Traditional Quaker presence online.
Newest Post
✚ "Beginners Guide to the Traditional Quaker Faith" Tenth Month, Tenth, 2026
Great Reads
The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
Truth Republished
That which the people called Quakers lay down, as a main fundamental in religion, is this, That God, through Christ, hath placed his Spirit in every man. to inform him of his duty, and to enable him to do it; and that those who live up to this, are the people of God, and those that live in disobedience to it, are not God's people, whatever name they may bear or profession they may make of religion. This is their ancient, first and standing testimony. With this they began, and this they bore, and do bear to the world. — William Penn, Primitive Christianity Revived
The Quaker faith officially has its roots as an organized faith in 1650s England, when a man named George Fox gathered religious seekers across the nation and into one organized body to worship the Lord entirely in Spirit and Truth, as instructed by Jesus while speaking with the woman at the well in John 4:1-26. Although this is when Fox gathered seekers into unity with one another, the earliest Quakers were not afraid to say that what they were following is simply primitive Christianity revived. A faith so reliant on direct immediate following of the Holy Spirit that was left to teach us of all Truth in John 16:13, Quakers know that the Holy Spirit is with us now, guiding us into all truth.
All of the intermediaries that were expected at the time to be followed such as priests or mere outward forms and rituals were understood to have faded away with the crucifixion of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We know that when the new covenant was ushered in, all men have had the law written on their hearts in accordance with Jeremiah 31:33 and that sinking down to wait on Christ, He will teach us directly.
The Quaker faith is best described as a practically lived Christianity through radical discipleship and obedience of Jesus, with the understanding that "Christ has come to teach His people Himself!"
If thee would like to investigate more on the beliefs of Quakers and the beliefs of those who continue to follow "the old ways" of the Christian Quaker faith, please look through this brief synopsis of principles that has been broken up into easily readable sections.
Quakerism is both a faith in and a manifestation of the UNCHANGEABLE Truth; the faith of the Society of Friends, taking them as a body, has changed, and is changing now, so has their practice changed, for things which were once deemed reprovable by enlightened consciences, are now passed as allowable, without a clearness of spiritual judgment. — Quakerism as Practical Christianity, John Edward Southall
It is no secret that the Quaker faith has undergone changes wrought in by various influences from outside of the Society wearing down on the original principles and testimonies that were once the product of a unified focus on the simplicity of obeying the Lord Christ Jesus and the inward illumination granted by our Lord.
An important question to ask is whether or not we trust the words that early Quakers used when describing their faith. Friends around the world read stories describing the experience of early Quakers and insist that the Religious Society of Friends as it exists today is a continuation of the faith that brought their forefathers into a complete transformation and perseverance through religious persecution.
Yet it seems that we have forgotten their example and the very foundation that allowed for those transformations to occur, Friends around the world are seldom in unity with the original principles. Were early Quakers lying when they spoke of the unchanging Christ? Were they incorrect in their assertion that this ultimate illumination of Truth was Christ? Fox, Nayler, Penn, Dewsbury, and Shewen among others owned their faith to be built on the solid foundation of the Holy Spirit, left to us by the Lord to lead us into Truth.
Has Truth changed? If the version of Truth today that Friends follow does not align with the unshakeable faith of our forerunners does that make us thieves of their words? Do they truly remain applicable? Learn about the original Quaker faith through these resources
for Christ must be the Alpha of our religion, as well as the Omega of it. If I begin not there, let me begin where I will, I begin wrong — Stephen Crisp, 1688