"And this is the word of the Lord God to you all...be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, and nations, wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people and to them.  Then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one." ~George Fox

A Brief History of the Religious Soceity of Friends

Quakerism, also known as the Religious Society of Friends, emerged out of the political and religious upheaval of Seventeenth Century England.  The state religion of England had changed back and forth from Catholicism, Anglicanism and Puritanism seven times within a century and a half.  There were many religious seekers in that time, all searching for a way to be connected to and to worship God.  One of those seekers was  George Fox.

George Fox was spiritually restless.  He sought help and advice from a variety of sources, including the Church of England, but none offered any solace for his soul.  As he continued his qwest, George Fox soon came to know a very personal God who spoke to his condition.  The more time he spent in communion with the Lord Jesus Christ, the more he came to understand that the Light of Christ was present in all peoples.  Fox received a vision from the Lord atop of Pendle Hill.  In that vision Fox saw a great people were to be gathered to together.  And so his journey began.

Fox began to study his Bible with great fervor.  He spoke to the Lord directly in prayer.  And he came to an understanding that God was as close to him as his own heart.  In 1652, George Fox stood before a crowd of a thousand or more "seekers" at Firbank Fell, and preached a powerful message of freedom in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.  This sermon held the crowd's attention for three hours and told all the things God had been revealing to Fox.  George talked about the way Christ had come to be their Techer, their Guide, and their Shepherd, without the need for imtermediaries between themselves and God.  Fox taught that Jesus Christ is the High Priest, and through his Spirit he seeks to lead  all into truth.  A great many lives were changed that day on Firbanks Fell, and thus began the corporate beginnings of the Quaker Movement.

The great discovery of the Friends was that the power of the resurrected Lord is available to all humankind!  George Fox taught that Jesus Christ can be known by all who seek him.  Based upon scripture from John 1:9, Fox taught that Christ is the true Light that enlightens those who leave their darkness and follow him.  As a result, early Friends sought to worship God in spirit and in truth with great simplicity, which was in great contrast to the ritualized state church whereby people could participate in worship without showing any change in their daily lives.  In other words, the early Quaker believed in order to worship God in truth, their lives must be a reflection of their faith.  The two must be one and the one must represent that of God which dwelt within.  Friends believed that God could be known in a way that would purify and transform the lives of ordinary men and women.

Friends gathered frequently in the power of the Spirit; in fact, the name "Quaker" was first used against the early Society of Friends by a judge who reffered to them in a derrogatory manner saying the Friends were those who "quaked" in the presence of God. 

The Religious Society of Friends grew rapidly.  By the end of the first decade they numbered 50,000, and by the turn of the century there were around 100,000.  Depsite martyrdome and great persecution, the Friends continued to grow.  As Friends scattered to the major cities in England and other parts of the world, they spread the message that Christ was indeed alive among them.  They were eager to share the gospel message.

The movement of the early Friends had very little to do with starting a new Christian denomination.  Their mission was to to restore Christianity to its early vitality.  William Penn called the movement, "Primitive Chrstianity Revived".  Friends did not seek to become leaders themselves; rather, they sought to point all men, women, and children to the real Leader, Jesus Christ.  The calling of Friends was then and is now, "the gathering of the sheep under the one true Shepherd." 

Friends now number around 400,000 in membership, but their impact upon the world is far greater than this modest figure suggests.  Advances in science, business, industry, social reform, peace work, development, education and even our democratic form of government, have all been furthered by Friends. The Pentecostal, Wesleyan, Salvation Army, and Vinyard movements are but a few of the spirtual streams benefitting from Quaker influence.  But the most important Quaker concern is the furthering of Christ's work in the world: 

Jesus calls his "friends" any who attend his will and mind it.  ~John15:14-15.