A TROUBLE-MAKER WITH A VISION

A Trouble-Maker with a Vision

George Fox was born in 1624 in Leicestershire, England. These were troubled times: as a young man, Fox lived through the Civil War and the execution of the king.

His parents were devout churchgoers, but Fox records how from an early age he was disgusted with established church trappings and longed for a Christianity that would consume his whole being. He drifted around the country in a search for God. He sat in orchards reading the Bible, which convinced him that the only true church was the gathering of reborn people. He found no biblical grounds for special buildings, Sunday religion or paid clergymen.

At the age of 23 he finally found salvation and with it an experience that today we would call being baptised in the Holy Spirit. He saw a vision of heavenly glory, an ocean of light and love flowing out to cover an ocean of darkness. He knew the inspiration and revelations of the Holy Spirit, and was overwhelmed with a longing to save the lost.

In 1652 Fox felt led to climb Pendle Hill in Lancashire. Here he had a vision of thousands of souls coming to the Lord. He set off in the direction shown in the vision and, as a result, came into contact with the Westmorland Seekers (in present day Cumbria). These were groups of Christians disenchanted with denominational churches, who met together to pray and study the scriptures - much as many "de-churched" Christians do today.

In time, Fox was accepted and acknowledged as their leader. One sermon was preached to around a thousand of these Seekers at Firbank Fell, and a plaque there declares this to be the birthplace of the Quaker movement. The name came from an occasion in court when Fox told a judge to tremble at the word of God.

This new life, allied to a bold and outspoken nature, was very volatile! He sometimes wandered into a church service and addressed the people after the vicar had ended the sermon. He then fearlessly declared the narrow way of following Christ. On occasions he was set upon, beaten or put in the stocks, but always one or two who had received his words would rescue him.

The poor received his words gladly. Fox records in his journal that during his imprisonment in Carlisle in 1653, when he came near to being hanged, the rich came to gawp and triumph, while vermin-infested beggars and thieves showed him love. In time, some of these poor, uneducated folk were transformed by the Holy Spirit into valiant missionaries for Jesus Christ.

Quakerism is usually thought of as having been an intensely individual faith with its accent on personal salvation and receiving the ‘inner light’ – living in the Holy Spirit. But this overlooks a key thing. At first his network used names like Children of the Light or the Friends of Truth, which placed the emphasis on the experience of each individual. But Fox believed in Church as ek-klesia – those called out in order to be together. The assembly was important, and it was in the assembly that God was speak His prophetic word. So it was that, under Fox’s guidance, the name finally chosen for the movement – and which it still has today – is the Religious Society of Friends. Each word of that name can be meditated on, and together they present a pretty good theology of what any church is meant to be..

Note: The issue of what Church really is occupies a lot of Friends (Quakers) today, especially the younger generation. Chuck Fager gives a useful overview, which you can read here.