Quakers: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 09:09, 4 January 2007

Revision as of 19:47, 5 January 2007

Line 12:

== Beliefs and practices of Friends ==

===Experiencing God ===

George Fox and the [[Valiant Sixty|other early Quaker preachers]] believed that direct experience of [[God]] was available to all people, without mediation (e.g. through hired clergy, or through outward [[sacrament]]s). Fox described this by writing that "Christ has come to teach hisHis people himselfHimself." <ref name=ChristHimself>Throughout his journal, Fox made several similar statements. Including in [http://www.strecorsoc.org/gfox/ch05.html Chapter 5] stating: "God was come to teach His people himselfHimself" and [http://www.strecorsoc.org/gfox/ch06.html Chapter 6] "Christ was come to teach people Himself". Fox frequently used the words God and Christ interchangeably.</ref>

Modern Friends often express this belief in many ways, including "that of God in Everyone", "the Inner light", "the inward Christ", "the spirit of Christ within." Early Friends more often used terms such as "Truth", "the Seed", and "the Pure Principle", expecting that each person would be transformed as Christ formed in them.