Ten Fictitious Questions Based on His life and writings
B.A.-“Can you tell the bloggers what your primary denominational conviction was?”
Andrew Fuller-(looking a bit perplexed over the term ‘blogger’) “Ah, well, okay, I was an English Particular Baptist.”
B.A.-“Could you expand on ‘Particular’ Baptist?”
A.F.-“I held to a Particular Redemption or Limited Atonement”.
B.A.-“And this is something you expand in your epic work The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation’?”
A.F.-“Basically it is a development of the relationship between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility in the gospel.”
B.A.-“Lets back up a bit. When were you born?”
A.F.-“In 1754”
B.A.-“What were the events leading up to your conversion?”
A.F.-“I attended a Baptist church where the minister, a Mr. Eve preached and tinged with a false Calvinism that is to say he had little or nothing to say about the unconverted. As a result of this, I never gave any serious consideration to the state of my soul.”
B.A.-“So his preaching did little to rouse your conscience. What were some positive influences?”
A.F.-“I began to read a few of John Bunyan’s works, particularly Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners and of course his Pilgrim’s Progress. I also was impressed by Ralph Erskine’s Gospel Sonnets, A Gospel Catechism for Young Christians and Christ All in All in our Complete Redemption. These not only produced serious thoughts of salvation, but literal crying over my condition.”
B.A.-“So conviction began to grow in your soul?”
A.F.-“I would say so. I remember too during this time I was overcome with the words from the apostle, ‘Sin will not have dominion over you; for you are not under law, but under grace’. I felt after pondering those words that I would never fall back into sin. But sadly I did.”
B.A.-“It sounds like you had a long struggle with sin and repentance prior to your conversion. Is this true?”
A.F.-“Very much so. I would fall back into sin, and some Scripture would enter my mind, and I would feel I was restored with God only to fall back into deeper sins than before. I felt my conscience was seared as I would make vows to God only to break them.”
B.A.-“When did you finally break with that spiral?”
A.F.-“One morning in November of 1769 I was walking alone with an unusual load of guilt on my conscience. I sense the fire and brimstone of hell was on me. I never felt such an odious sinner as that day. I knew if God sent me to hell, He would be perfectly just in doing so. I felt neither refuge nor safety in my condition. I realized there was nothing I could do to be qualified for salvation. I remember feeling something attractive in Jesus. I said to God, ‘I must, I will, yes, I will trust my soul, my sinful, lost soul in his hands if I perish, then I perish!’ I was determined to cast myself on Christ believing that He would save my soul.”
B.A.-“So you trace that moment as conversion for you?”
A.F.-“I will say that from that moment in November of 1769 I had assurance of the truth of the gospel. My fears from that moment were gradually removed. I was conscious that I had passed from death to life. I broke off all my relationships with former partners in sin and sought the company of Christians.”
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