ANDREW FULLER: Offers of the Gospel

In 1785, a pastor in the English town of Kettering, would help lay the theological foundation for the formation of the first Baptist missionary society in the Western world.

Andrew Fuller in his treatise, The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation, argued against a prevailing hyper-Calvinism that taught that offers of the gospel would interfere with God’s sovereignty in salvation which led many pastors to refrain from evangelical preaching from the pulpit.

Fuller argued from Scripture that God requires all men to believe in Jesus Christ. As it is the duty of men to believe, it is therefore the duty of preachers to present belief as the only way of salvation. In 1792, Fuller and fellow Baptist pastors would act on this theology and form the Particular Baptist Missionary Society that would send William Carey to the mission fields of India.

In John 6:29 Jesus said, ‘The work of God is this; to believe in the one whom He has sent.’

As belief in Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation, every Christian is called to be God’s instruments in spreading this wonderful news to every nation. Invitations are to be made to all as God’s means of drawing sinners to Himself.

As Fuller taught, ‘Christ, by his death, opened a door of hope to sinners .. affording a ground for their being invited, without distinction, to believe and be saved.’