Ellis Hein's Blog (116)

Part three

In a recent blog post, For the Love of Stories: Imagining Quakerism Beyond Belief, The Armchair Theologian posits the need to return to the stories of our beginnings, to sit with these stories even if they are uncomfortable to our modern ideologies, to live these stories. This…

In a recent blog post, For the Love of Stories: Imagining Quakerism Beyond Belief, The Armchair Theologian posits the need to return to the stories of our beginnings, to sit with these stories even if they are uncomfortable to our modern ideologies, to live these stories. This advice he directs to Universalist, Christian, and Non-theist Friends. In this three part series, it is not my purpose to summarize his blog post. Part one considered the source of these…

In a recent blog post, For the Love of Stories: Imagining Quakerism Beyond Belief, The Armchair Theologian posits the need to return to the stories of our beginnings, to sit with these stories even if they are uncomfortable to our modern ideologies, to live these stories. This advice he directs to Universalist,…

In 1976, at Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania, Lewis Benson gave a series of lectures entitled A New Foundation to Build On. The first of these lectures considers The Problem of Being Human. This topic is of paramount importance: if we don't have an understanding of the problem, we can only apply false "cures". For example, in the middle ages people…

This first appeared on my blog, This Was The True Light.

If I could stand before you and speak of the things of God, what should I tell you? What would be on my heart, as it is upon my mind now, is this one question: “Why are you here?”

There could be many answers to that question, ranging from the flattering “We are here to hear what you have to say” to the more mundane “I love the food that appears at…

“Ellis, do you believe in…?” I have been asked this question concerning many different “objects of belief:” God, Jesus, scripture, etc. But when I was recently asked “Do you believe in the Devil?” as an admonition to look at scripture as our safeguard against the wiles of Satan, I deemed it appropriate to make a thorough explanation.…

Per a recent discussion, I have looked at what George Fox had to say about Sanctificaion. My search terms were “sanctification,” “sanctify,” and “sanctified.” The greatest density of Fox’s statements occurred in Vol. III, but the terms are found throughout his writings.

1. Vol. III --- 183 hits
2. Vol. V --- 76 hits
3. Vol. VI --- 59 hits
4. Vol. VIII – 36 hits
5. Vol. I --- 23 hits
6. Vol. VII --- 20 hits
7. Vol. II --- 18 hits
8. Vol. IV…

Following a lengthy discussion, Brenda Redshaw (of this site), asked me to look into what Fox had to say concerning Romans chapter 7. In searching for “Rom. vi” or “Rom. 7” I turned up very few references. So I turned to searches for the concepts or phrases Fox used when he identified Romans 7 in his writing. There may be a better approach, or I perhaps could have used better phrases. I hope all readers will do their own searches and contribute what they find of significance. Here is what I…

Anne Olsen, of this site, has discovered a set of tapes containing more than 10 lectures of Lewis Benson. The date on the tapes is 1982. You will need an 8-track player to play these or need to have them converted to digital format.

Anne has offered to pay shipping. I am saying that this might apply to shipping in U.S. If you are outside the U.S. you should contact Anne regarding shipping.

If no one wants these tapes, they will be pitched. Anne no longer has equipment to listen…

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. (Isaiah 9:2)...For unto us a a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand,…

I recently stumbled onto a downloadable file of Stephen Crisp's allegory, A Short History of a Long Travel from Babylon to Bethel. Even though the text is not very long, it provides a lot of material for pondering. You can download this work from archive.org. Go to https://archive.org/details/ashorthistoryofa15730gut. If you…

Note: Parts 1 and 2 originally appeared on my blog, under the title of A Question of Authority. Some of this material first appeared as comments on Steven Davison's blog post, …

Note: Parts 1 and 2 originally appeared on my blog, under the title of A Question of Authority. Some of this material first appeared as comments on Steven Davison's blog post, Scripture--Picking and…

There are two compelling reasons for devoting a whole session in this series to Fox’s teaching about the Holy Spirit. The first is that Quakerism is now being categorized as belonging among the many Christian movements that make the Holy Spirit central to faith and experience. The other reason is that those who are now being called to re-proclaim the everlasting gospel will encounter many Quakers, and many Christians in all denominations, who make…

The main challenge to this vision of a holy church is the church’s own sinfulness...Luther’s understanding of the church as simul justus et peccatore, or “simultaneously justified and a sinner,” is helpful for describing the paradox of the church’s “now and not yet” struggle with sin. Luther’s perspective affirms the reality of the sin of the church, yet also allows that God’s sanctification is in fact at work and progressively enacting real change in the hearts, minds, and actions…

The christians were called a "city set on a hill, the light of the world, and the salt of the earth;" but when they forsook the power of God, and their faith stood in words and men, and not in the power; then their walls fell down, though the power in itself stood; and they lost their hill, their saltness, and their shining. (Works of Fox, Vol. II, p.172)

...[Jesus] began asking His disciples, saying, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they…

[Note: This blog post first appeared on my  website, This Was The True Light and is reblogged here. If you are not a member of the New Foundation Fellowship website and would like to leave a comment, you can do so on my website.]

I recently read a comment on another blog wherein the commentator maintained that Quakers are overly-spiritual, to put it nicely.…

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness...

Thus begins one of the beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount, and I suspect that most people can complete the sentence. While this is proclaimed throughout Christendom, seldom do you encounter any indication of how the "...for you shall be filled" portion is to come about. For the most part, it has become "one of those things that can't be done in this lifetime." There is more time and space…

Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and every one who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes…

There is an interesting and ongoing conversation/debate going on concerning a post I made on QuakerQuaker. If you wish to see this you can go to http://www.quakerquaker.org/profiles/blogs/true-christians-how-do-you-know-them?xg_source=activity . The title of the post is the same as the title of this post. The full text of the excerpt that I put up on…