Roger Williams, Prophet and Pioneer of Soul-Liberty

by Arthur Barsazou Strickland

Roger Mowry’s “Ordinarie.” Built 1653,
Demolished 1900

In the vestries are pictures of many of the former leaders of this historic church. In the hallway, in a glass case, is a piece of the original “What Cheer Rock,” the landing-place of Williams. At the entrance to the church a bronze tablet commemorates the fact that the First Baptist Church of Providence was the first Baptist church established in America and that Roger Williams was its first pastor.

The present organization, known as the First Baptist Church of Providence, has every valid reason for claiming to be the true successor of the original church, organized before 1639, by Roger Williams. In the Rhode Island Baptist State Annual the date of the church’s organization is given as 1638. A committee appointed by the church, when reporting, on March 16, 1899, the reasons for claiming that the present organization is the true successor of the first Baptist church organized in America, quoted in defense of this position the following writers: Arnold, “History of Rhode Island”; Caldwell, “History of the First Baptist Church”; Guild, “History of Brown University and Manning”; Prof. Geo. P. Fisher, of Yale, “In Colonial Era”; Cramp, “Baptist History”; Dexter, “As to Roger Williams”; Morgan Edwards, “Materials for a History of Baptists in Rhode Island.” In the following fall this report was also presented to the Warren Association and was ordered printed in the Minutes of the Association.

In the “Historical Catalogue” of this church, a book prepared by a committee consisting of Rev. H. M. King, D. D., Pres. W. H. P. Faunce, Prof. Wm. C. Poland, and others, a committee familiar with the original sources of information, we find Roger Williams listed as the first member in its list of members and as the first pastor in its list of pastors. The bronze tablet in front of the present meeting-house and the inscription on the bell both state that Roger Williams was the first pastor.

Roger Williams’ Ideal, a Distinctive Baptist Principle

We have already noted the fact that Roger Williams was accused of Anabaptist tendencies. The Baptists, or Anabaptists, throughout the ages have stood for the most advanced principles of Protestantism. They existed long before Luther. Many historians claim for them a historic continuity from the days of the early Christians. Their principles—democracy of the local church, sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the authority of the Scriptures—have been perpetuated by local distinct bodies rather than by the historic continuity of a general denomination with a common name and a common governing body.

The Master, in the parable of the Tares, taught the principle advocated by the Baptists and by Roger Williams. The field is the world; the good seed, the children of the kingdom; the tares are the evil-doers. Wheat and tares should be allowed to grow together in the world (not in the church) until the end of the age, when the angels, the reapers of God, will gather them together for reward or punishment. Force must never be used to make disciples for Christ.

In the early Christian centuries, the church longed for liberty to live for Christ and preach his gospel. Ten great general persecutions were launched by the Roman emperors to crush the church. The promise that the gates of hell would not prevail against it was realized. The Edict of Milan, issued in 313, by Constantine and Licinius, joint emperors, gave the church an opportunity to grow and prosper and it was soon in the lead throughout the Roman Empire. Then the church turned persecutor and put to death those who differed from the ruling order, which now had lost its democratic ideals. When the Montanists, the Donatists, the Paulicians, the Albigenses, and the Waldenses in turn resisted the evil tendencies and assumptions of a corrupt church, they were persecuted with a fierceness greater than that formerly waged by the pagans against the church. The principle of religious liberty was almost lost. It became the far-off dream of idealists. These dreamers were usually called Anabaptists. At first they were dissenters from Roman Catholicism, but afterward they were also dissenters from the dominant forms of Protestantism.

Interior of First Baptist Church, Providence