[muawiyah]

These guys are much more interesting for their diets. One group eats a half a cup of nuts a day ~ all their lives ~ and they have NO cardiovascular problems of any kind (or so it's reported in a number of medical studies).

I have no idea how they arrived at the "Nut Thing" ~ but more recently Olive Oil has been demonstrated to have similar effects, and I'm aware of some Adventist literature about olives that's been out there for decades.

There's a possibility that they came up with the ascetic lifestyles by focusing on restrictive diets ~ and those two items, in turn, led them to an exceedingly legalistic theological point of view.

That would put them in the same class as the founders of Jainism and Buddhism in India back 3 millenia ago.

That also takes them right out of the current Protestant "pale of orthodoxy" ~ not sure if it takes them out of Christianity completely but it's something to think about.

[Salvation]

I wasn’t aware of the dietary things. Thanks. Very interesting.

[BipolarBob]

"led them to an exceedingly legalistic theological point of view."

Is anyone . . I mean anyone more legalistic than Catholics?