Andrew Fuller and John Ryland: The Friendship That Helped Spark the Modern Missionary Movement

Let’s consider a real historical friendship, one that, without exaggeration, helped change the world. It is the story of Andrew Fuller and John Ryland Jr., two seemingly unlikely friends whose shared convictions and enduring affection became instrumental in the renewal of Baptist life and the expansion of the modern missionary movement.A Friendship Forged in Theological DeclineTo understand their friendship, some historical background is necessary. The Particular Baptists in eighteenth-century England had fallen deeply into hyper-Calvinism. Some trace the beginnings of this decline to the Congregationalist minister Joseph Hussey and his 1707 book, God’s Operations of Grace but No Offers of His Grace. Over time, the theological tendencies represented in that work spread into Particular Baptist churches and came to shape a dominant understanding of salvation. The consequences were devastating. Evangelistic zeal withered, and by 1750, roughly one-third of the 220 Particular Baptist…