Throughout Scripture we see the Bible testifying of the generating power of God's Word. Beginning in Genesis 1 we read that God spoke this world into existence creating life out of darkness. In Ezekiel 37 we have the fabulous vision where the Prophet is called to preach to the dry bones and through the preaching of God's Word, God's Spirit would bring deadness to life. This is how God gives us spiritual life. This is how God takes spiritually dead corpses and regenerates them through the teaching of His Word. 1 Peter 1:23, 'For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God' (cf. Jas. 1:18). In Romans 10 the familiar verse says 'faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ' (Rom. 10:17). That is why Paul told the Corinthians, 'God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe' (2 Cor. 1:21b; cf. 1 Cor. 1:17; 23; 9:16, 18; 15:11).
Randy Smith

Roger Williams

Roger Williams

Roger Williams
1603-1684
Founder of the first Baptist church in America. Roger Williams was born in London and raised in the Episcopal Church, of which he was made a rector. Becoming dissatisfied with the ritual and ceremony of his church, he became a Puritan. He came to America and preached in Boston and Plymouth, Massachusetts, where he taught separation of church and state and complete religious freedom. He was driven from Salem, Massachusetts, because of these convictions.

He went to Narragansett Bay, where he did missionary work among the Indians. It was there that he founded the settlement of Providence, Rhode Island. At this time he became a Baptist and was immersed in water for the first time since his conversion. He served as governor of the new colony from 1654 to 1657, but he practiced his separation of church and state doctrines even as a civic ruler.

Under his leadership, Rhode Island was the first colony in the New World to establish complete religious liberty for all men.

ARTIST’S NOTE: All colors have been reduced to the purity and separation which Williams preached. The cool blues and whites emphasize the “blue laws,” for which the Puritans were famous.

Ruckman ’66