How Natural is Your Morality?

By Ryan Patrick Hoselton

How should Christians interact with non-Christian moral reasoning? Christians throughout the centuries have revisited this question, dividing over whether divine revelation exclusively provides our moral guidance or whether we can benefit from “natural” moral philosophy.

I’ve been working through Norman Fiering’s work, Moral Philosophy at Seventeenth-Century Harvard (1981), and he offers helpful categories for working through this question.[1]  Although his points are descriptive rather than prescriptive, believers today can greatly benefit from observing how Christians throughout history have thought through the relationship between Christian theology and natural moral reasoning. It may not necessarily be wrong to incorporate natural moral thought, but we should be aware how and why we’re doing it.

Fiering identifies five general solutions that Christians have devised to reconcile Christian and natural moral thought. The fifth is more of a method than a theory, so I will only summarize the first four:

1)      Christian hegemony: In this model, Christians borrow pagan cultural ideas and resources in “the interest of higher purposes (12).” Christians exploit external thought and sanctify and purpose it for the glory of God and the church.

2)      Common Grace: This position’s greatest defender is Thomas Aquinas, the medieval Catholic theologian. The adherents of this position argue that despite the Fall, human nature maintains remarkable natural abilities in regards to creativity, discovery, knowledge, and even moral reasoning. As Fiering stresses, this doctrine is not necessarily meant to authorize natural moral philosophy but rather to make sense of non-Christian intellectual and moral achievement.

3)      Prisca theologia: followers of this third category espouse that “behind the best pagan writings was the influence of the ‘ancient history’ (prisca theologia) that originated with Moses (14).” In other words, the reason why pagan thinkers have produced sound ideas is because they directly or indirectly borrowed from Christian thought. Thus, they are worthy of study insofar as they reflect Christian teaching.

4)      Disparity: The fourth model for reconciling Christian theology and pagan moral philosophy was to compartmentalize the utility of each for either the outer or inner person. Natural knowledge was sufficient to guide external actions, while spiritual knowledge was necessary to reform the inner and spiritual person. Thus, believers rested on natural moral philosophy for personal, social, and political moral conduct, and they reserved special revelation to guide their spiritual life.

[1] Norman Fiering, Moral Philosophy at Seventeenth-Century Harvard (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1981).

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Ryan Patrick Hoselton is pursuing a ThM at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He lives in Louisville, KY with his wife Jaclyn, and they are the parents of one child.

"GOD Talks" Audio Interview with Dr. Haykin

Dr. Haykin was recently interviewed by the Aqueduct Project's audio interview series "GOD Talks." The vision of Aqueduct Project is to provide access to quality resources for evangelical theological education to the pastors in majority world churches. "GOD Talks" is the newest Aqueduct Project program designed to foster theological understanding among the global evangelical community by providing short (2-20 minute) audio interviews with leading Christian thinkers. You can access Dr. Haykin's (and other) interviews here. To download an MP3 of Dr. Haykin's interview, click here.

The Book of Kells Now Available Online

By Dustin W. Benge

Throughout the centuries the Christian church has sought to honor the text of holy Scripture through the art of illumination. An illuminated manuscript is a text that is supplemented by the artistic addition of decorated initials, borders, and miniature illustration. The earliest surviving illuminated manuscript are from the period of AD 400 to 600, initially produced in Italy and the Eastern Roman Empire.

The Book of Kells (Irish: Leabhar Cheanannais) is one such illuminated manuscript that has been highlighted in recent months. Trinity College in Dublin, which houses the Book of Kells, has now made this beautiful work completely available online. The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript in Latin, containing the four Four Gospels of the New Testament with various prefatory texts and tables.

Trinity writes that the origin of the Book of Kells “is generally attributed to the scriptorium of the monastery founded around 561 by St Colum Cille on Iona, an island off the west coast of Scotland.” The college writes that it “must have been close to the year 800 that the Book of Kells was written, although there is no way of knowing if the book was produced wholly oat Iona or at Kells, or partially at each location.”

This beautifully decorated manuscript represents one of the pinnacle achievements of artistic illumination in the history of the church. You can view the book (actually, four separately bound books) in person in Dublin where only one page is displayed at a time. Or, you can view the book’s 600+ pages here. Even if you do not read Latin, you can still enjoy the talented artistry of the Celtic monks who composed this treasure.

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Dustin W. Benge (Ph.D. Candidate, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) serves as Associate Pastor and Pastor for Family Ministries at Christ Fellowship Baptist Church in Mobile, AL. Dustin is a junior fellow of the Andrew Fuller Center and lives with his wife, Molli, in Mobile.

The communion of saints

By Ian Hugh Clary

I’ve been away from home for exactly a week. The last seven days have been spent in Victoria and Vancouver where I have had the joyful privilege of teaching church history on behalf of Toronto Baptist Seminary. I’m only here for a few days more, and I want to drink my fill of the surrounding environs; the mountains in particular. In spite of the overwhelming beauty of this place, I sorely miss my family. I haven’t been away from them for such a length of time—in some ways, my Sunday evening flight east can’t come quick enough.

Yet my trip to the west coast has reminded me of a few basic facts about Christian experience, one I want to highlight for a moment. I have been thinking about the bond that Christians share in the Spirit, what has evocatively been called the “communion of the saints.” Maybe it’s that I’ve stumbled on some uniquely wonderful people in British Columbia—which I have—but I suspect that there is something more fundamentally spiritual about my relationship with those whom I have spent time with on the west coast. The very kind folk that I am staying with, though I have only known them for a few days, immediately feel like family to me. The students I teach each night feel like old friends. Even the afternoon coffee with an old friend I only just met (oh the wonders of the internet), was a treasure. When I go home I know I will miss these people deeply.

We are the body of Christ. We share in a mystical union with our saviour. We are the company of the Spirit. We have a bond with each other more basic than blood. We are in covenant together. We are working toward the same goal, and encourage each other on the way.

This experience has reinforced for me my desire to teach church history and theology—I want to be with people like this. My brothers and sisters who find some value in what I have to share with them, but who in turn pour themselves into me. This is mutual encouragement, this is familial, this is Christian friendship. And I am so thankful to God for such grace.

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Ian Hugh Clary is finishing doctoral studies under Adriaan Neele at Universiteit van die Vrystaat (Blomfontein), where he is writing a dissertation on the evangelical historiography of Arnold Dallimore. He has co-authored two local church histories with Michael Haykin and contributed articles to numerous scholarly journals. Ian serves as a pastor of BridgeWay Covenant Church in Toronto where he lives with his wife and two children.

Smallpox and Scurvy: Medicine in the 18th Century

By Dustin W. Benge

According to historian, David McCullough, in order to properly understand history one must be immersed in the time and setting of their subject(s). This blog primarily focuses on the life, times, surroundings, influences, and friends of Andrew Fuller. Therefore, before we can “walk in their shoes,” it is necessary to know what is going on in the historical context of which they are apart.

One such topic that greatly affected daily life in 18th and 19th century England was the practice and advance of medicine. The 18th century brought great advances in the knowledge of the human body. Until 1745 craftsmen called “barber-surgeons” performed operations. However, that year brought a separation of the two professions and barbers continued to cut hair while surgeons began to be university educated. John Hunter (1728–1793), sometimes called the “Father of Modern Surgery,” invented new procedure such as tracheotomy. Other advances included the discovery of fresh fruit or lemon juice as a preventative to scurvy. A major scourge of the 18th century was the dreaded smallpox. Even if it did not succeed in killing you, your body would be scarred with pox marks. In 1721, Lady Mary Wortley Montague introduced an inoculation whereby you cut the patient and then placed matter from a smallpox pustule into the wound. The patient would (hopefully!) develop a mild case of the disease and be immune in the future.

Andrew Fuller was personally affected by medical problems within himself and his family. In his biographical account of Fuller, John Ryland, Jr. writes, “Though Mr. Fuller appeared to be of a remarkably strong and athletic make, yet he had been, from his youth, liable to severe bilious attacks, and his lungs were, at different times, severely affected by clods. It was, therefore, a more remarkable favour, that he was spared to us so long. It was not till some time after his removal to Kettering, that he had the smallpox, for which he was, at last, inoculated. But, some time before he underwent that operation, he took a journey to London, where he seemed to have been much in danger of infection from that disorder...”

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Dustin Benge serves as the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Jackson, Kentucky. He is also a PhD candidate at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a junior fellow at The Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies. Dustin and his wife, Molli, live in Jackson.

Revivalism and Higher Criticism

By Ian Hugh Clary

Andrew Holmes, Lecturer in Modern Irish History at Queen’s University Belfast, wrote an article on the causes and consequences of the Ulster Revival of 1859.[1] Near the end of the piece he draws an illuminating link between the role of religious experience and the acceptance of higher criticism within evangelicalism. He says that when “pietistic spirituality”—that emphasizes personal conversion, holiness, and experience—is placed at the centre of theological enquiry, the bible can be characterized as a “record of the developing spiritual experience” rather than a manual of doctrine. This opens the doors for critical views of Scripture to enter in. Theological liberals separated the text and its historicity from spiritual experience and value. For evangelicals who were caught up in the ecstatic experience of revival (especially in Ulster’s case), a pietistic spirituality could be maintained while aberrant views of the bible were shuffled in. Holmes says, “It is significant that those figures most closely associated with modern biblical criticism within the Irish Presbyterian Church were also supporters of modern revivalism.”[2]

Holmes goes on to say that theologians who espoused higher criticism in Scotland were happy to draw the link with revivalism—especially the visits of D. L. Moody—and sought further revivals and religious experience. For instance, J. E. Davey, an evangelical who embraced higher criticism, used revivalism and religious experience in his defence during his trial for heresy in 1926-1927.

This is helpful for historians as we consider the benefits and pitfalls of revival, especially in its more recent forms. It should also temper us as Christians in our labours for revival—we need to make sure that the methods we espouse do not lead us to elevate religious experience to the role of doctrinal credibility. Rather, we need to maintain fidelity to the truths of the gospel handed down to us from our forebears, including those who experienced revival yet remained faithful.

[1] Andrew R. Holmes, “The Ulster Revival of 1859: Causes, Controversies and Consequences” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 63.3 (July 2012): 488-515.

[2] Holmes, “Ulster Revival,” 514.

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Ian Hugh Clary is finishing doctoral studies under Adriaan Neele at Universiteit van die Vrystaat (Blomfontein), where he is writing a dissertation on the evangelical historiography of Arnold Dallimore. He has co-authored two local church histories with Michael Haykin and contributed articles to numerous scholarly journals. Ian serves as a pastor of BridgeWay Covenant Church in Toronto where he lives with his wife and two children.

New Book: Power of Faith: 450 Years of the Heidelberg Catechism

By Steve Weaver

This year marks the 450th anniversary of the Heidelberg Catechism. This Protestant document was written in Heidelberg in 1563 on behalf of Frederick III, Elector Palatine and spread over the world when it was approved by the Synod of Dort in 1619. A new volume has recently been released to commemorate this important event in church history—Power of Faith: 450 Years of the Heidelberg Catechism, edited by Karla Apperloo-Boersma and Herman J. Selderhuis. See flyer from the German academic publisher, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, here.

In this 454 page hardcover book, respected specialists in their fields present how the Heidelberg Catechism spread and influenced culture, education and ecclesiastical life. In addition to the text, over 700 pictures illustrate the contributions making an attractive volume for display. This work includes the following contribution from AFCBS Director Michael A. G. Haykin and AFCBS Junior Fellow Steve Weaver: "To 'concenter with the most orthodox divines': Hercules Collins and his An Orthodox Catechism—a slice of the reception history of the Heidelberg Catechism."

Power of Faith is slated to be released in Dutch, English and German editions. You can order the English edition from Amazon.com (German edition) now.

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Steve Weaver serves as a research assistant to the director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies and a junior fellow of the Center. He also serves as senior pastor of Farmdale Baptist Church in Frankfort, KY. Steve and his wife Gretta have six children between the ages of 2 and 13.

Free Mini-Conference on March 13th on Living in a Spiritual World

By Steve Weaver

(Click image to enlarge.)

On Wednesday, March 13th, the Andrew Fuller Center will host a mini-conference with Byron Wheaton on living in a spiritual world (details here). The conference, which will meet from 9 am - 12 noon in Heritage Hall on the campus of The Southern Baptist Seminary, will feature three lectures by visiting scholar Byron Wheaton on the conference theme.

Wheaton serves on staff at Bay Park Baptist Church in Kingston ON where he serves as Pastor of Discipleship. Prior to going to Bay Park, he taught Old Testament and Biblical Studies for fifteen years at various institutions in the US, Canada and South East Asia including (Bethel) Seminary of the East (Philadelphia/New York), Singapore Bible College (Singapore), Heritage Seminary (Cambridge) Emmanuel Bible College (Kitchener), Tyndale Seminary and Toronto Baptist Seminary (Toronto). For the past six months, Byron has been on a six month study leave as a visiting scholar at Southern Seminary.

The conference is free. Refreshments will be provided. The first 25 in attendance will receive a free copy of John Piper's biographical booklet Andrew Fuller: I Will Go Down, If You Will Hold the Rope!

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Steve Weaver serves as a research assistant to the director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies and a junior fellow of the Center. He also serves as senior pastor of Farmdale Baptist Church in Frankfort, KY. Steve and his wife Gretta have six children between the ages of 2 and 13.

New Contributors for AFCBS Blog

In light of our desire to provide more regular content to this site, we have asked several individuals affiliated with the Andrew Fuller Center to begin to regularly contribute to the blog. Of course, Dr. Haykin will continue to post often, but this blog will now also feature posts by others in order to keep fresh content posted on a more consistent basis. The new contributors will largely stay to the general theme of church history as indicated by the blog's title: Historia ecclesiastica. Contributors will include:

Dustin Benge serves as the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Jackson, Kentucky. He is also a PhD candidate at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a junior fellow at The Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies for which he serves as a research assistant and managing editor of The Andrew Fuller Review. Dustin and his wife, Molli, live in Jackson.

Dustin Bruce lives in Louisville, KY where he is pursuing a ThM in Church History at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a graduate of Auburn University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dustin and his wife, Whitney, originally hail from Alabama.

Ian Hugh Clary is finishing doctoral studies under Adriaan Neele at Universiteit van die Vrystaat (Blomfontein), where he is writing a dissertation on the evangelical historiography of Arnold Dallimore. He has co-authored two local church histories with Michael Haykin and contributed articles to numerous scholarly journals. Ian serves as a pastor of BridgeWay Covenant Church in Toronto where he lives with his wife and two children.

Nathan A. Finn is associate professor of historical theology and Baptist Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also an elder at First Baptist Church of Durham, NC and a senior fellow of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies.

Michael A.G. Haykin is the director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies. He also serves as Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Haykin and his wife Alison have two grown children, Victoria and Nigel.

Jeff Robinson (Ph.D., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is Senior Pastor of Philadelphia Baptist Church. Jeff is the author of the forthcoming book, The Great Commission Vision of John Calvin.

 

Steve Weaver serves as a research assistant to the director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies and a junior fellow of the Center. He also serves as senior pastor of Farmdale Baptist Church in Frankfort, KY. Steve and his wife Gretta have six children between the ages of 2 and 13.

Be sure to bookmark this site and check back daily as new content will be added often. You can keep up with the latest on this website by subscribing to our RSS feed or by following us on Twitter (@AFCBS). For those not on Twitter, you can keep up with our latest Twitter postings on our right sidebar. Many times links to resources will be provided here that will not be mentioned in a blog post.

Family Life Today Interviews Dr. Haykin on the Romance and Love Letters of Great Christians

By Steve Weaver

Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin has been interviewed for the nationwide radio program Family Life Today to discuss love and romance among Christians throughout history.  The special two-part interview for Valentine's Day is scheduled to air on Thursday (02/14/13) and Friday (02/15/13).  To find a time and station in your area click here.

The topic of this conversation flows from Dr. Haykin's book The Christian Lover: The Sweetness of Love and Marriage in the Letters of Believers which provides an interesting glimpse at the love letters of believers through the centuries.

If you don't have the opportunity to listen when the programs air, you can already access the programs online here.

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Steve Weaver serves as a research assistant to the director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies and is a junior fellow of the Center. He also serves as senior pastor of Farmdale Baptist Church in Frankfort, KY. Steve and his wife Gretta have six children between the ages of 2 and 13.

A town motto and our culture's values

On a recent drive through the town of Orangeville, Ontario, I noticed the town’s motto on the town’s nameplate as you enter the environs of Orangeville: “Historic charm, dynamic future.” Due to its proximity to Toronto—Orangeville is located less than an hour’s drive northwest of the metropolis of Toronto—there is no doubt of the dynamism latent in the future of Orangeville: it is increasingly a place where families whose parents work in Toronto have chosen to make their homes. And even a casual saunter through the town reveals the historic charm of the older buildings. As I thought about the motto, though, it became increasingly apparent to me that both the adjectives and nouns chosen reflect North American cultural mores. Try reversing the adjectives like this: “Dynamic past, charming future” or “Dynamic history, futuristic charm.” The latter alternate mottos convey an entirely different message: a tremendous past, but a somewhat innocuous future, even somniferous! No: our culture is confident of having a dynamic future, one that is exciting and fast-paced and brimming with ever new discoveries to enhance our well-being. And the past: well, at its best, it is charming, like a cute teddy-bear or toy from yesteryear.

But as every historian worth his or her salt knows: the past is dynamic for it has shaped and ordered our present-day.

Claire Welch's Ontario

A slight emendation of Calixa Lavallée’s words familiar to all Canadians, “my home and native land”—from Canada’s national anthem—came to mind when I began to write this review.* Ontario has been my home since I was twelve, and it is now very much my “native land” by choice. Initially when I came to Ontario in December of 1965 I was none too thrilled: there was no rich history like my native England, few battles, fewer heroes, or so it appeared to a young boy raised on military heroes like Richard the Lionheart, Warwick the Kingmaker, Nelson and so on. But over the past forty-five years I have learned to love this land, which the dust-jacket of this book calls a “magical province.” No doubt, the main draw of this book is its stunning photographs, many of them places very familiar to me, such as the aerial picture of Niagara Falls (p.99). It is essentially a coffee-table book, to be picked up for a few moments in which one can savor some of the photographs in its pages. Alongside the photographs, though, there is also a textual narrative that sketches the history of the province. It begins with the first peoples, the Algonquians and Iroquoians, their encounter in the seventeenth century with the first European settlers, the French and the British, and goes on to more recent political and economic developments. This text gives a fair overview of the province’s history, but I felt that there was one striking lacuna that I have encountered again and again in recent histories of either Ontario or Canada: there was nearly nothing about the formative role that religion has played in Ontario’s development. I say “nearly nothing,” for there is a photograph of St Sylvester’s Roman Catholic Church in Nipigon (p.114). Beyond that, though, the impression given is that historic Ontario was as secular as the modern landscape. But nothing could be farther from the truth.

The historic strength of the part of Canada that I call home and now native land has been the Christian faith. While that is no longer the case—a fact that cries out for an explanation—we do Ontario’s past a grave injustice if we fail to recall all of its inner and outer architecture.

* Claire Welch, Ontario (Edison, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 2008).

(This review first appeared on The Official Blog of the Sola Scriptura Ministries International. See here. Used by permission).

Andrew Fuller’s signature in the trust deeds of Cannington Baptist Church

Yesterday I was privileged to speak at the 125th anniversary of Cannington Baptist Church in Cannington, Ontario, roughly two hours’ drive from where I live. The congregation had gathered to celebrate God’s goodness, a worship service beautifully planned by deacon Ian Archibald. A group called “The Reflections” helped us worship in heart as they sang a number of traditional and contemporary songs. They were really excellent. And I was enabled to speak from Hebrews 13:7–8, a great text for arguing for the importance of history, a text I had already used in S. Ireland at the Cork Summer Bible Week. In preparing for the delivery of the Word today, I had looked over a history of the Church—prepared twenty-five years ago in 1987, the centennial of the church—in which the doctrines set forth in the Trust Deed were spelled out. It is a classic summary of Baptist convictions. Those who had a right to use the building for worship were to hold these beliefs:

The being and unity of God: the existence of three equal persons in the Godhead: the inspiration of the Old and New Testaments, the total depravity of man: election according to the foreknowledge of God: the Divinity of Christ and the all sufficiency of His atonement; justification by faith alone in the righteousness of Christ; the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration; perseverance of the saints; the resurrection of the dead; the final judgement [sic]; the punishment of the wicked, and the blessedness of the righteous, both eternal; the immersion of believers in water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit the only baptism; the Lord’s Supper, a privilege peculiar to baptised believers: A Church, a company of baptised believers, voluntarily associated and meeting in one place on the first day of the week for mutual edification and the maintenance and propagation of these doctrines, the Word of God a complete and infallible rule of faith and practise; the religious observance of the first day of the week; and the obligation of every intelligent creature to believe the record which God has given of His Son.

In this statement we see the influence of the fourth-century Trinitarian debates and the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed of 381; the Augustinian emphasis on human depravity and the necessity of divine election; the Reformation watch-cry of solus Christus; the great Baptist distinctives of congregationalism, believer’s baptism and closed communion; Puritan sabbatarianism; the belief in the inspiration and infallibility of the Word of God—common to all ages of the Church—and lo and behold pure Fullerism in the final statement about “the obligation of every intelligent creature to believe the record which God has given of His Son.”

I did not expect to see Fuller’s signature in such a place, but there it was: good to see it! Fuller is such a good mentor, because he delighted in proclaiming the gospel to all and sundry.

History of Hughson Street Baptist Church authored by Michael Haykin & Ian Clary

Rivers of Living Water: Celebrating 125…Dr. Haykin recently collaborated with Ian Clary on a history of the 125-year-old Hughson Street Baptist Church in Hamilton, Ontario in Canada. The book, titled "Rivers of Living Water": Celebrating 125 Years of Hughson Street Baptist Church, Hamilton, Ontario, 1887-2012, was recently reviewed by Mark Nenadov. For information on how to obtain a copy of this volume, please contact Dr. Haykin at mhaykin@sbts.edu.

"How would you respond to the Catholic argument that the doctrine of justification by faith alone is a fairly recent innovation?"

Dr. Haykin has responded to a question recently submitted on this website’s “Ask Me a Question” feature. The question was: “How would you respond to the Catholic argument that the doctrine of justification by faith alone is a fairly recent innovation?” Dr. Haykin responded here. Feel free to interact with his response and share your own opinions in the comment section for this post.

Andrew Fuller and the modification of Calvinism?

It may be the case that Calvinistic soteriology is wrong-headed biblically—if so, many, if not most, of our Baptist forebears in the 18th century were wrong-headed. But my concern is not so much there right now as with regard to some recent statements circulating about Andrew Fuller made by Dr W R Estep. Contrary to Dr Estep’s “Calvinizing Southern Baptists” (was that his title? And has not this piece made the rounds before?), there was no modification of Calvinism by Andrew Fuller. He was a full-blown Calvinist: in fact, he called himself a “strict Calvinist” in opposition to the confused views of Richard Baxter, on the one hand, and the hyper-Calvinism in certain quarters, on the other. According to Estep, “Andrew Fuller wrote The Gospel Worthy of all Acceptation [GWAA] against [John] Gill’s Calvinism, concluding: ‘Had matters gone on but a few years, the Baptists would have become a perfect dunghill in society’.” Actually, GWAA did not include that statement. It comes in a letter to Archibald McLean, the Scottish Sandemanian Baptist (see Works, III, 478) dealing with what Fuller frequently called false Calvinism.

In one very insightful text, a review of two sermons by a hyper-Calvinist by the name of W.W. Horne, Fuller writes this (Works, III, 583):

“In calling the doctrine defended by Mr. Horne false Calvinism I have not miscalled it. In proof of this, I appeal to the writings of that great reformer, and of the ablest defenders of his system in later times—of all indeed who have been called Calvinists till within a hundred years. Were you to read many of Calvin’s sermons, without knowing who was the author, you would be led, from the ideas you appear at present to entertain, to pronounce him an Arminian; neither would Goodwin, nor Owen, nor Charnock, nor Flavel, nor Bunyan, escape the charge. These men believed and preached the doctrines of grace; but not in such a way as to exclude exhortations to the unconverted to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. The doctrine which you call Calvinism (but which, in reality, is Antinomianism) is as opposite to that of the Reformers, puritans, and nonconformists, as it is to that of the apostles.

We do not ask you to relinquish the doctrine of salvation by grace alone: so far from it, were you to do so we would, on that account, have no fellowship with you. We have no doubt of justification being wholly on account of the righteousness of Jesus; nor of faith, wherever it exists, being the free gift of God. …But we ask you to admit other principles, equally true, and equally important as they are; principles taught by the same inspired writers, and which, therefore, must be consistent with them.”

Ah, this is what I love about Fuller: his balance—a profound embrace of sovereign grace coupled with a passion for the salvation of sinners. These doctrines are never at odds, but companions in the extension of Christ’s kingdom. So what are we to make of the statement by Dr Estep that “Fuller’s modification of Calvinism among the Baptists made possible the foreign mission movement of which Carey became the catalyst.” Respectfully, we have to say, he has not read Fuller aright.

Help Tracking Down a Possible Carey Quote

A reader of this blog has submitted a question which we don't know the answer. His query is posted below. Please respond in the comments if you know the source of the quote that he is trying to track down.

In my reading I came across a statement of Carey's that struck me, but I only made a mental note to return to it later. Now  I cannot find it for the life of me!  Writing back to England I think, he addressed the question of what kind of men should be sent out to the mission field. He said, do not send men who will sit comfortably waiting for sinners to come to them. But, send men who will be out daily among the people seeking the lost. Often on horseback. Otherwise the work will die under their care. Do you know where I can find this? I have looked for hours unsuccessfully.