Is Christianity the biggest religeon in the World?

[MeCajunboy]

I've been told that there are 70,000 ppl coming to know Christ worldwide, everyday.

Is that true?

You can pull up International statistics on the www. there are quite a few sites that reflect your question. Presently , about 33% of the world are "confessed Christians." In the U.S. it's believed to be much higher. Pull up U.S. Statistics for those figures.

Hope this helps. I just believe you learn faster and more thouroughly when you find and read for yourself

Blessings

Cajunboy

[davina]

Actually, the Catholic church is the biggest institution with 1.5 Billion members and more are coming to this church than ever. This is one sixth the human race. The Muslims are right behind with 1 Billion people. The Catholic church is the most powerful in the world. 110 million in India alone.

all the alternatives to Catholicism are showing themselves to be inadequate. The worn-out secularism that is everywhere around us and that no one any longer finds satisfying, the odd cults and movements that offer temporary community but no permanent home, even the other incomplete brands of Christianity. As our tired world becomes ever more desperate, people are turning to the one alternative they never really had considered. The Catholic church. they are coming upon truth in the last place they expected to find it. Why?

They are not considering the claims of the church out of a desire to win public favor. Catholicism, at least nowadays, is never popular. Our fallen world rewards the clever, not the good.

Altough people try to avoid the hard doctrinal and moral truths the Catholic church offers them (BECAUSE HARD TRUTHS DEMAND THAT LIVES BE CHANGED), they nevertheless are attracted to the church. When they listen to the pope and the bishops in union with him, they hear words with the ring of truth--even if they find that truth hard to live by.

Only the Catholic church was founded by Jesus, and only it has been able to preserve ALL Christian truth without any error--and a great numbers of people are coming to see this.

[GeneV]

Actually, the Catholic church is the biggest institution with 1.5 Billion members and more are coming to this church than ever. This is one sixth the human race. The Muslims are right behind with 1 Billion people. The Catholic church is the most powerful in the world. 110 million in India alone.

all the alternatives to Catholicism are showing themselves to be inadequate. The worn-out secularism that is everywhere around us and that no one any longer finds satisfying, the odd cults and movements that offer temporary community but no permanent home, even the other incomplete brands of Christianity. As our tired world becomes ever more desperate, people are turning to the one alternative they never really had considered. The Catholic church. they are coming upon truth in the last place they expected to find it. Why?

They are not considering the claims of the church out of a desire to win public favor. Catholicism, at least nowadays, is never popular. Our fallen world rewards the clever, not the good.

Altough people try to avoid the hard doctrinal and moral truths the Catholic church offers them (BECAUSE HARD TRUTHS DEMAND THAT LIVES BE CHANGED), they nevertheless are attracted to the church. When they listen to the pope and the bishops in union with him, they hear words with the ring of truth--even if they find that truth hard to live by.

Only the Catholic church was founded by Jesus, and only it has been able to preserve ALL Christian truth without any error--and a great numbers of people are coming to see this.

Interesting Davina perhaps you could provide me with some Scripture that I might have missed re the last para

[billie]

[Floatingaxe]

they nevertheless are attracted to the church

Notice how it is touted that the Church is the one people run to? How powerless and empty a call is that? It's Jesus Christ that people need, not the Church. Nobody is attracted to the church! The attraction is Jesus Christ.

[davina]

Why, thank you Butero. I do not have to convince you, the Holy Spirit will guide you.

Let's start with our beloved Saints. There are thousands of them, why are they called Saints? Because they were martyred for the faith. We'll start with your first question, the Saints:

Jesus said the second greatest commandment is to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt 22:39). Those in Heaven love us more intensely than they could have loved us while on earth. They pray for us constantly (Rev. 5:8), and their prayers are powerful (Jas. 5:16). Our prayers to the Saints in heaven, asking for their prayers for us, and their intercession with the Father DO NOT undermine Christ's role as Mediator (1 Tim 2:5). In asking Saints in heaven to pray for us we follow Paul's instructions: "I URGE THAT SUPPLICATIONS, PRAYERS, INTERCESSIONS, AND THANKSGIVINGS BE MADE FOR EVERYONE", for "THIS IS GOOD AND PLEASING TO GOD OUR SAVIOR (1 Tim 2:1-4). Mary's prayers are especially effective on our behalf because of her relationship with her Son (John 2:1-11). God gave Mary a special role. He saved her from all sin (Luke 1:28, 47), made her uniguely Blessed among all women (Luke 1:42), and made her a model for all Christians (Luke 1:48). At the end of her life he took her, body and soul, into Heaven--an image of our own Resurrection at the end of the world (Rev. 12:1-2).

Now I will answer about Confession to a Catholic priest:

Sometimes on our journey toward the heavenly promised land we stumble and fall into sin. God is always ready to lift us up and restore us to grace-filled fellowship with him. He does this through the sacrament of Pennance (or confession).

Jesus gave his apostles power and authority to reconcile us to the Father. They received Jesus's own power to forgive sins when he breathed on them and said "RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT. WHAT SINS YOU FORGIVE ARE FORGIVEN THEM, AND WHOSE SINS YOU RETAIN ARE RETAINED". (John 20:22-23) Paul notes that "All this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation...so we are ambassadors for Christ as if God were appealing through us" (2 Cor 5:18-20). Through confession to a priest, God's minister, we have our sins forgiven, and we receive grace to help us resist future temptations.

Come to purgatory now:

Protestants must understand purgatory is NOT a Catholic invention. The doctrine to Gregory explaining the graffiti in the Catacombs, where Christians during the persecutions of the first 3 centuries recorded prayers for the dead. In Acts of Paul, he refers to Christians of praying to the dead. Such prayers would only been offered only if Christians believed in purgatory, even if they did not use that name for it. The words Trinity and Incarnation aren't in Scripture either, yet these doctrines are clearly taught in it. Prayers are not needed for those in Heaven, and noone can help those in hell. This means there is a third condition, at least temporarily. The verse 2Macc. 12:43-45, so clearly illustrates the existence of purgatory that at the time of the Reformation, Protestants had to cut the books out of Maccabees out of their Bibles in order to avoid accepting the doctrine.

I will get back to you on the other answers, I must rest.

[Floatingaxe]

Why, thank you Butero. I do not have to convince you, the Holy Spirit will guide you.

Let's start with our beloved Saints. There are thousands of them, why are they called Saints? Because they were martyred for the faith. We'll start with your first question, the Saints:

Jesus said the second greatest commandment is to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt 22:39). Those in Heaven love us more intensely than they could have loved us while on earth. They pray for us constantly (Rev. 5:8), and their prayers are powerful (Jas. 5:16). Our prayers to the Saints in heaven, asking for their prayers for us, and their intercession with the Father DO NOT undermine Christ's role as Mediator (1 Tim 2:5). In asking Saints in heaven to pray for us we follow Paul's instructions: "I URGE THAT SUPPLICATIONS, PRAYERS, INTERCESSIONS, AND THANKSGIVINGS BE MADE FOR EVERYONE", for "THIS IS GOOD AND PLEASING TO GOD OUR SAVIOR (1 Tim 2:1-4). Mary's prayers are especially effective on our behalf because of her relationship with her Son (John 2:1-11). God gave Mary a special role. He saved her from all sin (Luke 1:28, 47), made her uniguely Blessed among all women (Luke 1:42), and made her a model for all Christians (Luke 1:48). At the end of her life he took her, body and soul, into Heaven--an image of our own Resurrection at the end of the world (Rev. 12:1-2).

Now I will answer about Confession to a Catholic priest:

Sometimes on our journey toward the heavenly promised land we stumble and fall into sin. God is always ready to lift us up and restore us to grace-filled fellowship with him. He does this through the sacrament of Pennance (or confession).

Jesus gave his apostles power and authority to reconcile us to the Father. They received Jesus's own power to forgive sins when he breathed on them and said "RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT. WHAT SINS YOU FORGIVE ARE FORGIVEN THEM, AND WHOSE SINS YOU RETAIN ARE RETAINED". (John 20:22-23) Paul notes that "All this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation...so we are ambassadors for Christ as if God were appealing through us" (2 Cor 5:18-20). Through confession to a priest, God's minister, we have our sins forgiven, and we receive grace to help us resist future temptations.

Come to purgatory now:

Protestants must understand purgatory is NOT a Catholic invention. The doctrine to Gregory explaining the graffiti in the Catacombs, where Christians during the persecutions of the first 3 centuries recorded prayers for the dead. In Acts of Paul, he refers to Christians of praying to the dead. Such prayers would only been offered only if Christians believed in purgatory, even if they did not use that name for it. The words Trinity and Incarnation aren't in Scripture either, yet these doctrines are clearly taught in it. Prayers are not needed for those in Heaven, and noone can help those in hell. This means there is a third condition, at least temporarily. The verse 2Macc. 12:43-45, so clearly illustrates the existence of purgatory that at the time of the Reformation, Protestants had to cut the books out of Maccabees out of their Bibles in order to avoid accepting the doctrine.

I will get back to you on the other answers, I must rest.

Hey! I am a saint, and I'm not martyred!

[Ovedya]

All Christians are saints of God.

To the lake of fire with those religious teachings and doctrines of men, that teach that a special confirmation of certain prerequisites must take place!

[Ovedya]

BTW: This thread will not trun into a Catholic apologetic. I believe that you have been warned about this at least once, davina. While we respect your passion and conviction for the Roman church, we do not promote any particualr apologetic. That applies across the board for all denoms.

[davina]

Floatingaxe, you are not worthy to even be in the same category as these beloved Saints. They were tortured, beheaded, crucified upside down (Saint Peter), crucified in the form of an x made of a cross, they followed God's commandments. They were Holy people...if you are talking about what St. Paul said, that we are all POTENTIAL Saints, not all Saints. Read the lives of the Saints if you want to learn anything. then come back and we'll talk. Peace.