Monday, May 11, 2009

Erroneous Views of the Gospel


A selection from a letter by Andrew Fuller to a friend, Charles Stuart, who had asked Mr. Fuller for a written account of his testimony. Fuller shared how hyper-Calvinism had shackled his mind and had prevented him from believing that he had a warrant to come to Christ. The letter was written in 1798.

I now found rest for my troubled soul; and I reckon that I should have found it sooner, if I had not entertained the notion of my having no warrant to come to Christ without some previous qualification. This notion was a bar that kept me back for a time; though, through divine drawings, I was enabled to overleap it. As near as I can remember, in the early part of these exercises when I subscribed to the justice of God in my condemnation, and thought of the Saviour of sinners, I had then relinquished every false confidence, believed my help to be only in him and approved of salvation by grace alone through his death. And if, at that time, I had known that any poor sinner might warrantably have trusted in him for salvation, I believe I should have done so and have found rest to my soul sooner than I did. I mention this because it may be the case with others, who may be kept in darkness and despondency by erroneous views of the gospel much longer than I was.

The Armies of the Lamb: The Spirituality of Andrew Fuller, edited and introduced by Michael A. G. Haykin, Joshua Press, p. 72.

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