Abrahamic religions require and promote social

organization and institutional forms to carry out the

necessary functions of worship and leadership, preserving
orthodox teachings and practices.
1.Protestant Christians don’t have a pope, and Sunni
Muslims don’t have supreme religious leaders as Shi’ite
Muslims do.
2.All communities, however, have religious functionaries and
institutional structures.
Abrahamic religions promise an inner peace and harmony
despite the vicissitudes of life.
1.Discovering meaning that transcends physical existence
enables people of faith to overcome the challenges posed by
Abrahamic religions typically offer a future hope
through the coming of a new age or a better existence
in the afterlife.
1.Most religions anticipate the coming of a gifted
person (for example, the Jewish messiah, the Second
Coming of Jesus, Muslim’s Mahdi) who will help
usher in a new age of peace and tranquility.
2.The future hope may be realized in a new heaven or
new Earth or a blissful existence beyond this physical
life.
Abrahamic religions must propagate themselves
through the recruitment of new members and
procreation within the community of faith.
1.Christianity, and Islam are the primary
“missionary” religions in the world.
2.Most religions require marriage and procreation
within the community as the primary source of new
adherents.
Abrahamic religions: Sacred People—Prophets,
Sages, Saviors
I.Three major types of foundational religious leaders
play a pivotal role and are revered as uniquely gifted
sacred people in the major religions: prophets, sages,
and saviors.
II. Prophets, who are perceived as conveying God’s
Word or message to their communities, exhibit
similarities and differences in the Monotheistic
religions connected to Abraham.
A. Prophets are not necessarily people peering far into
the future and making predictions; rather, their
messages are focused on a particular time, a particular
B. Prophets often warn of future consequences.
C. Moses and Jeremiah exemplify the essential role of
prophets in ancient Israel.
1.Moses’s response to being told by God that he will lead
his people out of slavery is one of unworthiness, thus
establishing a pattern that we will see mirrored in other
prophets.
Miraculous events, such as the parting of the Red Sea and
Moses’s meeting of God on Mount Sinai, are clear signs
of Moses’s role as a prophet
2.Jeremiah was called to be a prophet as a child and was
later told by God to write down all the things he had been
preaching for decades. Like Moses, Jeremiah felt
D. Muhammad was called to be a prophet at age 40.
1.Like many prophets, he responded to the call with a sense
of unworthiness. He was, after all, illiterate.
2.Over time, he accepted the mission and responsibility.
E. The prophets of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam directed
their respective messages to particular times and places.
1.Moses’s leadership of the children of Israel toward the
Promised Land is quite different from Jeremiah’s searing
words to a corrupt political and religious establishment in
Jerusalem.
2.Although Muslims perceive the Qur’an to be the eternal
Word of God, containing truths that transcend time and
place, to interpret the Qur’an—and Muhammad’s role as a
prophet— one first must know the settings in which a
 Thank you for your kind
attention
Qorban Elmi: University
of Tehran