Coffee with Andrew Fuller

Ten Fictitious Questions Based on His Real Writings

B.A.-We last left you with a remarkable story of your conversion.  So you were sixteen years old when you were saved?

A.F.-A teenager yes.

B.A.-How did your early Christian experience unfold?

A.F.-I was baptized in April 1770 and soon became a member of the Baptist church in Soham. 

B.A.-Were you what many modern evangelicals call ‘discipled’?”

A.F.-(strange look) “Well?  I was baptized along with a gentleman that was twenty five years older than me named Joseph Diver who became a close friend throughout the duration of his life.  We had many long hours of good conversation and encouragement in the Scriptures.”

B.A.-Evidently you were good friends; you penned a moving tribute to him upon his death didn’t you?”

A.F.-I wrote in my diary, ‘O my dear brother Diver! When will we recover our loss in losing you?  What disorders have we now in the church!  Our hands, heads, and hearts are now full!  O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!  I think I will go on all my days, at times, in the bitterness of my soul-Ah! We took sweet counsel together, and walked together to the house of God-but all is over.  As he said on his dying bed, ‘I have done with that life’- Alas, he has done his all with us’.”

B.A.-“Remarkable.  Later that fall of 1770, your pastor, Rev. Eve left the church due to some conflict in the congregation and what transpired after that?”

A.F.-“The congregation approached both Joseph Diver and me to preach regularly.  We were in rotation of what you might call ‘interim pastor’.”

B.A.-“And how long did that last?”

A.F.-“Approximately three and a half years, until they installed me as their pastor in 1774.”

B.A.-“How old were you at the time?”

A.F.-“I was twenty.” 

B.A.-“What were those early years like for you?”

A.F.-“I continued to wrestle with some core theological issues.  I was often edified in reading the works of John Bunyan, John Gill, and John Brine.  And soon began to form in my own mind some preliminary ideas concerning the free offer of salvation to sinners without distinction.” 

B.A.-“What were some other specific formulations?”

A.F.-“I confirmed my belief in the eternal sonship of Christ.  I replaced a view I had regarding justification.  In my early years, I believed that justification already existed in eternity but is revealed in the elect at the time of faith in Jesus.  But I replaced that view with justification is linked with union in Jesus.  Though decreed eternally by the Father, justification is applied in the sinner’s experience when the regenerating work of the Spirit brings an elect sinner from death to life to express faith in the completed work of Christ.” 

B.A.-“It seems that the ‘Modern Question’ was the root of most of your issues regarding salvation was it not? 

A.F.-“Basically the ‘Modern Question’ asks, ‘is unregenerate man under spiritual obligation to repent of his sin and believe in Jesus on hearing the gospel when he has no power to do so?’.   And the application of that belief is, ‘is the gospel minister to call on these sinners for faith and repentance?’  My The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation seeks to answer this question.