Of course, I went to speak
with the Quaker missionaries to tell them of the shocking encounter. They
said something like 'now you know why we are evangelizing our own group.
Most of them know nothing of their true heritage as Quakers. In the
beginning Quakers knew the Lord and they believed the Bible. Some still do,
but many, probably most, are completely estranged from the central teachings
of the founder of Quakerism, George Fox.' Time to look at some research.
George Fox (1624 – 1691) of
Britain founded the Religious Society of Friends, better known to the
public as the Quakers or Friends. George's father was a successful
businessman who would eventually leave his son a substantial financial
legacy when he died in the late 1650s. This would afford George time and
opportunity to fulfill his calling. As valuable as that might have been,
George's father left his son a far greater spiritual legacy that guided him
for the rest of his life.
George's father was
Christopher Fox, known as "Righteous Christ-er" among his neighbors, which
should tell you a lot about the household George grew up in. His father was
known as a man who knew Christ, and followed Him as a doer of the Word. In
such a household George learned from his father the difference between
actually knowing and following the Lord, and dead religion. George never
forgot those lessons.
George is quoted as saying:
"When I came to
eleven years of age I knew pureness and righteousness; for, while I was a
child, I was taught how to walk to be kept pure. The Lord taught me to be
faithful, in all things, and to act faithfully two ways; viz., inwardly to
God, and outwardly to man" ... "The Lord taught me to be faithful in all
things ... and to keep to Yea and Nay in all things." This training as a
child from both his father and his Father prepared him for his life-long
ministry of turning the hearts of men to the living Lord. This explains why
he never pursued formal education, whether secular or religious. Neither
could add anything to his training that was not provided as needed by Divine
Providence.
George Fox did not set out to
start a movement. He simply spoke the truth as he saw it. He was critical of
formal church, especially the pomp of the Church of England. He wasn't fond
of the excesses and evils of the secular government either. Some saw him as
a rebel, but he really wasn't. He was simply a truth-teller, who laid it out
before others as he saw it. In other words, as he taught from the
Scriptures, he made application to the world he lived in. The righteous
responded and the evil persecuted him for exposing them in the light of the
truth.
Unsurprisingly, he was thrown
in prison on multiple occasions, even condemned to death and miraculously
delivered. He may not have been right about everything, but he has all the
hallmarks of a true and faithful disciple walking in the Spirit of the
living God. When common people who accepted the message of George Fox
gathered together they waited on the Holy Spirit to move in their midst.
When He did, some of them trembled from His presence. Because of this deeply
felt effect they came to be called "Quakers."
So how did the Quakers go from that - to a
group where the living Christ is seen by many as "irrelevant"? George Fox
died. Time went by. Other voices rose up with new interpretations of Fox's
message. The movement morphed into an empty caricature of itself,
which some in the movement are still trying to revive.
This is what happens with every group that
comes to view the Resurrection as "irrelevant" because "all good people go
to heaven." No, they don't. If He wasn't raised from the dead you won't be
raised from the dead either.
"Now if Messiah is
preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you
say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If Messiah has not been
raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then they also
who are fallen asleep in Messiah have perished."
(1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-18)
See "Looking for the Blessed
Hope" tonight
