Editing Inward light (section)

== Basis ==
[[File:Fox-George-LOC.jpg|alt=|thumb|Quaker belief in the Inner Light extends back to founder [[George Fox]].<ref name=Mink2004/>]] 
[[File:QuakersPennsylvanie.jpg|250px|left|thumb|''Quakers embrassant des Indiens en Pennsylvanie'' (Quakers embracing [[Native Americans in the United States|Indians]] in Pennsylvania) by [[:fr:Clément-Pierre Marillier|Clément-Pierre Marillier]], 1775]]
The Quaker belief that the Inward Light shines on each person is based in part on a passage from the [[New Testament]], namely [[s:Bible (King James)/John#Chapter 1|John 1:9]], which says, "That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Early Friends took this verse as one of their mottos and often referred to themselves as "Children of the Light". Moreover, Friends emphasize the part of the verse that indicates that the Light "is extended to all people everywhere", even "people who have never heard of [[Christianity]] in a meaningful way or at all can share in the Light, if they sincerely respond to God's grace. ''For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus'' (Romans 2:14–16)."<ref name=QuakersOnline/>

The principal founder of what became the Religious Society of Friends, [[George Fox]], claimed that he had a direct experience of God.  Having explored various sects and listened to an assortment of preachers, he finally concluded that none of them were adequate to be his ultimate guide.  At that point he reported hearing a voice that told him, "There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition."  He felt that God wanted him to teach others that they need not depend on human teachers or guides either, because each one of them could experience God directly and hear his voice within.  He wrote in his journal, "I was glad that I was commanded to turn people to that ''inward light'', spirit, and grace, by which all might know their salvation, and their way to God; even that divine Spirit which would lead them into all Truth, and which I infallibly knew would never deceive any."<ref name=journal>[http://www.qis.net/~daruma/fox-ministry.html Quotes by George Fox in his journal]</ref> Fox taught: that Christ, the Light, had come to teach his people himself; that "people had no need of any teacher but the Light that was in all men and women" (the anointing they had received);<ref name=journal/> if people would be silent, waiting on God, the Light would teach them how to conduct their lives, teach them about Christ, show them the condition of their hearts; they loving the Light, it would rid them of the "cause of sin"; and soon after, Christ would return in his glory to establish his Kingdom in their hearts. Fox called the Light destroying sin within as the Cross of Christ, the Power of God.

Regarding this, Fox wrote, "Now ye that know the power of God and are come to it—which is the Cross of Christ, that crucifies you to the state that Adam and Eve were in the fall, and so to the world—by this power of God ye come to see the state they were in before they fell, which power of God is the Cross, in which stands the everlasting glory; which brings up into the righteousness, holiness and image of God, and crucifies to the unrighteousness, unholiness and image of Satan." The Cross is no "dead fact stranded on the shore of the oblivious years", but is to be a living experience deep in the heart of the believer, and changing his whole life. "You that know the power and feel the power, you feel the Cross of Christ, you feel the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth."  All real experience of the Cross must lead, he thought, to the same way of life that brought the Master there—to the way of humility and non-resistance, of overcoming evil by the sole force of love and goodness. To Fox it seemed that a high profession of Christianity often went with a way of life in flagrant opposition to this. He writes to the persecutors: "Your fruits have manifested that you are not of this (wisdom from above); and so out of the power of God which is the Cross of Christ; for you are found in the world, out of the power of God, out of the Cross of Christ, persecuting."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.strecorsoc.org/grubb/qth01.html |title=Quaker Thought & History; Chapter 1 – George Fox and Christian Theology |access-date=17 December 2008 |author=Edward Grubb|year=1925|publisher=The MacMillan Company |quote=Now ye that know the power of God and are come to it—which is the Cross of Christ...}}</ref>