Earlon William (Bill) Carsley's Page

Hello Bill Carsley and welcome to the NFF website. Please feel free to introduce yourself to the rest of us. You can enjoy reading what the rest of us have put up, make comments on material on site, and post new material as well. I am glad to have you join us.

hi Bill, thanks for the affirmation on the blog.  It has been very hard in coming the last few years.  I owe much to others, especially Ellis and my wife, Lucy.

I grew up in NWYM and know many folks there.  I am glad you are in touch with Lorraine Watson.  I think highly of her and her integrity.  and there are many others in NWYM with a deep faith they treasure.

I resigned my membership in one of the churches more than 10 years ago.  It was a pastor "mill" - grind em up, spit em out.  I finally told them that this was not the Gospel and laid down my membership.

harder to explain is that I have joined one of the liberal meetings in NPYM.  I felt it was the command of the Lord to me.  It has often been difficult but I have not been released from it.  I maintain many contacts within NWYM.  Much of my extended family are members.  But I became a convinced unprogrammed Friend while still in college.  Protestant worship every Sunday took a heavy toll.  The liberal unprogrammed worship is a mixed bag.  Sometimes depressing, but at other times covered and even extraordinary.

Sometimes it seems that different ones of us have different crosses to bear.  I was released from the one at NWYM to be given another.

Perhaps it will be a haven for you.  One of my nieces came back to Friends at North Seattle after a period in the wilderness.  i would credit the faithfulness of those folks and Lorraine in particular for providing a haven for her.  I found their open worship to be deep and tender when I visited.

I guess we can now officially be friends. Ah, the double meanings of words engendered by our uses of the language!

Thanks for the friend request, Bill. You are welcome to call me Pat. The book Heaven on Earth: Quakers and the Second Coming can be found at FGC Bookstore for $25, still not a bargain but better than the Amazon price! I believe that Doug Gwyn told me last spring that this book was going to be re-published in the coming year, which would be 2015. The binding on the first edition was so bad that the book came apart immediately and had to be held together with a couple of rubber bands. If you want to check with Doug, you might try reaching him at Pendle Hill, which is a study center for Quakers. He was teaching there last year, and he may be there still. Timothy Peat was (and still may be) a tutor at Woodbrooke, which is the study center in Britain. 

Dear Bill,

I appreciate your quotes from Fox's understanding of Christ's fulfillment of the Lord's Supper in His Second Appearing, as reported by the Apostle John in Revelation. I know a little about Preterism, but never thought of Fox's idea that the "Marriage Supper of The Lamb" as now being the spiritual meaning of the "sacrament" for this age. I like that very much.

 Are there any of his writings or teachings still extant so I can learn more about his thinking on the book of Revelation ?

Thank you, Richard

Hello Bill,

Thank you for adding me as a Friend. I am grateful for your comment to me re Fox and his treatment of Revelation. I will try and locate the books you recommended.

 I was drawn to Quakers by the teaching of the ongoing witness of the Spirit to the believer's inner man. I had come to realize this truth sometime ago, though not in the precise way that Fox, Barclay and other Friends express it.

I knew the Spirit had to make the Truth directly known by revelation to the believer's heart, even through the Scriptures, or Scripture is just a dead letter. But, the understanding of Christ continually speaking, in this and every age, through, or apart from, the written scripture, is a new and wonderful discovery. I often wondered about that "still small voice" that saved me from several potentially serious dangers throughout the years.

Any further advice for study will be appreciated.

Thanks again,

Richard