The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

We will first note how the symbols fittingly describe the beginning of Mohammed's career
as the originator of the new religion. We quote the historian, who without being aware of
it has recorded the events fulfilling this "sure word of prophecy":
"Mahomet or Mohammed was born in the sacred city of Mecca in Arabia in the year 570 or
571. Till the age of forty he lived without exciting much remark, and was known as an
able, rich, and enterprising merchant, honorable in his dealings and strictly truthful in all
that he said. . . . In his frequent retirements to a mountain cave for secret thought and
study he developed a religious system of his own. He one day, at a meeting of his
kinsmen, made the startling announcement that he had received a Divine revelation to
reform the faith and practice of the whole Arabian nation. He taught that though both the
Jewish and the Christian faith were sent from God, yet he himself had received a more
perfect one than either. He now called upon all his friends and kinsmen to acknowledge
his authority [a characteristic of most false teachers], forsake their idols, and worship the
one and only true God."--Swinton, Outlines of the World's History.
We quote another historian who mentions more particularly the preposterous self-exalted
claims of this "fallen star" (teacher):
"Mohammed possessed a deeply religious nature, and it was his wont often to retire to a
cave a few miles from Mecca and there spend long vigils in prayer. He declared that here
he had visions in which the angel Gabriel appeared to him and made to him revelations
which he was commanded to make known to his fellowmen. The sum of the new faith
which he was to teach was this: 'There is one God and Mohammed is His prophet.'"--
Myers' History.
The International Encyclopedia describes more particularly the manner in which he received
his revelations:
"He was forty years old when he received (as he claimed) the first Divine communication
in the solitude of the mountain Hira, near Mecca. Gabriel appeared to him (he claimed)
and in the name of God commanded him to 'read,' that is to preach the true religion and to
spread it abroad by committing it to writing."
The same authority tells us that he was naturally subject to epilepsy:
"What part his epilepsy had on his visions we are not able to determine. Certain it is that
after long and painful solitary broodings, a something--not clearly known to himself--at
times moved him with such fearfully rapturous vehemence that during his revelations he
is said to have roared like a camel, and to have streamed with perspiration; his eyes turned
red and the foam stood in his mouth."
This authority goes on to say that he heard strange sounds and voices:
"The voices he heard were sometimes those of a bell, sometimes a man, sometimes they
came in dreams or they were laid on his heart."