The New Foundation Fellowship

"In the beginning was the Word (the expression, the revelation), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him; and apart from nothing came into being that has being. In him was life and the life was the light of man." (See John 1:1-4)

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (See Gen. 2:7)

"It is the spirit or breath that gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words I speak to you, these are breath, these are life." (See John 6:63)

"I...do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ...may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him....These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places...And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." (See Ephesians 1:15-23)

"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. 3:11)

These passages, taken from various parts of the Bible illustrate the foundation that is at the same time old and new. It was the foundation in the beginning illustrated by the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It is ever renewed in the hearts of those who will hear and obey "the words I speak to you." Lets look at three examples among many hundreds of people brought to this foundation.

From the 17th century:

"But as I had forsaken the priests, so I left the separate preachers also, and those called the most experienced people; for I saw there was none among them all that could speak to my condition. And when all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do; then, Oh! then I heard a voice which said, ‘There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition.’ When I heard it, my heart did leap for joy. Then the Lord let me see why there was none upon the earth that could speak to my condition, namely, that I might give him all the glory. For all are concluded under sin, and shut up in unbelief, as I had been, that Jesus Christ might have pre-eminence, who enlightens, and gives grace, faith, and power. Thus when God doth work, who shall let it? This I knew experimentally. My desires after the Lord grew stronger, and zeal in the pure knowledge of God, and of Christ alone, without the help of any man, book, or writing. For though I read the scriptures that spake of Christ and of God, yet I knew him not but by revelation, as: he who hath the key did open, and as the Father of life drew me to his son by his spirit." (George Fox, Works, Vol. 1, p.74)

From the early 20th century:

"If you have no use for your life, I do." These words the Lord spoke to Lewis Benson on the brink of suicide. Lewis began to read the writings of George Fox, the 17th century messenger sent by God. Fox's message, in brief, was Christ is come to teach his people himself. Lewis began to see that not only was this message responsible for the Quaker movement in Fox's day, it was what he needed in his life. And so he labored for decades, living this reality and calling others to embrace what Fox and the early Quakers taught. In the 17th century, thousands of people came to walk in the truth that Fox proclaimed. In the 20th century, almost no one paid attention to Lewis until late in his life a small number of people were raised up to once again preach this message of good news.

From the late 20th century:

In 1983 I, an Oklahoma farmer, was sent to Washington D.C. to help formulate the agenda for the coming year's work of the Friends Committee on National Legislation. I was moved to speak in a meeting for worship, likening the early Quakers and the life they lived to the dry bones of Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones. These early Friends had once been a mighty people before God, but now they were dead and their vision was as dry as Ezekiel's bones. I asked, "Can these bones live again?"

There was no answer.

On my way back to Oklahoma, I took in the annual gathering of the New Foundation Fellowship. Again I asked this question, "Can these old bones live?" The answer came, "Not their bones, but yours must live today."

And so the message comes and the foundation of Christ's inward teaching is laid; a new foundation that is not the foundation of man's effort, or man's will, or even of man's religious endeavors. All who build on the foundation of hearing and obeying Christ's voice find life that cannot be quenched by the surrounding death and find light that overcomes the darkness. And so our work goes on, answering God's call to point people to and to call people to that foundation, Christ Jesus who teaches his people.

In his 5 lecture series, A New Foundation to Build Upon, Lewis Benson had this to say:<\p>

George Fox saw the institutions of the "Christian religion" as failing to channel the good news from God to perishing man. Insofar as they do fail, they circumvent the purpose of God in sending Christ into the world. When he spoke of the "world's invented seats of religion," he was not excluding, or making an exception of, "the Christian religion." He saw that people who make a profession of Christianity did not seem to be given more power to cope with the human problem than did people making no profession of faith in Christ. He saw that they were morally confused and morally impotent, and that their behavior was determined by the standards and mores of a corrupt society. He saw that "the Christian religion" did not lead to the gathering of a church that learns together, obeys together, and suffers together. He saw that what was needed was a new foundation. And he saw that over and against "the religions of the world which are vain," is the word that God has spoken, a word which is good news to all men. This is the good news that was preached to Abraham, and it is the everlasting gospel that John, in Revelation, tells us was to be preached to "every kindred, tongue, and nation. (From Lecture 1)

The purpose of this website and the books and downloads we offer is to call you to become established on this foundation of knowing Christ's teaching within yourself. Again, hear Lewis Benson's words from Lecture 5 of A New Foundation to Build Upon:

The announced theme or overall subject of this conference is "A New Foundation To Build Upon." If any have come here hoping to find an unshakable foundation for their lives I hope that the witness that has been made will help to turn them to Christ, the one foundation that stands sure. It is a wonderful thing to be turned to Christ, the Truth, and to receive truth in the love of it and to become settled and established in it. But all who gather in the name of Christ and look to him as their rock and foundation will be gently led to see that there is work to be done. There is something to be built on this foundation. The same God who calls you and enables you to establish your life on this gospel foundation is also calling you to the task of laying this gospel foundation again in the whole world. (From Lecture 5)