July 20, 2023 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Ted N.C. Wilson, President, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
Ted Wilson (TW): Hello, friends. For the past several weeks, as we have been reading through the book, The Great Controversy, we have seen how the light of truth was carried by the Waldenses, John Wycliffe, Huss and Jerome, Martin Luther, and many others as the Reformation spread across Europe. More recently, we saw how the rejection of Bible truth led to horrific bloodshed during the French Revolution.
Nancy Wilson (NW): Today, we will look at what happened to faithful believers in the country of England, and how persecution drove them to seek refuge in a place where they could worship freely. Known as the “Puritans,” these faithful people did not accept many of the unbiblical customs and ceremonies of Rome that were still part of the Church of England.
TW: Since the Church was united with the State, it had the authority to command people to attend its services. Dissent was not allowed, and unauthorized meetings for religious worship were prohibited, under penalty of imprisonment, exile, and death. We read in The Great Controversy, “At the opening of the seventeenth century the monarch who had just ascended the throne of England declared his determination to make the Puritans ‘conform, or . . . harry them out of the land, or else worse” (The Great Controversy, p. 290). As many of God’s faithful people had experienced in earlier days, these believers were now hunted, persecuted, and imprisoned for their faith.
NW: Some of these dear people decided to flee their country. Leaving their homes and everything else behind, they found temporary refuge in Holland. After some years, they again sought a better land, this time going to a place that would offer more opportunities and even greater freedom. Ellen White writes, “They trusted the Lord’s promises, and He did not fail them in time of need. His angels were by their side, to encourage and support them. And when God’s hand seemed pointing them across the sea, to a land where they might found for themselves a state, and leave to their children the precious heritage of religious liberty, they went forward, without shrinking, in the path of providence” (The Great Controversy, p. 291).
TW: When they separated from the Church of England, the Puritans joined themselves together by a solemn covenant, as the Lord’s free people, “to walk together in all His ways made known or to be made known to them” (J. Brown, The Pilgrim Fathers, p. 74). This was a vital principle of Protestantism–to walk in the Lord’s revealed will, with the understanding that more may be revealed through His Word. It was with this promise in their hearts that the Pilgrims left Holland to find a home in what was then called the “New World.”
NW: The Pilgrims longed to have true religious freedom for themselves and for their children, and this great longing helped them brave the long journey across the sea, and to endure the hardships and dangers of landing in an unknown land. Sadly, however, as honest and God-fearing as they were, the Pilgrims didn’t yet understand true religious liberty. The freedom which they sacrificed so much to obtain for themselves, they were not ready to give to others.
TW: A regulation was adopted by the colonists that only church members could participate in their new civil government. A kind of state church was formed, and all the people were required to pay into a fund to support the clergy. Even worse, the magistrates were authorized to suppress heresy, which led to more persecution—this time in the newly formed colonies of America.
NW: Eleven years after the first colony was formed, a man named Roger Williams arrived on the shores of America. Like the earlier Pilgrims, he came for religious freedom, but he believed this freedom should be available to everyone, regardless of what they believed. He also taught that religion and government should be separate and that it was “the duty of the magistrate to restrain crime, but never to control the conscience” (The Great Controversy, p. 294).
TW: Even though they had experienced similar persecution in England, the colonists required everyone to attend services of their newly established church, or they would be fined or thrown into prison. Roger Williams was a man of integrity, respected and loved as a faithful minister. However, because he spoke out against these clear violations of religious liberty, he was sentenced to banishment.
During the stormy winter, he was forced to flee into the forests where he found shelter in a hollow tree. After some weeks, we are told, he “found refuge with a [Native American] tribe whose confidence and affection he had won while endeavoring to teach them the truths of the gospel” (The Great Controversy, p. 295).
NW: Through the providence of God, Roger Williams was eventually able to set up a new colony where everyone was given full religious freedom, and church and state were kept separate. In 1643, Williams traveled to England and was granted a charter for the new colony, which he called Rhode Island. The new colony became a place of refuge for many, and eventually its foundation principles of civil and religious liberty became the cornerstones of the American Republic.
TW: As time marched on, however, the simple, Bible-based faith of the early settlers began to fade, and religion again degenerated into formalism. While the Bible was becoming more widely available, fewer people were reading it, and the opinions of men became more prominent. Human theories were substituted for the teachings of God’s Word. Nevertheless, Isaiah 40:8 reassures us that “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” As we will see in our next video, God’s Word was about to be fulfilled in a most magnificent way. But before we close, let’s have a word of prayer together just now.
Father in Heaven, we thank you for the clear understanding of the separation of church and state, of the importance of religious liberty and freedom of conscience. Thank you. For people like Roger Williams, who was able to establish a place which gave people complete religious liberty. Thank you for the religious liberty that we do enjoy. Wherever it is around this globe, Lord, we thank you for this wonderful opportunity to be able to worship you according to the dictates of our conscience and the Word of God. Thank you for hearing us in this prayer and help us to value every day the wonderful liberty that has been given to us from your hand and the religious liberty that we are to promote in a powerful way to help people understand that it is only through love and a pure understanding conscience that we are to worship you in all holiness. Thank you for hearing us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.