Calvinists had other theological problems, however. Many of them, especially in New England, shared a distinctive view of how the world would end. First, popery would be destroyed and the Jews would convert en masse to Christianity. Only then would the heathen be converted. Mission to non-Christian peoples was not wrong, but it was premature. As Roger Williams, one of the founders of Rhode Island, put it, “God’s great business between Christ . . . and Antichrist” must be resolved before any other missions could be undertaken. In the meantime, at best, a few stray individuals could be saved from the general destruction. Williams himself doubted even that was possible. Some missionaries, including Campanius in New Sweden and Eliot in New England, found a way around this problem. Based on some dubious similarities of ritual and language, they convinced themselves that the Native Americans were descended from the ten lost tribes of Israel. It was a quixotic theory, but if the Indians were in fact Jews, then perhaps their conversion would truly mark the beginning of the end-time. That would make mission not only acceptable but urgent. The fact that missionaries had to embrace such a far-fetched theory shows that the theological obstacles were real.