Christian Related Prophets and Leader or Influential figures

FUll list on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_founders_of_religious_traditions


Ellen G. White
(E. G. White, Ellen Gould White aka (née Harmon; November 26, 1827 – July 16, 1915))
prolific author and an American Christian pioneer. Along with other Sabbatarian Adventist leaders she formed what became known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Ellen_G._White
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_G._White

Joseph Smith, Jr.
(December 23, 1805 – June 27, 1844)
When he was twenty-four, Smith published the Book of Mormon; by the time of his death fourteen years later, he had attracted tens of thousands of followers and founded a religion and religious culture that continues to the present.
The same year he organized the Church of Christ, calling it a restoration of the early Christian church. Members of the church were later called "Latter Day Saints", or "Mormons".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Smith#Cosmology_and_theology


Paul the Apostle
( Paulos; c. 5 – c. 67), originally known as Saul of Tarsus (Saulos Tarseus), was an apostle (though not one of the Twelve Apostles) who taught the gospel of Christ to the first-century world. He is generally considered one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age. In the mid-30s to the mid-50s, he founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe. Paul used his status as both a Jew and a Roman citizen to advantage in his ministry to both Jewish and Roman audiences.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_the_Apostle#Role_of_women
. Acient women prophets include Miriam, Aaron and Moses' sister,[Exod 15:20] Deborah,[Judges 4:4] the prophet Isaiah's wife,[Isa. 8:3] and Huldah, the one who interpreted the Book of the Law discovered in the temple during the days of Josiah.[2 Kings 22:14] [2 Chron. 34:22].
 The prophetess Noadiah was among those who tried to intimidate Nehemiah.[Neh 6:14] Apparently they held equal rank in prophesying right along with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Elisha, Aaron, and Samuel.



James, brother of Jesus
James  (Ya'akov;  Iákōbos, also could be anglicized as Jacob),important figure of the Apostolic Age who founded Jewish Christianity. His usual epithets are James, the Lord's brother and James the Just. It is agreed by most that he should not be confused with James, son of Zebedee. Roman Catholic tradition generally holds that this James is to be identified with James, son of Alphaeus and James the Less
According to a passage found in existing manuscripts of Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, (xx.9) "the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James" met his death after the death of the procurator Porcius Festus but before Lucceius Albinus had assumed office (Antiquities 20,9) – which has been dated to 62. The High Priest Hanan ben Hanan (Anani Ananus in Latin) took advantage of this lack of imperial oversight to assemble a Sanhedrin (although the correct translation of the Greek synhedrion kriton is "a council of judges"), who condemned James "on the charge of breaking the law", then had him executed by stoning.
Though the Apostle Peter was initially sympathetic, the Apostle Paul opposed the teaching at the Incident at Antioch (Gal. 2:11-21) and at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:6-35), where Paul's teaching was accepted by the whole Church. Nevertheless, Judaizing continued for several centuries, particularly among Jewish Christian
 As Christianity grew and evolved, Jewish Christians became only one strand of the early Christian community, characterised by combining the confession of Jesus as Christ with continued adherence to Jewish traditions such as Sabbath observance, observance of the Jewish calendar, observance of Jewish laws and customs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James,_brother_of_Jesus#Younger_blood_brother.2C_son_of_Mary_and_Joseph
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Christianity


Judah the Prince
( Yehudah HaNasi) or Judah I, also known as Rabbi or Rabbenu HaQadosh (Hebrew:"our Master, the holy one"), was a 2nd-century CE rabbi and chief redactor and editor of the Mishnah. He was a key leader of the Jewish community during the Roman occupation of Judea . According to the Talmud he was of the Davidic line, the royal line of King David, hence the title nasi, meaning prince.
Was born in 135 CE, he came into the world on the same day that Rabbi Akiva died a martyr's death
The Mishnah consists of 63 tractates codifying Jewish law, which are the basis of the Talmud. 189 CE.
According to the Talmud (Avodah Zarah 10a-b), Judah haNasi was very wealthy and greatly revered in Rome. He had a close friendship with "Antoninus", possibly the Emperor Antoninus Pius, though it is more likely his famous friendship was with Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus  who would consult Judah on various worldly and spiritual matters.
Greek enabled him to become the Jews' intermediary with the Roman authorities. He favored Greek as the language of the country over Syriac (Aramaic). It is said that in Judah's house, only Hebrew was spoken, and even the maids spoke it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_the_Prince#Post-Talmudic_legends



Akiva ben Joseph
his maxim, referred to above, "God rules the world in mercy, but according to the preponderance of good or bad in human acts."
(c. 40 – c. 137 CE), widely known as Rabbi Akiva, was a tanna of the latter part of the 1st century and the beginning of the 2nd century (3rd tannaitic generation). Rabbi Akiva was a leading contributor to the Mishnah and Midrash Halakha. He is referred to in the Talmud as Rosh la-Chachamim (Head of all the Sages).
Akiva was instrumental in drawing up the canon of the Tanakh. He protested strongly against the canonicity of certain of the Apocrypha, the Wisdom of Sirach, for instance.
Akiva stoutly defended, however, the canonicity of the Song of Songs, and Esther
He recognized Bar Kokhba as Messiah, and was executed by the Romans in the disastrous aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt.
To the same motive underlying his antagonism to the Apocrypha, namely, the desire to disarm Christians—especially Jewish Christians—who drew their "proofs" from the Apocrypha, must also be attributed his wish to emancipate the Jews of the Dispersion from the domination of the Septuagint, the errors and inaccuracies in which frequently distorted the true meaning of Scripture, and were even used as arguments against the Jews by the Christians
The following may be mentioned here as the halakic Midrashim originating in Akiva's school: the Mekilta of Rabbi Simon (in manuscript only) on Exodus; Sifra on Leviticus; Sifre Zuṭṭa on the Book of Numbers (excerpts in YalḲ. Shim'oni, and a manuscript in Midrash ha-Gadol, (edited for the first time by B. Koenigsberger, 1894); and the Sifre to Deuteronomy, the halakic portion of which belongs to Akiva's school.
Akiva's anthropology is based upon the principle that man was created בצלם, that is, not in the image of God—which would be בצלם אלהים—but after an image, after a primordial type; or, philosophically speaking, after an Idea—what Philo calls in agreement with Judean theology, "the first heavenly man" (see Adam ḳadmon). Strict monotheist that Akiba was, he protested against any comparison of God with the angels, and declared the plain interpretation of כאחד ממנו (Gen. iii. 22) as meaning "like one of us" to be arrant blasphemy (Mek., Beshallaḥ, 6).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akiva_ben_Joseph#Legends


Avvakum Petrov
 (Russian: Авваку́м Петро́в) (November 20, 1620 or 1621 – April 14, 1682)
led the opposition to Patriarch Nikon's reforms of the Russian Orthodox Church. His autobiography and letters to the tsar, to Boyarynya Morozova and other Old Believers are considered masterpieces of 17th-century Russian literature.
Starting in 1652 Nikon, as Patriarch of the Russian Church, initiated a wide range of reforms in Russian liturgy and theology. These reforms were mostly intended to bring the Russian Church into line with the other Orthodox Churches of Eastern Europe and Middle East.
Avvakum and others strongly rejected these changes. They saw them as a corruption of the Russian Church, which they considered to be the true Church of God.
For his opposition to the reforms, Avvakum was repeatedly imprisoned. For the last fourteen years of his life he was imprisoned in a pit or dugout (a sunken, log-framed hut) at Pustozyorsk above the Arctic Circle before finally being burned at the stake. The spot where he was burned is now marked by an ornate wooden cross.
Despite his end, groups rejecting the changes persisted, and they came to be referred to as Old Believers. Vanausulised
autobiography memorably recounts hardships of his imprisonment and exile to the Russian Far East, the story of his friendship and rupture with the Tsar Alexis, his practice of exorcising demons and devils, and his boundless admiration for nature and other works of God.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avvakum


Jakob Ammann
(also Jacob Amman, Amann) (12 February 1644 – between 1712 and 1730)[1] was an Anabaptist leader and namesake of the Amish religious movement.
Jakob was willing to disregard longstanding customs and practices if they were not founded on God’s Word. He denied that he was trying to start a "new faith". He believed in a new birth experience that would radically change a person. He wrote:
    If a miser does not turn from his fornication, and a drunkard from his drunkenness, or other immoralities, they are thereby separated from the kingdom of God, and if he does not improve himself through a pious, penitent life, such a person is no Christian and will not inherit the Kingdom of God.[5]:p.34
In practical matters, he stood opposed to long hair on men, shaved beards, and clothing that manifested pride. Liars were to be excommunicated.[5]:p.27–45 Ammann, unlike most Amish married men of today, however, had a mustache,[citation needed] which is largely forbidden today in the faith
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_Ammann

Because of their prominent roles, Jakob Ammann and Hans Reist have been used to characterize the two sides of the schism, but the issues were broader than the two most prominent men involved



John Wesley
Wesley practiced a vegetarian diet and abstained from wine
(28 June [O.S. 17 June] 1703 – 2 March 1791) was an Anglican minister and theologian who, with his brother Charles Wesley and fellow cleric George Whitefield, is credited with the foundation of the evangelical movement known as Methodism. His work and writings also played a leading role in the development of the Holiness movement and Pentecostalism.
Although he was not a systematic theologian, Wesley argued for the notion of Christian perfection and against Calvinism – and, in particular, against its doctrine of predestination. He held that, in this life, Christians could achieve a state where the love of God "reigned supreme in their hearts", giving them outward holiness. His evangelicalism, firmly grounded in sacramental theology, maintained that means of grace were the manner by which God sanctifies and transforms the believer, encouraging people to experience Jesus Christ personally. (What, in Earthly simple terms?)
Wesley was a friend of John Newton and William Wilberforce who were also influential in the abolition of slavery in Britain.
Although sometimes maverick in his interpretation and use of church policy, he became widely respected and, by the end of his life, had been described as "the best loved man in England"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley#Support_for_abolitionism



John Calvin
Jehan Cauvin: 10 July 1509 – 27 May 1564) was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism, aspects of which include the doctrine of predestination and the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation of the human soul from death and eternal damnation. In these areas Calvin was influenced by the Augustinian tradition. Various Congregational, Reformed and Presbyterian churches, which look to Calvin as the chief expositor of their beliefs, have spread throughout the world
During the autumn of 1533 Calvin experienced a religious conversion. In later life, John Calvin wrote two accounts of his conversion that differ in significant ways. In the first account he portrays his conversion as a sudden change of mind, brought about by God. This account can be found in his Commentary on the Book of Psalms:
"God by a sudden conversion subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame, which was more hardened in such matters than might have been expected from one at my early period of life. Having thus received some taste and knowledge of true godliness, I was immediately inflamed with so intense a desire to make progress therein, that although I did not altogether leave off other studies, yet I pursued them with less ardour."
In his second account he speaks of a long process of inner turmoil, followed by spiritual and psychological anguish.
    "Being exceedingly alarmed at the misery into which I had fallen, and much more at that which threatened me in view of eternal death, I, duty bound, made it my first business to betake myself to your way, condemning my past life, not without groans and tears. And now, O Lord, what remains to a wretch like me, but instead of defence, earnestly to supplicate you not to judge that fearful abandonment of your Word according to its deserts, from which in your wondrous goodness you have at last delivered me."[8]
Scholars have argued about the precise interpretation of these accounts, but it is agreed that his conversion corresponded with his break from the Roman Catholic Church
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Calvin



Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger
(28 February 1799 – 14 January 1890), sometimes spelt Doellinger, was a German theologian, Catholic priest and church historian who rejected the dogma of papal infallibility. He is considered an important contributor to the doctrine, growth and development of the Old Catholic Church, though he himself never joined that denomination
The archbishop replied by excommunicating the disobedient professor. This aroused fresh opposition. Döllinger was almost unanimously elected rector-magnificus of the university of Munich. Oxford, Edinburgh and Marburg universities conferred upon him the honorary degree of doctor of laws and Vienna that of philosophy.
His addresses on the reunion of the churches, delivered at the Bonn Conference of 1872, show that he was by no means hostile towards the newly formed Old Catholic communion, in whose interests these conferences were held.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_von_D%C3%B6llinger



 in 1837, he had a number of vivid and terrifying dreams, which he interpreted as mystical visions. In his dreams Hong was visited by two figures, an old, paternal figure and an elder brother-figure. In one dream the old man complained to Hong about men worshiping demons rather than him. In a second dream, Hong saw Confucius being punished for his faithlessness, after which he repented. In another dream, Hong dreamt of angels carrying him to heaven, where he met the elder-brother figure wearing a black dragon robe with a long golden beard who gave him a sword and a magic seal, and told him to purge China of demons. Several years later, he would interpret this to mean that God the Heavenly Father (whom he identified with Shangdi from Chinese tradition) wanted him to rid the world of demon worship. In order to complete his mission of ridding the world of demons, the elder brother-figure changed Hong's name to "Hong Xiuquan". His friends and family said that after this episode he became authoritative, solemn and taller in height
By 1850 Hong had between 10,000 to 30,000 followers.
He preached a mixture of communal "utopianism", evangelism, and Christianity.
The authorities were alarmed at the growing size of the sect and ordered them to disperse. A local force was sent to attack them when they refused, but the imperial troops were routed and a deputy magistrate killed. A full-scale attack was launched by government forces in the first month of 1851,. Hong's followers emerged victorious and beheaded the Manchu commander of the government army. Hong declared the founding of the "Heavenly Kingdom of Transcendent Peace" on 11 January 1851.
In 1847 Hong studied with the American Southern Baptist missionary, Reverend Issachar Jacox Roberts, for two months in Guangzhou, during which time he gained most of his knowledge of Christianity.
Most of Hong Xiuquan's knowledge of the scriptures came from the books known as "Good Words to Admonish the Age" by the Chinese preacher Liang Fa and formally studied the Old Testament
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Xiuquan

Liang Fa
 1789–1855) was the first Chinese Protestant minister and evangelist. He was ordained by Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to China. His evangelism was responsible for the conversion of Hong Xiuquan, leader of the Taiping Rebellion.
In 1834, Liang's missionary work was threatened by the Imperial Chinese Government and he fled to Malaysia. While there at Malacca he worked alongside English missionary Samuel Dyer with his printing and translation efforts. He returned to China five years later at the dawn of the Opium War. Liang did not support the war. He argued that if Britain waged war against China, the Chinese would not believe in the Bible and the British missionaries any more. His effort was ultimately in vain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liang_Fa



Sergey Anatolyevitch Torop
1961,
known by his followers as Vissarion (Виссарион), is a Russian mystic and sect leader. He founded and heads a religious or sect movement known as the Church of the Last Testament with its head church in the Siberian Taiga in the Minusinsk Depression east of Abakan, in the southern Siberia Kuraginsk district of Krasnoyarsk territory, in the small settlement of Petropavlovka. He has around 4,000 followers (called Vissarionites) living in the settlement and around 10,000 followers worldwide.
Vissarion claims to be a reincarnation of Jesus. He teaches reincarnation, veganism, the impending end of the world (or at least of civilization as we know it), and the belief of aliens.
His religion combines elements of the Russian Orthodox Church with Buddhism, apocalypticism, collectivism, and ecological values. His followers observe strict regulations, are vegans, and are allowed no vices such as smoking or drinking alcohol and money is banned., The aim of the group is to unite all religions on Earth. Vissarion formed his religion around the time of the fall of the USSR
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vissarion


Mary Baker Eddy
(July 16, 1821 – December 3, 1910) was the founder of Christian Science, a new religious movement, in the United States in the latter half of the 19th century.
Eddy wrote the movement's textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (first published 1875), and in 1879 founded the Church of Christ, Scientist.
Dr. Allan McLane Hamilton (1848–1919), told The New York Times that the attacks on Eddy were the result of "a spirit of religious persecution that has at last quite overreached itself," and that "there seems to be a manifest injustice in taxing so excellent and capable an old lady as Mrs. Eddy with any form of insanity."
Currently, there are almost 1,700 Christian Science churches in 76 countries. Eddy's book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures has been a best seller for decades, and was selected as one of the "75 Books By Women Whose Words Have Changed The World," by the Women's National Book Association. In 1995 Eddy was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. In 2002, The Mary Baker Eddy Library opened its doors, giving the public access to one of the largest collections about an American woman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Baker_Eddy


 Rabbi Alfred G. Moses and Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein
Jewish Science is a Judaic spiritual movement comparable with the New Thought Movement. Many of its members also attend services at conventional synagogues.
It is an interpretation of Jewish philosophy that was originally conceived by Rabbi Alfred G. Moses in the early 1900s in response to the growing influence of Christian Science and the New Thought Movement.
Jewish Science: Divine Healing in Judaism. The movement was institutionalized in 1922 with Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein's founding of the Society of Jewish Science
Jewish Science shares several principle beliefs with Christian Science and the New Thought movement, and it is intended to function as a counterweight to the Christian elements in both of these movements and strictly maintain its Jewish identity. It was founded by Alfred G. Moses, Morris Lichtenstein and Tehilla Lichtenstein in 1916. It emphasizes the role of affirmative prayer, "divine healing" and "Right thinking" as self help methods essential to a Jew's physical and spiritual health
Lichtenstein found affirmative prayer to be particularly useful because, he believed, it provided the personal benefits of prayer without requiring the belief in a supernatural God who could suspend the laws of nature.[3] He considered affirmative prayer to be a method to access inner power that could be considered divine, but not supernatural. He taught that the origins of affirmative prayer can be found in the Old Testament Book of Psalms, and that affirmations, or affirmative prayers, are best offered in silence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Science











Not related, extra information:
-------------

"The Smithsonian magazine named Ellen G. White among 100 Most Significant Americansõ in an acknowledgement of her influence on religion"
The history of Smithsonian began when Edward K. Thompson, the retired editor of Life magazine, was asked by the then-Secretary of the Smithsonian, S. Dillon Ripley, to produce a magazine "about things in which the Smithsonian [Institution] is interested, might be interested or ought to be interested.
Thompson would later recall that his philosophy for the new magazine was that it "would stir curiosity in already receptive minds. It would deal with history as it is relevant to the present. It would present art, since true art is never dated, in the richest possible reproduction. It would peer into the future via coverage of social progress and of science and technology. Technical matters would be digested and made intelligible by skilled writers who would stimulate readers to reach upward while not turning them off with jargon.


--
realted to James, brother of Jesus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_son_of_Damneus
"The works of Josephus refer to at least twenty different people with the name Jesus, and in chapter 9 of Book 20, Jesus the son of Damneus is thought by many to be distinct from the reference to "Jesus called Christ", who is mentioned along with the identification of James. John Painter states that phrase "who was called Christ" is used by Josephus in this passage "by way of distinguishing him from others of the same name such as the high priest Jesus son of Damneus, or Jesus son of Gamaliel" both having been mentioned by Josephus in this context"


--