--- Alberto Monteiro <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What nonsense! Every Evangelical leader should place > Muhammad > among the precursors of the Reform, a minor > reformism before > Luther did the right thing! :-)
Reform means many things. Muhammed was a reformer from polytheism to structured monotheism, with the addition of written transcription of the prophet's exact words - a technological breakthrough un-utilized by Moses, Jesus, Buddha, etc... but utilized first by Paul of Tarsus in his Letters. Other "reforms" have often followed a pattern. Some humans seem to need an intercessionary religion, with priests standing between you and Heaven, making sure the procedural rituals are done right, while others want direct interface. The Pharisees where rebels against the Temple priests. When the Temple was destroyed, Rabbinic Judaism became individualistic... except amid messianic sub-groups. Paul's orthodoxy raised up a priesthood. The Protestant Reformation satisfied the long frustrated individualistic drive. In Protestant dominated America, those with intercession-leanings flocked in droves to Mormonism when it erupted to satisfy that need. Within Islam, Shiites are far more priestly and intercessionist than Sunnis. As far as I know, I've seen no one else raise this way of seeing things. Anybody know of religious writings that look at it this way? I may write an article. The "apocalypts" come from a protestant tradition. But their obsession with process... with a prescribed stage drama and precise procedures of reward/punishment... seems to be a frantic rush toward the priestly and incatatory approach, away from the contingent and practical tradition of mainline protestantism. The capper is their obsession with that most priestly of all symbolic edifices, the Temple in Jerusalem, which fell in 70 AD, another apocalypse-obsessed era. Few Jews are at all interested in rebuilding it and having guys named Cohen go back to sacrificing goats. Many bless the presence of the Dome of the Rock for preventing that. Much to the puzzlement of Left Behind fans who see the rebuilding as a key event triggering that lovely-expected end of the world. Oh, one more item. I have heard that in 1799, the most popular book in Europe was one that tied every line of Revelations to Napolean and other political figures of that time. Anybody care to track down if that's true or not, and the name of the book? Apocalypts don't seem to care that Hal Lindsey's THE LATE, GREAT PLANET EARTH, which was revered almost as anothoer gospel and began the modern apocalyptic obsession, linked Revelations to the Soviet Union. While Le Haye and the newbies link it to Islam. Ah, flexibility. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
