I am someone who in an earlier article described myself and my Cultural Christianity as something conforming more to the primitive, pre-title, pre Constantine, pre-catholic variety.
I think that God’s message through Jesus is still there and salvageable to unite or to bond a common faith better in a modern secular world - this for both us primitive Christian types as well as the other Christian varieties that have evolved since those early years of the faith.
This is perhaps clumsy but here I go.
I think the Islamic claim that Mohammed is the last prophet puts a limitation on the perfection of God/Allah.
There are no timelines for God/Allah.
We in the west in our cultural context put God as a perfect being meaning one that is all and does not need any changes.
As such I believe that God’s message to man is and has always been there to hear and or interpret. Hearing is one thing. Interpreting is another thing altogether. In a way, the job of prophets more or less has them in a unique position to hear and or interpret the eternal message, whatever that may be.
Each generation I think accepts or reexamines the interpretation of the message until the message become unclear and then new interpretations or deconstructions and reconstructions are attempted.
If God is perfect by a western concept, then God in our interpretation has no concept of time as we limited finite human beings have.
The message is always there. It is always there to hear for the first or second or third time interpreted or reinterpreted. A timeline from A to B to C will continue for cultures and cultural prophets because time has not ceased on that timeline.
Partial Message – NO*. (* Partial Interpretation – Yes.)
The word, the eternal message is part of the cosmic genetic makeup. The message of God to his creation is always there. God is immune to time, a human concept. God is always available to reach out and touch his creation – as his creation is reaching out in the other direction.
God’s message is not finite. The message unfortunately is subject to limitations such as the context of the receiving culture(s) – the ability to understand.
Just as the Sun emanates energy in all directions on a physical level, the spiritual message for the Creator to its creation is eternal and flows in all directions to all times, cultures, planets, galaxies etc.
Islam, the message through Mohammed, came about out of necessity, because of all the corruption and baggage added onto the message of God through Jesus.
Because of the cultural context thing, Christianity traveled more easily west over the stone roads of the Roman Empire.
Because of the cultural context thing, Islam traveled more easily over caravan routes to the east.
The message of God is the same but perceived differently in different cultures and in different times.
There is no absolute end to potential prophets within the context of time.