The story of George Fox and why you should know about him.
(Photo: Getty/iStock)2024 marked the 400th anniversary of the birth of George Fox in 1624. It was George Fox's ideas and writings which led to the emergence of the Society of Friends, popularly known as the Quakers. This is the story...
George Fox
George Fox read and devoured the Bible, and he knew it thoroughly. Biblical principles moulded his beliefs and practices, yet he also witnessed many practices in other churches which he considered quite liberal or unbiblical. He felt that Christian life and practice should be simpler, based on the actual teachings of Jesus and the New Testament. He believed that Christians should live an ethical life ruled by the highest biblical, moral principles, and be guided by the Holy Spirit and the conscience.
Preacher
From 1647, George Fox became an itinerant preacher especially in the English Midlands and then the northern counties of England. He did not believe in the Apostolic Succession but felt that preachers were directly ordained by the Holy Spirit.
Quaker communities grew in Britain and beyond leading to the creation of the Society of Friends, although from 1650 they were soon nicknamed the Quakers, because they were said to "tremble at the word of God". Early Friends met on hilltops, in people's houses or in barns, and the first meeting houses were built in the 1670s.
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