Even text-based creeds, based on one-off divine revelation, can be quite flexible in reacting to new economic circumstances.

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Poloma says faith in divine revelation, prophecy and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit are hallmarks of the Pentecostal faith.

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But Mormons continue to believe, for example, in direct and ongoing divine revelation, which is why the church's president, currently Thomas Monson, is considered a prophet and his quorum of church leaders are deemed apostles.

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We must all strive to keep communications open, so that we can work toward resolving our differences: Tea Party to the New York Dems, Divine Revelation Believers to Super Rationalists, we can all stand to listen.

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For Margaret Barker, a Methodist scholar, part of the faith's power lies in its insistence that prophecy and divine revelation did not just happen once, a long time ago: the flow of messages from God is still in progress.

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But there are seeds, too, in the very nature of things: a promise, after all, is only a promise, even when it is supported by divine revelation, and the chances against its fulfillment may be put into a depressing mathematical formula.

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Further north is the island of Patmos, where visitors can see the grotto where St John the Divine once lived and where, after a series of apocalyptic visions, he penned the Book of Revelation.

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