All Blog Posts (287)

In an appended comment to Steven Davison's excellent post, I write of the felt need of salvation that drives many to seek a Savior and find one in Jesus Christ; I also describe what I think inhibits such a search. I invite responses. Reclaiming the Christ

From the Journal of Job Scott (1751-1793): a thumbnail-sketch anticipation of his book-length essay On the Knowledge of the One Lord, the Only True God, which was published posthumously and may be found in his Works, in the Digital Quaker Collection (…

Jesus Christ was our first love. We were true believers then, not proud, but filled with joy and excitement of who the Lord Jesus was and the mystery of his words.

In the days of our childhood, we loved Jesus, though the excitement of Santa Claus played the center part of that mystery. Jesus was distant and beautiful like the stars. He was a baby and we knew little of him. Even so, we knew there was something precious in the swaddling clothes.

Why do mysteries die out when…

For many deceivers have come forth into the world, who do not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such is the deceiver and the antichrist. Look to yourselves, so as not to lose what we have done but receive your full reward. Whoever breaks forward and does not abide by the teaching of the Christ does not have God; the one who abides by his teaching has the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not take him into your…

He who expects to arrive at . . . the union of the soul with God, by means of consolation and   comfort, will find himself mistaken. For, having sinned, we must expect to suffer, and be in some measure purified, before we can be in any degree fitted for a union with God, or permitted to taste the joy of his presence. Be ye patient, therefore, under all the sufferings which your Father is pleased to send you. If your love to him be pure, you will not seek him less in suffering than in…

Of the 21 chapters in John’s Gospel, chapter 11 has been for decades the least interesting to me. It was its scattered quality that put me off: too many characters, most of them contributing only snippets; vignettes that seemed to go nowhere; dialogue that just didn’t connect or flow; inexplicable actions and reactions. Where was the throughline? I asked myself: the coherent theme that took shape with each succeeding verse.

As a narrative, this chapter seemed more like a script out of…

This material first appeared on This Was the True Light.

In Catholic Quakerism, chapter III, The Quaker Conception of Christian Community and Church Order, Lewis Benson stated:

Of the two basic presuppositions in Fox's conception of…

MIGHT WE BECOME AS OBEDIENT AS JESUS?

On First Day, 6/24/2019, I was privileged to be among the seventeen Friends who heard Australian Friend David Johnson (_A Quaker Prayer Life_, Inner Light Books, 2013; _Jesus, Christ and Servant of God_, Inner Light Books, 2017) lead an intense after-meeting discussion, at West Richmond (IN) Friends Meeting, on what the Gospel of John has to say about the relation of Jesus Christ to God, His _Abba_.

Friend David had us go around the room,…

[S]o great a sense came upon me of the veil of darkness that was over the priests and professors of christianity, that I was moved to give forth the following, as an awakening warning to them:

BLINDNESS hath happened to the professed christians of the letter now-a-days, as blindness happened to the Jews; who professed the letter, but owned not the life, which the letter speaks of: as the christians now, to whom this blindness hath happened, who profess the…

This is a transcript of a dialogue between Stuart Masters and me that occurred in early to mid-December 2017 in the comment section of Stuart’s blog post “Friends of Martin Luther? Quakers and the Protestant Reformation.” The point I challenged was Stuart’s assertion that by a free act of will man participates in his transformation from sinner to saint. I contended early Quaker understanding…

I have finished this series of posts looking at the book of John through the ideas surrounding the Jewish Passover. I had thought to publish the final post here, but it is too long. Instead, I am presenting the opening paragraphs and encourage you to read it on my Wordpress blog.

We now reach a dividing line that separates two opposite…

The following was first posted as a response to the previous post titled "When Words Fail." As the comments in the Latest Activity section are difficult to access (for the time being), I've decided to give this response its own posting.

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That people use the language and ideas of Christianity for their own selfish ends is commonplace. You are seeing some gross forms of this perversion in South America, but subtle forms of it are just as deadly to the souls and…

Warning: This blog post contains many questions and few answers. If you're here looking for answers, well... I'm so sorry. I wish I had them too.

Over the past couple of years, I have spent a fair amount of time travelling in, learning about, and generally hanging around South America. Over the course of my travels, I have participated in many discussions about religion, and with every one I have become more and more aware that, due to the history and religious climate these…

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.  

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.…

This post first appeared on my blog https://thiswasthetruelight.wordpress.com

...for that eye that is turned from the light is the blind, and leads into the ditch. (Works, Vol. IV, p.25)…

Our time has been a failure. We are called to ‘the revolution of tenderness’ (Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, p48), but we largely fail to respond. Ours is the violence of indifference towards the cry of the earth, the cries of countless creatures condemned in factory farms, those of refugees, those of victims of the Western world’s addiction to arms sales, and many others.

What has this ‘post-Christian’ era proclaimed? A ‘society orphaned of transcendence’ (Erik Varden, The…

The following introductory essay was first posted on my blog site, Abiding Quaker, and can be found there in the archives under February 2019. The lecture by Lewis Benson that is introduced in this essay can be found on this New Foundation Fellowship site under the Resources tab. Here is a link to this…

Announcement:

Kathleen Schmitz-Hertzberg nee Brookhouse, February 16, 1916 – January 29, 2019 (known as Kathleen Hertzberg)

Kathleen died peacefully in her sleep at Parkview Long Term Care Home in Stouffville, Ontario, Canada. She is buried in the Friends Burial Ground in…

This is part 4 of a series I am working on that has been appearing on my blog, This was the true light.

Now, lest I should lose my way, I want to recap what this study is about. Conventional theology looks at John the Baptist's announcement, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," as pertaining to Jesus being a guilt offering enabling God to forgive errant humanity. Mankind's…

Having faith, [a person] can thrive even when planted in the chaos of the world that lies in wickedness, even as a sycamine tree could be planted in a hostile environment of the sea (Lk. 17:6). Having faith, the hearing/obeying relationship with his Creator, man is restored, strengthened, and empowered to withstand and rise above such assaults upon his soul. He is given the power of God to rule over his human nature and to…