The Friends Church (Quaker) arose from a movement of Christian renewal that began in England during the seventeenth century. The major leader of this renewal was George Fox, who as a sensitive youth had been repulsed by cold formalism and power politics in the church and by empty pleasure seeking outside the church. Young Fox studied the Bible and longed for an authentic faith to match its Christian message. This longing remained unfulfilled, even frustrated, by human counselors until he looked beyond them. Then he discovered One who could "speak to thy condition" as phrased in Fox's Journal.

George Fox found this experience with the living Christ so compelling that he quickly told others about it. He shared the good news that Christ could free persons from the guilt and power of sin. To this message people responded eagerly. They were seekers, disillusioned by dry and formal religion, and they were attracted to the warm, evangelical message preached by this earnest young messenger. Scores of young men and women were "raised up of the Lord" for a ministry across England. Known as the "valiant sixty," they proclaimed that Christ could be experienced in the present, not just read about in the Bible or remembered through ritual observance. This is how George Fox perceived his ministry:

George Fox explained grace in terms of the Light of Christ, using the terms found in the Gospel of John. By this inward light, said Fox, people can understand Jesus Christ as "their Saviour and Redeemer, who shed Ms blood and died for them, who is the way to God, the truth and life." (Journal, pp. 225-226)