George Fox's Influence On Religion
George Fox
George Fox (1624-1691) had a challenging spiritual beginning, he was told internally to forsake family and friends and found this difficult; he tried to get support from the churches and found them to be of little value, even though some of the Priests/ministers where from Oxford or Cambridge, the cream of the crop! He was learning to rely wholly upon the Lord Jesus Christ, learning that Christ and God where in the human heart.
Going within has scriptural support. The kingdom of heaven is within! (Luke 17:21) Jesus said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside …show more content…
Fox asserted his divine sonship and the sonship of the believers which could be very offensive to the orthodox. Fox may not have explained this explicitly causing greater abhorrence and grief for the believer.
George Fox was a mystic, he fit into the thinking of the times such as the Familists and Quietism who emphasized the personal experience of God. The orthodoxy of the times was in a very limited state and was not satisfying to many true devotees such as Fox. A mystic is one who has direct experience of the divine and is not limited to belief and theology. Direct experience of the divine is a thousand time of greater value than intellectual study and belief.
Thomas Aquinas was a Italian Dominican friar and Catholic priest who was an immensely influential philosopher, theologian and jurist. He is heralded as the most influential Western medieval legal scholar and theologian. In 12/1273 he had a divine experience, a deep insight and with that realization; he found all of his previous works to be of little value! He is still considered to be the greatest theologian by the Catholic Church! That is a glimpse into the state of orthodoxy, then and now. Studying God directly is of greater value than thinking about God. One can have a PhD on strawberries or one can grow them and eat them. The latter person is much more fulfilled! George was more fulfilled and found the orthodoxy …show more content…
I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness….the Lord opened it to me by his invisible power now that every man was enlightened by the divine light of Christ; and I saw it shine through all.” Fox, George. The Journal of George Fox. Cambridge [England: U, 1952. 21.
George Fox (1624-1691) had a challenging spiritual beginning, he was told internally to forsake family and friends and found this difficult; he tried to get support from the churches and found them to be of little value, even though some of the Priests/ministers where from Oxford or Cambridge, the cream of the crop! He was learning to rely wholly upon the Lord Jesus Christ, learning that Christ and God where in the human heart.
Going within has scriptural support. The kingdom of heaven is within! (Luke 17:21) Jesus said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside …show more content…
Fox asserted his divine sonship and the sonship of the believers which could be very offensive to the orthodox. Fox may not have explained this explicitly causing greater abhorrence and grief for the believer.
George Fox was a mystic, he fit into the thinking of the times such as the Familists and Quietism who emphasized the personal experience of God. The orthodoxy of the times was in a very limited state and was not satisfying to many true devotees such as Fox. A mystic is one who has direct experience of the divine and is not limited to belief and theology. Direct experience of the divine is a thousand time of greater value than intellectual study and belief.
Thomas Aquinas was a Italian Dominican friar and Catholic priest who was an immensely influential philosopher, theologian and jurist. He is heralded as the most influential Western medieval legal scholar and theologian. In 12/1273 he had a divine experience, a deep insight and with that realization; he found all of his previous works to be of little value! He is still considered to be the greatest theologian by the Catholic Church! That is a glimpse into the state of orthodoxy, then and now. Studying God directly is of greater value than thinking about God. One can have a PhD on strawberries or one can grow them and eat them. The latter person is much more fulfilled! George was more fulfilled and found the orthodoxy …show more content…
I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness….the Lord opened it to me by his invisible power now that every man was enlightened by the divine light of Christ; and I saw it shine through all.” Fox, George. The Journal of George Fox. Cambridge [England: U, 1952. 21.