Not really. The prophetic element of any religion must align itself to that religion's holy book. Otherwise you can have everyone coming up with a private subjective prophecy.
The fundament of the authority of the true prophet comes from God, from the Holy Spirit, from the unique prophetic experience. This is of cause something subjective and there is always the possibility, that the prophet was misled by an unholy spirit. It is possible, that a "prophet" had a strong emotion and confuses this strong emotion with the Holy Spirit.
Complete fools might also pretend to be prophets. Every reasonable person, especially in our time, would follow the example of Jonah and try to escape from this job, but fools with little knowledge might believe, that it is a great pleasure.
There are good reasons for scepticism and it is a good idea, to compare the new revelation with the older traditions.
When it comes to traditions it depends, what you mean with "align itself".
All the true prophets were in greatest possible harmony with previous traditions and for me the four Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Bahá'í Faith) are in many ways like
one religion. So I take into account all these traditions.
The greater prophets (which are called messengers in Islam) were always taking into account
all the previous traditions with greatest respect.
When Jesus Christ for example decided, to help and heal other people on the Sabbath (Matthews 12:1 - 14), he made a conscious, free decision, which was certainly not easy for him, because it was at odds with the very concrete text of the law:
23:1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 23:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘These are the Lord’s appointed times which you must proclaim as holy assemblies – my appointed times:
23:3 “‘Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy assembly. You must not do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord in all the places where you live.
Because of his unorthodox attitude most Jews rejected Jesus Christ and many Jews are doing this until today.
But for me - when Jesus changed the law - it made sense.
Religious traditions confront you with a range of attitudes, which can be orthodox, law-based and reductionist or based on a wider, more holistic, prophetic understanding.
The four Abrahamic revelations are oscillating between these positions:
Orthodox Judaism and Islam are more law-based, Christianity and the Bahá'í Faith are more messianic and give more freedom.
There are of cause different interpretations also within the faith systems.
If something is in contradiction with a tradition or a particular quote from the Bible or the Qur´an, this does nor necessarily mean, that it is wrong. In fact all the messengers changed something.
I believe, that people should look at the concrete example or the concrete message and not at the eventual claims of the messenger and make a free decision.They should take into account the previous traditions and sometimes common sense is also not so bad.
If you have a wider understanding of the revelations (beyond the limitations of one particular religion) the direction becomes more and more obvious.
The love and the truth of God were
always expanded. Religious tolerance for example became
always greater,
never smaller.
Apart from this there are very old prophetic revelations about the Messianic age, which speak about great harmony in diversity. In Isaiah 11 there is this great metaphor about very different animals, which can nevertheless live together in harmony, because they accept the authority of the same God.
In this time there can be the situation, that an atheist is closer to the living God in some important areas in comparison to someone, who is very religious.
The
meaning of the word God is important, not the
label.
In hindsight I know for example, that I was searching for God for all my life, long before I was conscious about this - simply because I had a passion for truth and love. Words, such as
meaning or
authenticity can be important also for artists. I wanted to make movies.
If someone would have asked me 1 day before this experience in January 1998, what I think about God, I would have answered, that I do not care for God.
For me all of this is part of the human freedom of choice and if you look back, unfortunately people often missed the true prophets (who told them also things, that they didn´t want to hear) but they were fascinated by the false prophets (who wanted to be popular and told the people, what they wanted to hear).
Many people believe, that Gods prophets must confirm exactly their expectations and traditions.
A very interesting book in this context is the Kitáb-i-Iqán by Bahá'u'lláh, the last great messenger and the founding father of the smallest, but most universal Abrahamic religion, the Bahá'í Faith, which came up in the 19th century as the messianic fulfillment of Islam.
There is an English translation somewhere on the internet, and I can really recommend this, because it gives you a very serious, prophetic perspective on this pattern.
But I will mention this probably later in the thread anyway.
The message must be in the line with previous traditions, which can also mean an extension or clarification of previous positions.
Some positions may become obsolete, other parts will be highlighted. This does not mean, that all the previous positions were bad.
For me the passage from the Old Testament for example, when Moses explains to the people in very dramatic language, that they have the choice between life and death, blessing and curse, good and evil is extremely important.
This means: I would not have understood my own fundamental experience without this text from the Old Testament.
I love all the Abrahamic religions. All of them have central parts, which are essential for me.
So my attitude can be very different, depending on the concrete, particular text.
Especially the Old Testament describes for me the paradox between very human (and sometimes narcissistic) positions and the growing awareness of the intentions of the almighty God, the creator of everything. This is for me a very fascinating thing.
A prophet like Jeremiah for example was in a terrible situation, the people hated and punished him, because they didn´t like his message. There is always the (human) temptation, to call for God, that He simply punishes the enemies.
But then there is also the prophetic knowledge, that the others are worldly-minded, prisoners of their human opinions and instincts, they do not really know, what they are doing.
The book of Jeremiah reflects all of this and it is still possible to reach a very good understanding with the old Jewish traditions.
A bad preacher however might pick and choose the more worldly passages and simply declare:
"This is the eternal will of God! It´s written in the Holy Book! Go out and destroy your enemies once and for all!"
The New Testament settles many issues and gives a direction (towards heaven).
A few notes about Abraham:
The Book of Joshua reports that Abrahams father Terah worshiped other gods. (Josh. 24:2.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TerahUnfortunately I do not know very much about the society, where Abraham was growing up, but the tradition about his father tells me, that the monotheistic tradition was not very strong in his time and society.
In the Old Testament Abraham appears after the episode with the tower of Babel, where God did something very unusual: He created confusion and diversity.
Usually religion is about the creation of unity.
I believe, that God - after the episode with the tower of Babel - created something like a fresh start with Abraham.
I made this experience, that a human being can find God without any concrete or conscious intentions. I believe, that Abraham found God in a similar way.
But of cause that´s just an assumption.