On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 09:38:00 -0600, Mark A. Foster <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Gilberto, > At 09:56 PM 1/14/2005, Gilberto wrote: > >>I think the philosophical approach you are taking here, while curious and > >>intriguing, is something which I don't find convincing here. I think that > >>it should be possible for us to come up with a reasonable definition of > >>"prophet" such that a good number of Christians will allow for future > >>prophets after Jesus but the typical Muslim will not allow for future > >>prophets after Muhammad.<<
Mark: > I prefer not to construct such broad (macro) definitions. In my experience, > they are rarely productive, and they tend to dilute the various concepts > pointed to by the words. Gilberto: If that were the case, your objection should be that comparing the religions doesn't make sense. Not that I'm wrong. And if the above is the case, you can't say that both Islam and Christianity assesrt the finality of prophethood. Mark: In any event, I think I made a pretty good case for the differences between the Pauline and the qur'anic views of "prophet." Gilberto: Again see above. Mark: To Paul, all Christians can be prophets and prophesy. Gilberto: (many Christians, but not necessarily all) YES. YES. YES. So what does that mean. So suppose that in a Christian context, someone pops up and says "Hi, my name is Bob. God spoke with me. And he gave me a message to pass on to Y'all" A Christian will theoretically hear them out because they accept that prophets can still come. They might be skeptical. But they could probe further. They could hear what Bob has to say and see if he is a true prophet or a false prohet. After all, the Bible doesn't clearly say that no further prophets are coming. In fact, it definitely says that more prophets will be coming. >From a Muslim perspective, when Bob comes around, the above would be less likely to happen because the religion clearly says that Muhammad was the last prophet and messenger and no more are coming. ALL I've been saying is that this is a difference between Christianity and Islam. Do you agree or disagree? [Mark said that under Paul's conception there was some kind of end of prophecy.. Incidentally, I've been noticing that in the course of these discussions, when you and others have been editing, you've tended to break the flow of the discussion. And what is especially difficult is when I make a comment, that refers to a certain passage, but you remove the antecedents. So then if someone following along wants to make sense of the flow, the antedent needs to be put back in again. Like here...] Gilberto: > >>That would be alot more convincing if Paul didn't write more of the Bible > >>than any other person, including Jesus.<< Mark: > So are you saying that you regard Paul as a Prophet and Messenger? Gilberto: No, I don't think he was a messenger. But I think for Christians he was a person who apparently never met Jesus in the flesh, but appeared after him, and received inspiration from God, which he wrote down to pass on to future generations. Peace Gilberto "My people are hydroponic" __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] To unsubscribe, send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, use subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
