Three kinds of unbiblical teaching were threatening evangelicalism in Britain towards the end of the 18th century. There were the Deists, who made human reason the test of all truth. Often grouped with them were the Socinians, who denied the deity of Christ and a substitutionary atonement. These proved attractive to the intellectual elite in society, as they reduced Christianity to merely a moral system.
The second group threatening evangelicalism were the Sandemanians, who taught that saving faith was something merely of the mind – a purely intellectual acceptance of the truth of the basic facts of the gospel. Sandemanians rejected the biblical teaching that saving faith involved heartfelt trust in Christ. Their ideas proved attractive to some evangelicals.
The Hyper-Calvinists were the third group: they attacked the free offer of the gospel. They denied that the unbeliever was under an obligation savingly to repent and trust in Christ. They tended so to emphasise the sovereignty of God in salvation as to forget – or even reject – human responsibility. Hyper-Calvinism appealed strongly to many Reformed evangelicals. As a result, evangelistic effort, especially among the Calvinistic Baptists of the day, suffered greatly.
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