Hi all,

Could anybody let me know how many Protestant denominations are there? And the source of this information??? Thanks in advance

-- Theresa (thienthan@hotmail.com), May 18, 2003

Answers

I don't know about the world, but there are 18 churches in our little community and I'm sure God can find good people in all of them.

-- Leon (vol@weblink2000.net), May 18, 2003.

Many claim the best known work dealing with this question is the World Christian Encyclopedia (2nd Edition - January, 2001), Oxford University Press. The editors claim over 34,000 separate Christian groups have been identified in the world. Christianity in general, is declining as is most religions except for Islam. In a recent survey conducted in North America it was noted that 16% of respondents claimed to have no religion at all and that this percentage was increasing annually.

-- Ed (catholic4444@yahoo.ca), May 19, 2003.

Leon,

It's true that there are good people in every Christian denomination. There are also good Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc.

However, Jesus Christ founded One Church, and he prayed that we would remain one.

Ever since the protestant revolt, where men began to re-form religion to their own liking, rather than following the authority which Christ established, those "Christian" churches have splintered, and splintered, and splintered, now into the tens of thousands.

Every Catholic Church still prays today for unity with our separated brethren.

If you visit some protestant "worship services," it sounds more like a Catholic-bashing session than a "worship service." This is very sad.

Scripture tells us that not everyone who calls "Lord, Lord!" will gain entry into heaven. His sheep know Him, and He knows them. They know the sound of His voice, which speaks to us through the chair of Peter.

Pax Christi.

-- Anna <>< (Flower@youknow.com), May 19, 2003.

To many!

Karl

-- KARL (PARKERKAJWEN@HOTMAIL.COM), May 19, 2003.

Jmj

Hello, Ed L.
After accurately mentioning the information in the latest edition of the "World Christian Encyclopedia," you wrote: "Christianity in general, is declining as is most religions except for Islam."

You are mistaken, as can be seen in the very same work you cited. The following is copied from a major Internet site on the statistics of world religions, www.adherents.com:

"David B. Barrett's World Christian Encyclopedia (1994 update) gives an oft-cited figure of 1.9 billion Christians (or about 33% of the world population), and has projected that by the year 2000 there will be 2.1 billion Christians in the world. Regardless of the degree of accuracy of this figure, Christianity, if taken as a whole, is unarguably the largest world religion."

So, we see that Christians are not only the most numerous in the world, but growing in numbers (not "declining" as you said). Most importantly, the number of Catholics grows every year, being now about 1.1 billion of the estimated 2.2 billion Christians. (There are an estimated 1.3 billion Moslems.

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), May 19, 2003.

John, I noticed the well-researched group you mention have referenced an earlier edition (1994) of the Encyclopaedia. Perhaps their information is slightly out-of-date since the data supporting their claim that Christianity is on the rise was gathered over 10 years ago. I don’t personally have the latest Edition of the Encyclopaedia, but perhaps someone who has could comment here and let us know what the current statistics are.

I enclose a site for you to examine which disagrees with your assertion that Christianity is on the increase. This site is run by a small group (5 or so) of individuals whose main goal appears to be nothing other than promoting religious tolerance.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/worldrel.htm

The group has quoted the 2001 Edition of the Encyclopaedia as one of the sources for their information. If you scroll down the page, you will see they show Islam as the only major religion that is presently (2001) increasing in numbers. Also, my comments about 16% of respondents to a recent survey claiming to have no religion at all came from a recent CNN telecast (I think it was CNN - to be honest, I am not absolutely sure).

This is a fascinating subject and I would invite anyone with current information on the topic to share it with us here.

-- Ed (catholic4444@yahoo.ca), May 20, 2003.

Jmj

Hello, Ed L.
I have visited www.religioustolerance.org [I have been to that site before] and found that you have misunderstood what the "tolerance" folks are saying about Christianity.

Let me start by quoting one line from each of your last two messages:
"Christianity in general, is declining, as are most religions except for Islam."
"I enclose a site for you to examine which disagrees with your assertion that Christianity is on the increase."
[Ed, your second statement was in response to this from me: "... Christians are not only the most numerous in the world, but growing in numbers (not 'declining' as you said)."]

Notice that we have been speaking of increase in "numbers." You have been stating (and you have apparently thought that www.religioustolerance.org was stating) that the number of Christians is shrinking.
I have been stating that the number of Christians is rising.
Guess what? I have found that www.religioustolerance.org agrees with me. The problem is that the "tolerance" folks have a table that can fool a person, because it shows that Islam (but not Christianity) is increasing in its share of world population.

In a passage that you must have overlooked, the "tolerance" folks express the facts about "number" and "share" as follows:
"U.S. Center for World Mission estimated in 1997 that the percentage of humans who regard themselves as Christians rose from 33.7% in 1970 to 33.9% in 1996. Its total number of adherents is growing at about 2.3% annually. This is approximately equal to the growth rate of the world's population. Islam is growing faster: about 2.9% and is thus increasing its market share."

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), May 20, 2003.

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-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), October 10, 2003.