|
Why Were the Quakers Persecuted?
All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
The Quakers were persecuted because paying members of the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Congregationalist Puritans were quitting and joining the Quakers. The ministers and priests then ran to the courts, suing any Quaker who stopped paying tithes to them. Because the Quakers could not swear in court, being forbidden by Jesus and James, they went to jail. When the Lord sent the Quaker men and women into their churches to preach the true hope and true faith, the ministers and priests ran to the magistrates and courts still more. The success of the early Quakers movement eventually emptied many churches throughout England, and the oppostion's violence intensified, with Parliament passing laws against any Quaker meeting, the penalty being fines, imprisonment, and finally banishment to the remote colonies in the Carribean.
The Quakers were persecuted for not taking off their hats in court, refusing to swear in court, traveling on the so-called christian sabbath, vagrancy, blasphemy, and meeting to worship while failing to follow the Episcopalian liturgy and worship format. But these were only excuses, for the other so-called Christian sects hated the Quakers; because, just as Paul was sent to the Jewish assemblies to preach the true gospel, so were the early Quakers sent to those sects, claiming the name of Christ, to preach a salvation that was to be experienced, heard, felt, and seen within a person, not just presumed to have occurred by stating a belief and getting wet.
The early Quakers said that true faith was to be obedient to Christ, the Light and Word within a man, not just belief to the historical accuracy of the Bible's statements on Jesus's birth, death, and resurrection.
Listen to and obey My voice,
and I will be your God and you will be My people.
He [Jesus] became the Author and Source of eternal salvation
to all those who give heed and obey Him.
The Protestants said the Word was the Bible and the source of salvation. Yet the Bible refers to the words within it as Scriptures and the Word of God to be Jesus. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (This is clearly not the Bible, it is Christ, the Word of God.) So, the Quakers said that unless you heard the Lord speak within you, and believed him to be the Son of God, as evidenced by your obedience to the Light and Word's commands to you, you really did not have the faith as Paul defined it:
“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith which we preach.
You must have faith in the word which is within you, in your heart and mouth;
faith to listen, and faith to obey the heard commands.
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Faith comes by hearing the word within you, and believing it to be Christ, the Word of God.
Christ said: Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!
Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that she should be holy and without blemish.
Clearly the Bible cannot sanctify, cannot cleanse, cannot wash, to become holy without blemish.
But, if you obey the words that Christ speaks from within you, you will receive the blessing of purity and sanctification.
They taught that being obedient to the voice of the Lord, the word within, Christ the Light later appears within your heart; Christ, the Light, who enlightens every man that comes into the world. They were persecuted because they preached that one must receive the Light's convictions as Christ, which being acknowledged as true and coming from Christ within, would result in purification by the grace of God removing defects from the heart; by dwelling in the Light, the blood of Christ would cleanse them from all sin. The Quakers further said that one must witness (see and feel) their salvation, which comes after purity with the glorious return of Christ within, resulting in union with God and entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven. Baptism, going to sect services, praying without words from the Holy Spirit, and simply reading the Bible (without guidance of Spirit interpretation) were stated to be an abomination, coming from the carnal mind, which is enmity to God. Only when the old man is dead, and a completely new regenerated creature has appeared, with a circumcised heart - only through the cross, is the work of salvation finished. So rather than presumption of being saved, they must have, even the inclination to sin, removed by Christ from their heart; thereby becoming pure, entering the rest, entering the Kingdom, entering paradise. The other sects were incensed that someone would tell them they were not saved; and in their anger, they were eager to violently silence anyone so impudent. And the Quakers replied: would you rather discover the truth after you are dead, and it is too late; or be shocked to learn now, while there is still time to be changed, so that you too are able to obey all of God's commands? The Quakers said they had experienced what they preached, that they had been sent by God to preach to those who could hear, and that they spoke words as commanded by the Holy Spirit. Since the Quaker's message was contrary to what the Protestants had been taught by their ministers and teachers, many thought that they had surely been sent by the devil. Those, who hungered and thirsted for righteousness, those who mourned the sin that was in them, and those who longed to hear and see their Savior, witnessed the truth of the Quaker good news in their hearts. Those who could hear, heard!
The below scriptures summarizes what the Quakers said was the failure of most of Christianity throughout the ages - presumption of being saved - without required obedience - without the experiences of seeing God and fellowship with the Father and Son, which occurs after the crucifixion of the selfish spirit on the inward cross of self-denial.
Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness! These people thought they were saved Christians and thought they were in his name, but they practiced lawlessness, which Jesus said is sin, . Jesus didn't know them because: We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.
I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. If one still sins, he is a slave to sin, and Jesus can't be his Lord, for one cannot serve two masters. You are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness. For obedience to all of Christ's commands is required.
The early Quaker's said that salvation is to see one's savior bringing salvation, and to have fellowship with Christ and God - a salvation that results after the crucifixion of the selfish spirit to purity on the inward cross of self-denial. They testified to entering the Kingdom of Heaven that Christ said he had come to preach. The Quakers were sent to preach to all the same message that Paul was told to preach by Jesus: "To open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may thus receive forgiveness and release from their sins and a place and portion among those who are consecrated and purified by faith in Me." This good news of obeying the Light and Word within you, finally resulting in purity, was heresy to the Protestant sects; who looked to an outward God in a far-off heaven, and who heeded the words of the Bible instead of the Light and Word (Christ) within them. The Quakers told all the sects that their failure to recognize and obey Christ within was like the Jews, who had knowledge of the Scriptures, but rejected Christ as the Messiah. For preaching Christ within, the Quakers were fined, imprisoned, banished, and killed; despite the fact that what they preached was plainly stated throughout the Bible, as follows:
That they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after him, and find him, though he is not far from every one of us; for in him we live, and move, and have our being,’
I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.’
One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Eph 4:6
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles:
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?
My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. .
Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.
He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; ( love, peace, joy, patience, gentleness, kindness, etc. Gal 5:22-23) .
When you bear (produce) much fruit,
My Father is honored and glorified,
and you show and prove yourselves to be true followers of Mine.
To hear, you must go to him. You must wait on him - listen silently, with the humility of a sinner in need of his changing power - grace. When you hear you must then obey any of his teachings or commands - then his mighty power will change you. Doing this repetitively over time, you are purified by grace and faith - a faith that believes and obeys the words heard from within.
This web site's purpose is to show how to become
free from sin
by benefiting from the changing power of God through the cross,
which leads to union with God in his Kingdom.
|