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Three Stages of Spiritual Growth |
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In Volume 4 of Fox's Works, p. 6, is found John Taylor's testimony about his first meeting with George Fox. Noteworthy in it is the conciseness with which George Fox, speaking in the Lord's name, summarized the course of Christian spiritual growth: In the name and power of the Lord, I give this short testimony for that worthy and honourable man of God, George Fox . . . When I first went to him, he treated me in meekness like a lamb; he took me by the hand, and said, young man, this is the word of the Lord to thee, there are three scriptures thou must witness to be fulfilled, first, thou must be turned from darkness to light; next, thou must come to the knowledge of the glory of God; and then, thou must be changed from glory to glory; and this had such an impression on me, that I was fully satisfied he was sent of God, and the word of life was with him . . .
John Taylor The three scriptures Fox referred to are expressed thus in the King James Bible: I Peter 2:9: But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: II Corinthians 4:6: For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. II Corinthians 3:18: But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. The first passage cited echoes other relevant biblical usages of darkness and light: John 3:19-21: And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. (Cf. Matthew 8:12, 22:13, 25:30, about those "cast into outer darkness.") Ephesians 5:8-13: For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: 9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) 10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. 12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. 13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. (cf. I Thessalonians 5:5b, We are not of the night, nor of darkness; Romans 13:12b, let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.) The second thing Fox promised young John Taylor was knowledge of the glory of God. Knowledge of God being said in the Fourth Gospel (John 17:3) to be what eternal life consists of, Robert Barclay, in the first proposition of his Apology for the True Christian Divinity (1678), calls it "the height of all happiness:" Seeing the height of all happiness is placed in the true knowledge of God; "This is life eternal, to know the true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent"; the true and right understanding of this foundation and ground of knowledge is that which is most necessary to be known and believed in the first place. One must assume that Paul's "knowledge of the glory of God" is close in meaning to the "knowledge of God" promised in John 17:3, or for that matter to the "knowledge of the Lord" that Isaiah 11:9 tells us is to cover the earth. Such is the blessedness of the new life we are offered in Christ, however, that we are not merely given a knowledge that makes us happy, but continually transformed, "from glory to glory," into ever-closer likeness to Christ. John Jeremiah Edminster 12-06-2006
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