Early Quakers

Edward Burrough (17th Century) gave a different meaning to the law leading us to Christ. He claimed the light of Christ within every man leads him to Christ, not to freely justify by Christ’s atonement, but to walk in and fulfil the law himself (John 1:9). This interpretation of the law leading us to Christ means we are redeemed by Christ as we keep the law.

Burrough claimed that because the law is still active in leading, it is not fulfilled in the sense of taken away by the cross. He claimed that we are not justified apart from keeping the law. This could be interpreted in a Gnostic, Arminian, Universalist or humanist sense, whereby everyone is given grace to repent (even those who have not heard the gospel) and salvation is in keeping the law within.

Some early Quakers claimed that because every man has the light, every man has the ability to repent and that their repentance is ultimately their own choice. This teaching makes the cross of Christ redundant, simply a gesture of kindness on the part of Christ, rather than a purchase of depraved man from sin.

Charles Finney taught a similar view of new birth and salvation, to the point where he denied the substitutionary work of the cross and denied that righteousness is imputed to us without us keeping the law. He claimed that one could gain or lose salvation often, according to their commitment to the moral law. This “law” was in relation to behaviour such as smoking, drinking tea, entertainment or foods.

Some believe this today. They believe that their right relationship with God depends on how they stand at any time in relation to the law, whatever law they deem important. Therefore, if they sin and have not had a chance to repent before dying, they go to hell. This is measuring their salvation against the law. This is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The law leading us to Christ does not mean we are redeemed by Christ as we keep the law. We are redeemed by the cross. When we are born again Christ is in us and we have a new nature. We walk by faith which works through love. So then, this is the commandment of the New Covenant, “That you believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another.” (1 John 3:23).

Redemption through the cross means it is without the law:

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets: Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ to all and upon all them that believe…(Rom 3:21-22).

Early Quakers accused other Non-Conformists, such as John Bunyan (author of Pilgrim’s Progress) of preaching a Christ who did His redemptive work only outside of us, on the cross and in heaven, while the Quakers focused on redemption through Christ in us. They put the emphasis on the life of Christ within. They said the Evangelical Faith often claimed forgiveness without change of life.

Their emphasis was partly correct. It is the cross applied to our nature through the presence of Christ within that sets us free from sin. The early Quakers claimed that those who had a faith in merely a past cross had only a nominal faith. They said those people believed they were forgiven by the cross, while their lives were not changed.

This is what some called Evangelical Imputation, where Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us without a change of life, and Finney also rightly rejected it. But in rejecting it they also rejected historic Christian faith. They were correct in citing James, “A man is not justified by faith without works”, but wrong in seeing the works as the source of that justification. James was talking about pretended faith.

Imputation of righteousness is without the law, on the basis of Christ’s atonement alone. Then Christ comes within the believer through the faith He gives. When it is genuinely of the Holy Spirit it changes our nature and life style. This fulfils the law, not by us walking in reference to the law, but in reference to the person of Christ within, through His love and faith.

The early Quaker William Penn wrote The Sandy Foundation Shaken, against many facets of historical Christian faith, including against one God existing in three distinct and separate persons; against the necessity of plenary satisfaction (atonement) for the pardoning of sinners; and against the justification of impure persons by an imputative righteousness. Finney followed this. This is decidedly unchristian.

Penn worked for freedom of religious conscience in a period of English oppression and his policies in Pennsylvania (U.S.A.) were humane. Penn’s idealism (unconditional human love, public vs. church based education, diplomacy and advocating a European Union for world peace) contributed to a secularization of society, which has bad consequences in our time.

The early Quakers believed strongly in liberty for all genders, classes and races, humaneness and godliness, much to their credit. We are indebted to them for their contribution towards modern civil liberty, or liberal democracy. Liberal democracy in Western society is not a heritage from the Greeks or from the Renaissance, but it grew out of Christian principles and movements to protect the poor.

The early Quaker’s stance on Christ within as opposed to “evangelical believism” and their insistence that the Word is the person and not the letter of scripture and that through Christ the law is established rather than set aside, go to the core of the Christian gospel and should be strongly preached.

Yet, their insistence that “the light that lights every man” leads to salvation when obeyed denies total depravity and is a doctrine of works (John 1:9). It can lead to universalism, secularism and Neo-Orthodoxy. The light in John 1:9 gives each man existence and an inner witness that God exists and a conscience. Because of sin, man holds this light (general grace) in a state of spiritual death until he is regenerated by grace through the gospel of Jesus Christ.