When the charismatic founder/leader of a religious movement dies, the popular belief is that the movement usually disintegrates. However, many new religions not only survive but prosper, despite leadership transition. In this book, prominent scholars examine what happened to eleven new movements following the deaths of their leaders, and why. An Introduction by J. Gordon Melton serves to integrate the case studies.

God wants none of His Children to die sick, talk less of His Prophets. However, Prophet Elisha, one of the most anointed among God's Prophet died sick.In His lifetime, Elisha raised the dead without speaking a word. He merely laid himself on the dead body twice and the dead rose up. After his death, his dry bones raised back to life a dead man. Yet with all his anointing, he died sick. Why did he die sick? The mystery behind his death through sickness is unraveled in this publication. It is not God's plan for you or anyone to end like Elisha. You can avoid it. This book in your hands is a treasure. Guard it jealously. Study it diligently. Apply it purposefully. I see God's help has reached you at last. Make use of it and live. It is a new day for you in Jesus Name.

The oldest Islamic biography of Muhammad, written in the mid-eighth century, relates that the prophet died at Medina in 632, while earlier and more numerous Jewish, Christian, Samaritan, and even Islamic sources indicate that Muhammad survived to lead the conquest of Palestine, beginning in 634-35. Although this discrepancy has been known for several decades, Stephen J. Shoemaker here writes the first systematic study of the various traditions. Using methods and perspectives borrowed from biblical studies, Shoemaker concludes that these reports of Muhammad's leadership during the Palestinian invasion likely preserve an early Islamic tradition that was later revised to meet the needs of a changing Islamic self-identity. Muhammad and his followers appear to have expected the world to end in the immediate future, perhaps even in their own lifetimes, Shoemaker contends. When the eschatological Hour failed to arrive on schedule and continued to be deferred to an ever more distant point, the meaning of Muhammad's message and the faith that he established needed to be fundamentally rethought by his early followers. The larger purpose of The Death of a Prophet exceeds the mere possibility of adjusting the date of Muhammad's death by a few years; far more important to Shoemaker are questions about the manner in which Islamic origins should be studied. The difference in the early sources affords an important opening through which to explore the nature of primitive Islam more broadly. Arguing for greater methodological unity between the study of Christian and Islamic origins, Shoemaker emphasizes the potential value of non-Islamic sources for reconstructing the history of formative Islam.

This book explores 'innocent blood' and its traditions as keys to the death of Jesus in Matthew, against background of exile and return.

When the charismatic founder/leader of a religious movement dies, the popular belief is that the movement usually disintegrates. However, many new religions not only survive but prosper, despite leadership transition. In this book, prominent scholars examine what happened to eleven new movements following the deaths of their leaders, and why. An Introduction by J. Gordon Melton serves to integrate the case studies.