Ellis Hein's Blog (110)

There are times when our meetings go above and beyond the usual. November 19 was such a meeting. We were reading a fairly short Epistle, (LXXIV or 74), but we only got half way through it in our discussion. We will consider the 2nd part in our December meeting. I will not offer a summary but encourage all to follow the link to the recording below.

You can listen to/download the reading and our discussion by going to …

On Saturday we met to discuss Fox's Journal. We read again the passage beginning "Sound, sound abroad..." and went on from there. Fox finished up his tour in Ireland visiting meetings and discussing the gospel with other people. One discussion concerned election and reprobation. Fox laid out in clear terms how the election is in Christ who was before the world began while the reprobation is in the evil spirit which has been since the world began. 

We read about a fake George Fox,…

SOUND, sound abroad, you faithful servants of the Lord, witnesses in his name, faithful servants, prophets of the Highest, and angels of the Lord ! Sound ye all abroad in the world, to the awakening and raising of the dead, that they may be awakened and raised up out of the grave to hear the voice that, is living. For the dead have long heard the dead, and the blind have long wandered among the blind, and the deaf amongst the deaf. Therefore sound, sound, ye…

Epistle LXVIII.

Friends,—Know the life and power of God in yourselves, and one in another, and to that power be obedient, to thresh down all deceit within and without you in wisdom, and in that dwell which comprehends the world; and know the rest, which is for the people of God, which he that believeth hath entered into. So know the life that stands in God; and all know the power of God, for that power shall never be…

Marvin Michelo is a young Quaker minister, in the true sense of the word, in Zambia.  You can read a brief description of his need, his call to proclaim the gospel preached by George Fox and early Friends, and make a donation by going to https://gofund.me/d3e6c8df. Thank you for prayerfully considering this opportunity to extend a helping hand to Marvin.

Our new website, https://nffquaker.com/, is now live. Please take a moment to visit. We have a selection of books and an expanding selection of items for download. There is a small charge for each download. There is also a blog page. Feel free to subscribe to our emails by leaving your email address, (see the bottom of the home page). If you subscribe, you will receive periodic updates regarding the site, you will receive notice of new…

The following excerpt from Lewis Benson's Six Disciple Church Lectures details some of the changes that have come about in the concept of salvation. Today we still use words like forgiveness, sanctification, justification, the cross, etc., but our understanding of those words are not the same as when used by the writers of the New Testament or the preachers of the gospel in the days of the early church. The full text of Lewis Benson's Disciple Church Lectures will be available for download…

My apologies to all who have received a comment added to their profile from one A. Maris. Earlier, I admitted into membership someone representing herself as Christina Florand. Immediately, said Christina's profile became A. Maris and people began getting this comment: "How is everything with you, I picked interest on you after going through your short profile and deemed it necessary to write you immediately. I have something very vital to disclose to you, but I found it difficult to express…

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." If you turn that around, we can say, "If you have come to the Father, you have come by the way, you have embraced the truth, you have life within you--you know and are known by Jesus. These three--way, truth, and life--are the most precious assets a human can posses. Allow me to put these three under one umbrella: Truth with a capital T.

In a 1965 paper published by Lewis Benson (Friends and the…

Last night, in my dream, I was in a familiar neighborhood. As I walked, I came upon a house where a crew of people were busily cleaning. This crew was led by Lewis Benson. I readily joined in the effort of cleaning windows, cleaning eve troughs, sweeping the roof, and cleaning the inside. It was as thorough a cleaning job as I have ever witnessed! Nothing was left untouched.

I have had the clear understanding that I must share what I have seen. Even though I can't say precisely what…

On the 15th of November we again considered Fox's Epistle XXXVIII. You can access the recording at 

https://zoom.us/rec/share/dwzNCYm3qF_AKYK7dCes0u6WIuoMdvahWiApeyNSdCPCOWMrbVX8S8Qwp6FphCiN.Ez3nyZ_VA3XrBTzZ

Access Passcode: @*2unN*q

This past Saturday morning was our regular time for reading and discussing Fox's Journal (Volume 1, p. 363 and following from the Works of George Fox). It was a good discussion regarding what Fox said about the seven things people could "sit down in." Today's list might be somewhat different, but the seventh, our sabbath rest, will always be sitting down in Christ Jesus who never fell. What does that mean, to sit down in Christ Jesus? This was part of our discussion which you can see by…

On Sunday, the 18th of October, we read and discussed the first few paragraphs of Fox's Epistle XXXVIII. In this epistle, Fox calls us to abandon the great city of Sodom with its fascination of all things of this world. Even though we are not to reason with flesh, we live by a different reasoning. "Come let us reason together," says the Lord. It is in the council of the Lord that we see the victory of the Lamb against the great beast with 10 horns.

Listen in to our reading and…

This past Saturday was our regular Zoom meeting for reading and discussing the Journal of Fox. Following is a link and the passcode to access the recording. It is one hour and 15 minutes long. The reading is from Vol. 1, page numbers are given at the beginning. This recording will only be available for 1 week when we will need to make space for the next session.

The link is …

Hear the word of the LORD...give ear unto the law of our God...To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?...When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?...Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth...when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment,…

In Part II I looked at Fox's exposition concerning three estates and three teachers wherein he declared that by following the serpent's teaching, mankind entered the fallen estate. By following Jesus Christ's teaching, we are brought up out of the fall into the state of Adam and Eve before the fall and into a higher state in Christ Jesus who never fell.

In Part III I am continuing to explore the answer to the question, "How are we to encounter this divine influence upon the heart that…

In Part I, I looked at some of the writings of Paul and considered what they had to say concerning man's problem and God's solution (salvation) to that problem. I noted Paul's statement that man's problem is death and God's solution is an influence on the heart that brings life. I asked the question, "How are we to encounter this divine influence upon the heart (i.e. God's grace)?

In part II, I want to examine a passage from the Works of Fox, which pertains to the answer to this…

In his recent post, The Felt Need Of Salvation That Drives Many To Seek A Savior, John Jeremiah Edminster opened a subject that is replete with contradiction. If you browse the shelves of bookstores or look on the internet, you will find a widely varying body of theologies purporting to be supported by cited scripture, the texts of which often have little or no…

The following first appeared on Reddit at https://www.reddit.com/r/Quakers/comments/ettifg/the_bush_is_still_burning/. I am slightly revising the original post and incorporating some of the comments. To see the original, follow the link above.

One of the enduring Bible stories of my youth is the story of Moses and the burning bush. That story came to me…

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…