From: ucsb/~stp:
Daily Devotional:
The Continuing Revelation
The idea that God talks to each of us, that we are each capable of being lead by deep divine inspiration, this concept of a continuing revelation, is central to the Quaker faith. This attitude influences our relationship to scripture (both Christian and other), since we feel driven to hear the spirit behind the words, and to feel a connection with the underlying motivating force of the scripture, "to have Jesus read it to us," as some Christian Friends say.
In a pamphlet on the religion of George Fox, the noted contemporary American Quaker thinker Howard Brinton wrote that "Fox believed in appealing to the spirit that created the Bible, rather than to the Bible itself. This spirit imparted to people only what they were able to receive. Fox could then repudiate the Old Testament as an imperfect revelation of the truth, and claim for the New Testament a new and higher revelation. He considered this new doctrine to be a changeless religion because it was based on the Spirit of Truth, on whatever the Spirit of Truth might reveal, rather than on any particular revelation of it."
The only change in the last 350 years is that modern Friends often believe that the revelation is both continuous and complete, that God, in whatever form, is revealed in everything and at all times, and that people only differ in their abilities to be aware of this spirit. If one believes in an aware God, a God with a first-person voice, so to speak, then this God must surely be trying to get through to us in any way possible. If one perceives of God as the unity of all existence, as the Universe, then this, too, is revealed to each and every one of us in every situation. It is only in the depth of their attitude of inspiration and wonder that people differ.
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