Questioning A Forced Faith

Roger Williams was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony riding in under Winthrop's "Model of Christian Charity"... but when the model hit the new land it broke, or, at least, began to fall apart. Williams was a preacher and he had issues with the colony because of its strict religious codes and the treatment of the Indians. The problem: he wouldn't be quiet about it.

Instead of keeping this higher view about Indian rights to himself or the fact that only Puritans were accepted into the colony's fold, he let it be known that he disagreed. He was banished from the colony and ordered to return to England. However, he escaped and purchased land properly from the Indians and set up the town of Providence in what would become Rhode Island...

He became a Baptist (at least for a short time) which was much more open in their theology. But he gave that affiliation up as well, saying, "There is no regularly constituted church of Christ on earth, nor any person qualified to administer any church ordinances; nor can there be until new apostles are sent by the Great Head of the Church for whose coming I am seeking."

Further, he says, "The two first principles and foundations of true religion, or worship of the true God in Christ, are repentance from dead works and faith toward God, before the doctrines of baptism or washing and the laying on of hands, which continue the ordinances and practises of worship; the want of which I conceive is the bane of millions of souls in England and all other nations professing to be Christian nations, who are brought by public authority to baptism and fellowship with God in ordinances of worship, before the saving work of repentance and a true turning to Jehovah."