How is it that we have not been taught our own church history in America? Out of curiosity I found some books in the American History section at the Warwick, RI public library. One of the books called
Roger Williams and the Massachusetts Magistrates contains letters written by Roger Williams (a minister in early New England) and those who knew him. Roger Williams said he "simply felt that 'forced worship stinks in God's nostrils' and he did not wish to separate the peace and purity of the state. He insisted on the separation
to maintain the purity and integrity of the church." Roger Williams believed that "every one should have the liberty to worship God according to his own conscience." He didn't think it Biblical to force someone to attend church or pray when they weren't even a true believer. He believed in a personal relationship with God. Yet, people have now taken statements like the one Roger Williams made and are trying to take God out of our country. They obviously don't know this country's history.
Roger Williams left Massachusetts and founded Rhode Island as a place of religious freedom, not freedom from religion. He had spoken out against the churches of New England because they were still connected to the corrupt church of England at the time and he believed that the New England churches needed to separate from England and cease being simply "religious" and become covenant relational with God. "During his years of exile in the wilderness of Rhode Island Roger Williams had come to see the importance of religious liberty in ways which he had only dimly sensed while a young minister at Salem." Roger Williams said to the Magistrates "(through the Lord's assistance)
he shall be ready to not only to be bound, and banished, but to die also in New England, as for most holy truths of God in Christ Jesus." Roger Williams was known as a prophetic minister and teacher of the gospel. He desired that people would not "do" church, but would "be" the Church.
Roger Williams is one of many who believed this way. There were others who followed him to Rhode Island. The outcasts within the refugee settlements at Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island lived under a tradition of freedom that was established by Roger Williams. Samuel Gorton's plantation, Warwick, Rhode Island, was a haven for "
personal encounter and direct communion with God by searching out God's purposes in Scripture and walking in the spirit with the infilling of Holy Spirit." They believed in prophecy and William Coddington said, "
stinting or limiting the Spirit of Prophecy in any place in New England, thou lookedst at it as one of the horridest acts as was ever done in New England, and would be as great a Token of God's forsaking New England as any." New England was thought of as "
a city on a hill" and Rhode Island "
exhibited itself as a culture of Holy Spirit." "By 1658 Newport, Rhode Island could be referred to as one of the 'strongest places in this land,' and Rhode Island was affectionately set down in Quaker writings as '
that Island, where we ever found a place to rest our heads when weary we have been.'"
That was just a brief overview of what was the beginning of the church in New England, especially Rhode Island. Amazingly, Warwick, Rhode Island, the area of which we are planting Genesis Church, was meant to be a place for growing a deeper relationship with God and experiencing the supernatural. Rhode Island wasn't perfect, but the people's hearts were in the right place, Jesus Christ. I believe that God desires to Awaken that again just as He breathed on the valley of bones and they came to life. I have heard so many times that New England is "dead and dry" but I believe with many others that another great Awakening is coming to New England that will sweep across this nation. I believe that this time we must keep it living so that future generations will be sons and not orphans. It's time that people know their history and run the race that was begun so long ago. These "radical" people believed that we are to get back to the basics and be the Church Jesus intended. That is the only way this nation can be saved is through Christ. We must not make the same mistake New England once made: they were not unified! The spirit of disunity is what has kept the church in America from being as strong as it could be. It's time for unity in the Body of Christ and an Awakening in this hour!
Written by
Nickie Farley
