A Quaker Understanding of Jesus Christ, Part 1

Christ. Fox buttressed his arguments from the Scriptures themselves, which, said Fox, are the "words of God." In many similar phrases, Fox exhorted people to read the Scriptures "sitting down in him who is the author and end of them." (Journal, Nichols Edition, pp. 32ff., 145ff. and ad passim) That Quakers held an inclusive view of revelation did not discredit the Bible, but elevated its importance as an outward test and spiritual guide.

In the Letter to the Governor of Barbados Fox wrote:

We believe that the Holy Scriptures are the words of God; for it is said, in Ex. xx. 1, "God spake all these words, saying," etc., meaning the ten commandments given forth upon Mount Sinai. And in Rev. xxii. 18, saith John, "I testify to every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book: if any man addeth unto these, and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy" (not the word,) etc. So in Luke i. 20, "Because thou believest not my words." And in John v. 47; xv. 7; xiv. 23; and xii. 47. So that we call the Holy Scriptures, as Christ and the apostles called them, and holy men of God called them, viz., the words of God. [from Some of the Mysteries of God's Kingdom Glanced At, 1663]

3. Christ's resurrection occurred, signifying spiritual renewal and life after death.

A contemporary Friend, Gusten Lutter, Jr. asks "How can people deny the resurrection and still claim that Christ has come to teach his people himself?" Lutter writes:

Jesus' Resurrection fuses the Incarnation. It is a claim that God is (now)connected in an intimate (physical) way with Creation, perhaps in a way that was not before. Jesus raised was not a spirit untouched by thirty years in a mortal coil. The marks of his life were upon him, and (promise to be) with him eternally. Jesus' resurrected body promises us that our lives are real, even from the standpoint of a Creator who could unmake us at will. When we ask, "Was the Resurrection an historical event?" we are asking "Was it real?" Real to us, material, available to the senses. At the same time, when we say, "God raised Jesus from the dead," we are giving what we saw (through the eyes of the

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