the
pre-existing Son of God who came to
dwell in human esh. Due to the reality
of sin it is only he, the God-man, who
can o er full satisfaction for transgressions.
At the cross, Christ is the “vicarious
substituted victim” and guilt
is transferred to him in place of sinful
man. 3
Now, Evans was deeply critical of the
Hyper-Calvinism that prevailed in far
too many Baptist circles in his day. In
Hyper-Calvinism, justi cation was seen
as an eternal act separated from active
faith in Christ, setting in place a hard
line between the elect and reprobate. In
this system, the unregenerate are under
no obligation to believe the gospel message.
us it was viewed as cruelty to call
a man to act upon that which he carried
no power to accomplish. Salvation
was relegated to a subjective knowing
that one was among the elect for whom
Christ died rather than an act of faith in
the nished work of Christ. 4
Such an understanding found no