Pew Research and the Little FLock (Luke 12.32)
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Originally Posted by Jennifer Harper
“Worldwide, more than eight-in-ten people identify with a religious group,” says a new comprehensive demographic study of more than 230 countries and territories conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life.
“There are 5.8 billion religiously affiliated adults and children around the globe, representing 84 percent of the 2010 world population of 6.9 billion,” the analysis states.
Here’s the breakdown of “The Global Religious Landscape,” based on an analysis of more than 2,500 censuses, surveys and population registers:
• 2.2 billion Christians (32 percent of the world’s population).
• 1.6 billion Muslims (23 percent).
• 1 billion Hindus (15 percent.
• 500 million Buddhists (7 percent).
• 400 million people (6 percent) practicing various folk or traditional religions, including African traditional religions, Chinese folk religions, American Indian religions and Australian aboriginal religions.
Of course, God is accessible as humans are to one another, so the 400 million based on regional faiths are not of God. Buddhists are atheists so they are living a lie. God never asked you to shut your mind down like a zombie in Nirvana. He gives you your senses to be utilized. Muslims have no evidence for their claim Jesus never died on the cross. Brahma, the god of Hindus, is said to be amoral. How can God have morals below our own? And reincarnation never effectively atones for sins receiving endless chances. How can you come back as a chicken if you are too sinful and expect a chicken brain to become a human again if you find it in your heart to be a good chicken? Man's salvation cannot depend on chicken brains. Absurd.
However, not everyone in Christendom is not a Christian. Just because you claim to be a Christian doesn't mean you are, e.g. Calvinists, Modalists, non-OSASers, etc. The Bible says the body of Christ is a "little flock" (Luke 12.32). Surely 2.2 billion cannot be construed as a little flock. If we roughly estimate there were 50 billion souls since Adam, 250 million in the coming millennial kingdom there would be 300 billion souls. The New City is 1379 x 1379 miles in Rev. 21 about the size of India or half the size of USA. We might expect 1 billion souls to fit comfortably in that space. One out of every 300 people are saved.
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There are 14 million Jews, and an estimated 58 million people — slightly less than 1 percent of the global population – belong to other religions, including the Baha’i faith, Jainism, Sikhism, Shintoism, Taoism, Tenrikyo, Wicca and Zoroastrianism, “to mention just a few,” the study says.
Judaism rejects their Messiah so they would not be saved. All these other faiths are not considered accessible or personal. They highly regional or as I like to say, religional. They are an amalgamation of different religions. But God does not contradict Himself. Surely the correct faith today should have a following of more than a fraction of 1%.
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About half of all Christians in the world are Catholic, 37 percent are part of the Protestant tradition, 12 percent are Orthodox Greek or Russian.
Catholics are not Christians because they believe in salvation by works, that a person can lose salvation after being saved. And they reject the Jesus who returns to reign on earth for 1000 years with His overcomers (Jude 14,15; Rev. 2.26,27; 20.4-6). Same goes for Greek and Russian. Most Protestants have these false views also, worshiping a false Christ.
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The largest population of Christians (243 million) is found, incidentally, in the United States, followed by Brazil, Mexico, Russia, the Philippines, Nigeria and China.
Share the gospel to all the nations. Then Jesus will return.
Find the entire massive study here: http://www.pewforum.org/.
