Speaker explores the legacy of religious freedom in CBU lecture series

Riverside, Calif. (Feb. 27, 2025) – Two early advocates for religious freedom believed that freedom should be extended to all, and religion should not be forced, Dr. Timothy George told the audience for the School of Christian Ministries Lecture Series at California Baptist University on Feb. 25.

“Religious coercion is completely counterproductive. You can try, and, when you try, you end up with hypocrites,” he said. “Genuine faith comes as a gift from God.”

George is a distinguished professor of divinity and the founding dean of Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama. He has written more than 20 books, and his edited works include “Theologians of the Baptist Tradition” and the 28-volume Reformation Commentary on Scripture.

George spoke on “The Struggle for Religious Freedom,” focusing on Thomas Helwys and Roger Williams, early Baptist figures. The early Baptists, despite being a small and persecuted group, laid the groundwork for religious liberty, he said.

Helwys wrote “The Mystery of Iniquity” in 1612, saying that religious freedom should be for all, no matter what they believed. The message was revolutionary in a time when heresy was still punishable by death, George said. Helwys believed there were two kingdoms – one on earth and one in heaven – and they should be separate.

“That's what really motivated him, that there is a king above King James,” George said.

The other king “does not reign by coercion and compulsion. He does not bludgeon. He beckons. He does not force. He woos. And this was the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”

Meanwhile, Williams and his wife left England with other Puritans for New England in 1631. But even there he opposed the Puritans' system of enforcing religious conformity, George said. For instance, he divided the 10 commandments between the first four and the last six.

“Williams says the civil magistrate has no authority to enforce the first table of the law. That's between God and the individual person,” he said. “The second table of the law has community implications. The civil authority certainly can and should enforce the second table of the law.”

Williams founded the First Baptist Church in America, though he did not stay with the church long. He also wrote "The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution," which argued for separation between church and state and advocated for religious freedom.

“Roger Williams was trying to model a different way of being a Christian and being a theologian. You can have deep-seated, even hard-nosed convictions and yet act in a way that does not show belligerence,” George said. “The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and (all) have a right to be here as much as we do. It's a part of Williams’ effort to do evangelism in a way to hear others out  and earn a right to make a winsome approach to the gospel.”

The School of Christian Ministries Lecture Series provides an opportunity for students, alumni, faculty members, pastors and guests to learn from leading evangelical scholars who use their academic expertise to serve the church.