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1939 Dedication of the Roger Williams Statue at Prospect Park
Essay #1 Five Years of RW studies Roger’s Lifetime Goal was to Create a New Christianity
Marc Kohler The Roger Williams Educational Foundation Web Site: rwefoundation.org
401-286-2221
These are difficult times. Roger Williams analyzed the world through the eyes of a trained lawyer. The six years that he spent as one of Edward Coke’s stenographers (not the only one) brought him prestige, celebrity, and a rock-solid foundation in the law. Coke supported Roger to attend college. During his time in college, his abilities shined, his personality was charming, and he decided not to become a minister. This last decision, made at about 1628, triggered Roger’s commitment to applying his ideas to redefine Christianity without being a minister. He was a theological genius.
”…If ought I have expressed seem harsh, dissatisfactory, or offensive; I am humbly bold (I hope in the power of the Most High) to profess my readiness to discuss; debate; dispute; either by Word or Writing, with whom, or before whom soever the present Debate concerns, with all Christian meekness, and due submission….” Roger Williams The Hireling Ministry None of CHRISTS, OR A Discourse touching the Propagating the Gospel of CHRIST JESUS Section 2
“…..The Bloudy Tenent created such a scandal in England that Parliament passed legislation calling for its public burning. Williams wasn’t just trying to rearrange the tables and chairs of Christendom; he wanted to burn the entire edifice to the ground so he could erect something new in its place….” https://baptistnews.com/article/roger-williams-the-father-of-american-deconstruction/ Alan Bean The Baptist News
We are starting our holiday season, and now would be a good time to talk about Roger Williams. In fact, this would be a good time to bring up subjects with which experts do not agree. I have been working on Roger Williams for five years, and this is my “95 Theses” to correct the history of Roger Williams. I know that I am right in many things, and wrong I can be wrong in others, but my conclusions are strong. I do apologize to those who I offend here. but it is time that we corrected the ideas that surround Roger Williams.
Roger Williams did not want Christians to celebrate Christmas or Easter or any other celebration or ritual created by the tribes of Europe. Most of Roger’s fellow Puritans agreed with him. He was also a member of the group of the Puritans who preferred baptisms being used only for adults. Other than these two points, there was little else of the Christian church of Roger’s time with which he agreed. With the number of changes in Christianity that Roger demanded, I have concluded that Roger’s lifetime goal was to change old Christianity into a new Christianity. I have spoken about this idea with Roger Williams’ experts, and all of them reject this idea completely. One expert told me that Roger never created a group of people or a structure to create his “new” Christianity.
Roger refused to build up a “structure” because he believed that “all human organizations are corrupt.” He wrote that there was no need for churches. If all human organizations are corrupt, the Roger concluded that Christians did not need churches. This idea makes Roger Williams the most outspoken theologian of the Christian era. He demands that Christians need only themselves, their faith, and their Bible—nothing more. Oh, there is much more. In essay after essay, and in every one of his letters, he asserts that Christians are required to do what it takes to create a civil society in their communities. Roger lays out a set of ideas of what Christians need to do to be leaders in creating civil societies. Most of the work on Roger Williams concerns his three famous ideas: Freedom of Religion, Separation of Church and State, and the founding of the first democracy in the modern era. His desire to change and improve Christianity is an issue that has not received much attention. Here is a list of demands that Roger made for Christians. Some are verbatim and others are my edited versions.
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There is no need for churches or congregations. Roger believed that all human groups were corrupt.
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Roger thought that if a spiritual person wanted to form a group around them, that would be fine.
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The group, though, would not have money for the preacher involved. Roger held worship services in his home or outside throughout his life. He was paid rarely. He called paid preachers Hirelings,and stated strongly that they were not of Christ. He wrote that Jesus said that “…My kingdom is not of this world…” so money and maintenance are not aspects of the Christian ministry.
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Attending a university was not necessary to preach, for the Apostles were fishermen and carpenters. The future minister would need to read the Bible.
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The Covenants of Faith and Works are just ways to seek salvation, so we do not need them.
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The Church of England is found to be false.
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“…The enforcing of the nation to such a church (Church of England) is the greatest sole oppression in this nation.
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“….Ministers attending upon such assemblies or others are none of the ministry of Christ Jesus…”
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“…It is the absolute duty of the civil state to set free the souls of all men from that so long oppressing yoke of such ministries and churches…’
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“…Ought the nation and every person in it, be permitted to see with his own eyes and to make free choice of what worship and ministry and maintenance they please whether parochial or otherwise…”
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The Apostolic Commission, a succession of spiritual authority from the Apostles to be perpetuated by successive ordinations of bishops, has long since been interrupted and discontinued. The incarnation ended it.
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“…The provocation of the holy eyes is great in all courts throughout the nation but millions of legal oaths which if not redressed may yet be a fire kindled from his jealousy who will not hold him guiltless which takes his name in vain…”
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The free permitting of the conferences and meetings of faithful people throughout the nation in the free permission of the nation to frequent such assemblies will be one of the principal means and experience as the present state of Christianity stands for the propagating and spreading of the gospel of the son of God…”
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Only adults can be baptized.
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In Christenings Make Not Christians.(1645)
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“…that it is the Character of God’s children, when the corne is gone, and the flocks and the herds, and the vine and the fig tree faile, to rejoice in God alone for a portion, and to God of their salvation…”
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17. There should be no use of the Book of Common Prayer
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Christianity started with equality between men and women. It had no tribal influences such as Christmas, Easter, incense, stained glass windows, and more.
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He believed that King Charles I did not have the right to allow colonists to take land from the Americans.
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Since Christians are not allowed to use violence to convert people, they should be a group that brings civility to the community. Civility was at the core of Roger’s ideas.
Marc Kohler, P.O. Box 16095, Rumford, RI 02916