A Quaker Understanding of Jesus Christ, Part 4
Jan 1, 2000 -
© Arthur O. Roberts
Son, and Leader, and Sanctifier, and Comforter of his people (I John 5) . . . [Christ] exercises his Prophetical, Kingly and Priestly office now in his Church, and also his Offices, as a Counselor and Leader, Bishop, Shepherd and Mediator, he (to wit) the Son of God, he exercises these Offices in his Household of Faith, whose House we are, that are believers in the Light, & by faith ingrafted into Christ, the Word, by whom all things were made; and so are Heirs of eternal Life, being elected in him before the World began. . . . Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? we say with Philip, "Come and see."
Conclusion
David Finke, a Friend from Illinois Yearly Meeting, raised an evocative question about cultural barriers to modern Friends accepting early Quaker theology:
What makes it so hard for us to say with George Fox that "There is one, even Christ Jesus, who can speak to [our] condition," or that "Christ has come to teach his people himself"? In my increasing travels among Friends in recent years, I've found this as a joyous proclamation - in deed as well as word - among Friends for whom it is absolutely obvious that what makes us Quakers is our encounter with the Living Christ, the Presence in our Midst, the Friend who transcends the power of death. (printed in Winter '97-'98 issue, Among Friends)
Many years ago, a British Friend, Maurice Creasey , disturbed by non-Christian trends within the Society of Friends, wrote the following:
Whatever else may be learned from a study of our origins, this much at least is clear: that the early Quaker teaching concerning "the universal and divine light of Christ" was a message concerning the action of God rather than the nature of man. . . Friends were united in the certainty that the same power, wisdom, and grace of God which had ever been seeking to save man from his futile desire for autonomy, and which had been concretely revealed and expressed in Jesus Christ, was now available to lead into all truth those who trusted and obeyed it. (Christ in Early Quakerism. Philadelphia: The Tract Association of Friends, undated.)
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