Patrick Henry: Defender of Christian liberty

The year was 1768 when three Baptist preachers stood in a lonely Virginia courtroom accused of preaching the gospel of the Son of God in a manner unapproved by colonial statute. And as true as it was that they had been preaching, it was also true that the Episcopalian Church, the state church of the Virginia colony, would never approve of any competing denomination vying for the souls within her territory. Thus, they stood condemned as many of their brethren had stood before, both in colonial America as well as on the European continent.