Roger Williams and the Search for New Apostles amidst the Ruins" of the Reformation Churches: The Continental and English Seekers

This is the story of individuals and groups on the Continent and in England who were not satisfied with the Reformation churches established in the 16th century. Many, like Dirk Coornhert and Roger Williams, were seeking for apostolic power to re-establish the church. Coornhert, who had an influence on Arminius and other more well-known people, settled for an "interim church," prayer-and-Bible study groups which made no claim to be the church. Roger Williams, confidant of both Milton and Cromwell, finally fled all churches after returning to America because they had no apostolic foundation. Hundreds in Westmorland and the northern counties of England met outside all the churches in the 1640s and 50s seeking a new dispensation from God. They were known as the "seeking people." George Fox and the Quakers were born out of these groups. With the tremendous interest in new apostles and the New Apostolic Reformation today these Seekers are interesting to us both for their trenchant and sometimes profound critique of the standing churches and for their refusal to accept anything but the genuine article-hence they were not clear to declare firmly that the church had been restored to its apostolic foundations. The last chapter deals with the astute rejoinder of Baptist William Allen to these earnest seeking people about the true foundation of the church. It is a worthwhile reminder that we should be wary of the extremes of both caution and credulity.