Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Jesus and Paul were listed as the 3rd and 6th Most Influential Persons in History

In 1978, Michael H. Hart's wrote a book, "The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History". In this list (revised in 1992), Jesus and Paul were listed as the 3rd and 6th Most Influential Persons in History and Muhammad was ranked number one. Moses was ranked number 16.

In his book, Michael Hart explained why he did not choose Jesus as Most Influential Person in History, "Since there are roughly twice as many Christians as Moslems in the world, it may initially seem strange that Muhammad has been ranked higher than Jesus. There are two principal reasons for that decision. First, Muhammad played a far more important role in the development of Islam than Jesus did in the development of Christianity. Although Jesus was responsible for the main ethical and moral precepts of Christianity (insofar as these differed from Judaism), St. Paul was the main developer of Christian theology, its principal proselytizer, and the author of a large portion of the New Testament."

This is the precise point. In all the world's great religions, the "single founder" is instrumental in its success. It is the Glory of the Man, who is the Founder. Christianity is the only religion who gave God the Glory. It is impossible for a Man to write the Bible. It is impossible for a Man to start Christianity. Though Christianity had a greater influence on the world than Islam, the success of Christianity cannot be attributed to a Man. It was a collaboration of many men, who acted via the influence of the Holy Spirit, that bring forth Christianity. There is no single Man who was "responsible for both the theology" and "its main ethical and moral principles", "in proselytizing the new faith, and in establishing the religious practices" and "the author" of the scriptures.

No comments: