The Andrew Fuller Center Review – EDIT - Word of Truth

e Andrew Fuller Center Review
Issue 3 • Summer • 2012
On the Cover:
e oil portrait of Andrew Fuller on the front cover of the review is
by the painter Samuel Medley (1769-1857), the son of the famous
Baptist minister, also Samuel Medley (1738-1799). e original oil
painting is in the personal collection of Rev. Norman L. Hopkins of
Rochester, Kent, England. Rev. Hopkins is a long-standing, serious
antiquarian book collector of Puritan and Baptist authors, who also
purchases items of theological and historical interest. He saw noti cation
of the Fuller portrait for sale in an auction house in Northumbria
in December, 2008, and recognized that it was clearly an authentic
original portrait. He put in a bid well over the suggested price and was
successful. Regretfully, the auctioneer was unwilling or unable to give
him any details of the provenance of the painting beyond the fact that
it was by Samuel Medley. e only other known oil painting of Fuller is
in Regent’s Park College, the University of Oxford.
e Andrew Fuller Review is published 3 times per year by
e Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies.
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Editor Michael A.G. Haykin
Managing Editor J. Ryan West
Design and Layout Dustin Benge
Fellows of e Andrew Fuller Center
Matthew Barrett
Paul Brewster
Je Robinson
Jeongmo Yoo
Junior Fellows of e Andrew Fuller Center
Dustin Benge
Joe Harrod
Cody McNutt
Steve Weaver
J. Ryan West
and Baptists claimed to be “back to the Bible” movements, the view that created the
greatest gulf between them was the Sandemanian view that salvation came through
“bare belief in the bare gospel.” “Sandeman opposed any preaching that advocated
any duty or activity that could be construed as merits of salvation on the part of
the individual” (p.72). is makes the study of Sandemanianism germane to anyone
interested in the more recent gospel wars that have raged in the latter part of the
twentieth century in American evangelicalism over the so-called “lordship salvation.”
Many today seek to separate faith and repentance, believing that repentance is
a de facto work. So a careful study of Sandemanianism and its decline may be useful
in answering more recent similar objections.
e student of Sandemanianism is further helped in Smith’s book by a comprehensive
bibliography and a detailed index. In sum, Smith is to be thanked for bringing
to life an obscure, now deceased sect, important in the study of Baptist history and
evangelical theological debate, through this ne treatment.
Je Straub, Professor of Historical
eology, Central Baptist eological Seminary, Plymouth, MN
Roger D. Duke, Phil A. Newton, and Drew Harris, eds.
and introduced, Venture All for God: Piety in the Writings
of John Bunyan (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage
Books, 2011), 194p.
e richness and fullness of the piety of John Bunyan is
o en obscured by the tremendous popularity of his greatest
allegory, e Pilgrim’s Progress, and his famous autobiography,
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. To be sure,
these works must be included in any discussion of John Bunyan’s
piety, but the discussion must not end here. In Venture
All for God: Piety in the Writings of John Bunyan, the editors
have selected a series of short readings taken from Bunyan’s lesser-known writings
to present a more robust portrait of his piety. ese readings are arranged under
the following headings: Christ Our Advocate, Christ Jesus the Merciful Savior, Hope
for Sinners, True Humility, Christian Ethics, e Gospel Applied, and Warnings. A
short, but surprisingly full biographical sketch of Bunyan’s life, ministry, and historical
setting is also included. In addition to being a traveling pilgrim and an assured
doubter, we see here that John Bunyan loved Christ deeply, exhorted sinners sincerely,
and strove earnestly to live what he called a “gospelized” life.
Bennett Rogers, PhD student,
e Southern Baptist eological Seminary, Louisville, KY