An actual reply to a Christian who has challenged me in several of his published writings and personal letters to me for teaching that John Gill only preached to those who were already believers and had already been made ‘sensible’ to the gospel. Dear Brother, As I have now finished my preparation for XX, I can deal with your query at a little length. Of course, the idea that Gill did not exhort sinners to repentance and faith cannot be defended. Indeed, he was far more industrious in doing this than most of his contemporary and modern critics. Where do you find the BOT, Reformation Today and Founder’s Journal Preparationists exhorting sinners to flee from the wrath to come into Jesus’ arms like Gill? Their sermons are like… Full Article
Posts Tagged Robert Oliver
John Brine (1703-1765) and his Contemporaries as Seen by Modern Revisionists Part I. Brine’s Life
May 1
John Brine (1703-1765) and his Contemporaries as Seen by Modern Revisionists Part I. Brine’s Life First, a few words of explanation. You might think there is more George Ella and our present contemporaries in this lecture than John Brine and his. This is because there is a good deal of John Brine in George Ella and most of our contemporaries positively hate John Brine so we must deal with them firmly but fairly or Brine has taught us in vain. So I am very blunt and particular in my evaluation of Brine’s reception today amongst our self-styled ‘Moderate Calvinists’. Nowadays, these moderately Reformed ministers who strive immoderately to muzzle us are rejecting every single doctrine of the Reformation, ridiculing and… Full Article
A Review Article The news that Carey Publications were to publish the lives of these three 17th century Baptists filled me with a feeling of hopeful expectancy. The three Ks have aided my own understanding of the ways of God immensely and I know from my correspondents that there is an awakened, wide-spread interest in them. Michael Haykin’s book thus comes at a most appropriate time. My expectancy was dampened by Robert Oliver’s foreword in which he takes up his pet theme, Hyper-Calvinism, and back-projects it onto the teaching of Kiffin and Co., arguing that they were against it, whereas they had nothing to do with it, or rather, nothing to do with this modern controversy which is forced onto the churches,… Full Article
This volume depicts the lives of another thirteen Baptists stalwarts. Michael Haykin’s starts with a moving portrayal of Benjamin Francis, the man Gill wanted to succeed him at Carter Lane. Francis’ triumphs through his humble faith are inspiring. Then Robert Oliver gives interesting insights into the life and ministry of Abraham Booth, a man respected and honoured outside Baptist circles. Oliver sees Booth as following Gill’s leadership in combating Antinomianism and devotes a large section to the controversy between Fuller and Booth which ended in the latter calling Fuller ‘lost’. Booth spoke of a true imputation in the sense that the elect’s guilt was transferred to Christ. Fuller denied any transfer, viewing… Full Article
The British Particular Baptists 1638-1910: Vol. I. Particular Baptist Press Thomas Watson (1633-1686) wisely wrote, “Get books into your houses, when you have not the spring near you, then get some water into your cisterns; so when you have not that wholesome preaching that you desire, good books are cisterns that hold the water of life in them to refresh you; so, when you find a chillness upon your souls, and that your former heat begins to abate, ply yourselves with warm clothes, get those good books that may acquaint you with such truths as may warm and affect your hearts.” Though we are overflooded with ‘Christian’ books nowadays, the kind recommended by Watson are still few and far between…. Full Article
History of the English Calvinistic Baptists 1771-1892: from John Gill to C. H. Spurgeon Robert W. Oliver, BOT. Emerging Deconstructionism This book is based on Robert Oliver’s 1985 doctoral dissertation. His title is misleading. It is not a history of the British Calvinistic Baptists but, as Michael Haykin’s Foreword explains, an analysis of controversies regarding communion, the use of the law and the so-called fee offer. These are discussed at an inter-denominational level with chapter-long references to Non-Baptist William Huntington, set up as the arch-contender against Dr Oliver’s modernistic Emergence Theology. As Oliver hints in his Preface, the work is a justification of his own prodigality away from the… Full Article
The Life and Thought of John Gill (1697-1771): A Tercentennial Appreciation Ed. Michael A. G. Haykin Brill Anxious thoughts repelled I turned to The Life and Thought of John Gill edited by Michael Haykin with apprehension because of former highly negative comments on the subjects by several contributors to this Festschrift. I read the book, however, with increasing delight as it became obvious that the winds of change are blowing away the myths that have encompassed Gill in recent years. In his introduction Dr. Haykin reviews the research done on Gill up to the present and rightly argues that there is little deep, sound work on Gill’s theology available. The book under his editorship book seeks to make good the… Full Article
Andrew Fuller (1754-1815), a Particular Baptist who departed radically from the faith of his father’s is becoming quite a name amongst churches and para-church movements that once taught the doctrines of grace. Though at best a Calminian and at worst an absolute heretic, Fuller is being proclaimed by the evangelical Reformed Establishment as the Luther of the Baptists and as the man that fanned the smoking wick of the Evangelical Awakening into a blaze. He is seen as the reformer who rescued Calvinists from the dunghill of their fathers in the faith and is now presented as the greatest theologian of the 19th century, a genius whose work was epoch-making. No praise seems to be too high or too exaggerated for this sturdy… Full Article
Robert Oliver on Huntington
Aug 15
Robert Oliver and the Twists and Turns of Historical Revisionism. In July, 1988 an anonymous article appeared in the Banner of Truth magazine, surprising and shocking many readers. It was a fierce attack on the person and testimony of William Huntington, known affectionately as ‘the Immortal Coalheaver’. The article, which followed a similar attack on John Gill by Robert Oliver the previous year, was planned to start off what the BOT calls an ‘important controversy’ to warn readers against the traditional Calvinism of these men. In Huntington’s case (though Gill’s was not dissimilar) the BOT were faced with two difficulties. First, it was obvious that Huntington had the largest congregation in London… Full Article
