Joel at The Chruch of Jesus Christ posted this brilliant analogy, “How to Explain the Religions of Abraham to the Hollywood Generation”:
Think of it like a movie. The Torah is the first one, and the New Testament the sequel. Then the Qu’ran comes out, and it retcons the last one like it never happened. There’s still Jesus, but he’s not the main character anymore, and the messiah hasn’t shown up yet.
Jews like the first movie but ignored the sequels. Christians think you need to watch the first two, but the third movie doesn’t count. The Moslems think the third one was the best, and Mormons liked the second one so much, they started writing fanfiction that doesn’t fit with ANY of the series canon.
C. Orthodoxy 
Or maybe Judaism is what some say about the Matrix trilogy (great movie followed by two attempts at sequels that never measured up to the original), Christianity is the view of Star Wars expressed by Hurley on LOST (two great movies, but the third needs improvement)…
Presumably those who accept ongoing revelation are like fans of Rocky…there’s always room for another sequel! 🙂
By: James McGrath on August 31, 2009
at 11:55 am
Those were exactly the two examples I thought of, along with: Islam is the new Battlestar Galactica (though it’s not a film, it works).
By: Ken Brown on August 31, 2009
at 12:00 pm
Maybe the Baha’i are Rocky folks?
By: Joel on August 31, 2009
at 4:05 pm
Hee hee. Thanks for sharing, Ken!
By: Timothy Mills on August 31, 2009
at 5:47 pm
It really captures the deep cultural importance and spiritual significance of the three religions, don’t you think? 😉
By: Ken Brown on August 31, 2009
at 7:21 pm
That hilarious! Thanks for sharing.
I had a Mormon friend once try to explain the differences between our theological commitments through a similar analogy. However, he used the Mighty Ducks (1 and 2) as his example. That had to be the worst apology I had ever heard…really…The Mighty Ducks?
By: Adam Couturier on September 1, 2009
at 4:32 am
What? I loved The Mighty Ducks when I was a kid! It was only the sequels that stunk. Wait… does that make me a Jew?
By: Ken Brown on September 1, 2009
at 10:16 am
[…] Carnival is hosted by Michelle at Thoughts and Confessions of a Girl Who Loves Jesus. It includes Abrahamic Religion as a Trilogy. See also Jeremy Pierce’s post on misrepresentations of the Pro-Life position on Stem-Cell […]
By: The Christian Carnival and the Foolishness of the Gospel « C. Orthodoxy on September 3, 2009
at 12:18 pm
Reblogged this on xandra black.
By: xandrablackprime on August 14, 2020
at 8:32 am