#christ within

[theinwardlight]

From an Epistle of George Fox, early Quaker

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Ian Sanders

Carl Jung, on “The Resurrection of the Christ Within” What is important and meaningful to my life is that I shall live as fully as possible to fulfill the divine will within me. This task gives me so much to do that I have no time for any other. Let me point out that if we were all to live in that way we would need no armies, no police, no diplomacy, no politics, no banks. We would have a meaningful life and not what we have now—madness. What nature asks of the apple-tree is that it shall bring forth apples, and of the pear-tree that it shall bring forth pears. Nature wants me to be simply man. But a man conscious of what I am, and of what I am doing. God seeks consciousness in man. This is the truth of the birth and the resurrection of Christ within. As more and more thinking men come to it, this is the spiritual rebirth of the world. Christ, the Logos—that is to say, the mind, the understanding, shining into the darkness. Christ was a new truth about man. Mankind has no existence. I exist, you exist. But mankind is only a word. Be what God means you to be; don’t worry about mankind which doesn’t exist, you are avoiding looking at what does exist—the self You are like a man who leans over his neighbour’s fence and says to him: “Look, there is a weed. And over there is another one. And why don’t you hoe the rows deeper? And I why don’t you tie up your vines?” And all the while, his own garden, behind him, is full of weeds.

[divaricca]

If "God experiences" become important to your faith, the Bible loses the authority it has as the Word of God.

[theinwardlight]

So dear hearts, mind your Eternal Teacher, which is the Preacher of Righteousness, which speaks to the Spirits in Prison, for you cannot hear without this Preacher, nor any can speak to the Spirits in Prison, but he who is sent of the living God, which is now made manifest [...]. So here is your Teacher, and your Preacher, and your Redeemer, and your Saviour, if you be obedient and faithful to the measure of this gift of God, as it ariseth, and as it teaches, and as it makes the will of God manifest, and as it moves.

Margaret Fell, 1653

[theinwardlight]

Keep within. And when they shall say, "lo here," or "lo there is Christ," go not forth; for Christ is within you. And they are seducers and antichrists, which draw your minds out from the teaching within you.

George Fox, early Quaker

[theinwardlight]

Friends place special emphasis on the ever present Holy Spirit in the hearts of men. This power we call the Light Within or the Light of Christ. We believe that a seed of this spirit is in every man. The basis of faith is thus the belief that God endows each human being with a measure of His own Divine Spirit. He leaves no one without witness, but gives the light of His truth and presence to men of all races and walks of life. Love, the outworking of this Divine Spirit, is the most potent influence that can be applied to the affairs of men. The Society of Friends believes this application of love to the whole of life to be the core of the Christian doctrine. As within ourselves we become conscious of the Inner Light or the Christ within and submit ourselves to His leadings, we are enabled to live in conformity to the will of our Heavenly Father.

From the Discipline of Ohio Yearly Meeting of Friends

[theinwardlight]

Turn to the light of Jesus Christ, which will examine and search and try you, and bring you to know Christ within you, and so bring you out of the reprobate faith. This will let you see the mystery which is Christ within; and this will bring you to know Him come in the flesh; and it will let you see those Antichrists who are in the world striving amongst their many opinions: and therefore they are condemned with the Light which is the world's condemnation [...] And so now see whether you will turn to the light of Jesus Christ who is the the way the truth & the life, which is but one, or you will continue amongst them who are of the many opinions, who denies the light, & Christ come in the flesh, and so is found to be the Antichrists, & deceivers of your souls.

From the letters of Margaret Fell, early Quaker

[theinwardlight]

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Revelation 3:20 (KJV)

But Christ is come and doth dwell in the hearts of his people and reigns there. And thousands, at the door of whose hearts he hath been knocking, have opened to him, and he is come in, and doth sup with them and they with him, the heavenly supper.

George Fox's Journal

Christ saves not as he stands without the door knocking, but as he is let in; and being let in, he brings with him that life, power, and mercy, which break down the wall of partition, unite to God, and save.

Isaac Penington's Works