About a third of the global population identifies itself as
Christian. What began as the Second Temple Judaic sect in the
mid-1st century, in what is now the Middle East, quickly spread to
Europe, Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor and Egypt before becoming
the official state church of the Roman Empire by the end of the 4th
century. Today, it’s a diverse religion with thousands of different
churches and interpretations of the Bible.
Here are five things you may not know about Christianity.
1. Under the Roman empire, sometimes
referred to as the ‘Era of Martyrs’, Christians suffered routine
punishment, including execution.
Romans referred to Christians as ’impious atheists’ because they
didn’t worship the pagan gods. To them praising just one god was
bad as denying the existence of all gods. Also, the Christian act
of worship went against the laws of the time, which forbade secret
society meetings. The government saw it as civil disobedience.
Christianity was punishable by death in the second century A.D.,
but a pardon was available to those willing to renounce their
religion by offering sacrifice to the emperor or Roman gods. In
February 303 A.D., on the Roman day of the celebration of the god
of boundaries, known as 'terminalia', the empire carried out
perhaps its greatest persecution of Christians. It's estimated up
to 5000 were killed.
2. Christianity is persecuted in at least 50
countries including North Korea, China, Maldives, Myanmar and
Central African Republic.
In North Korea, where citizens practice god-like worship of leader
Kim Jon-Un, there’s little room for any religion. Any citizen
discovered engaging in unauthorized religious activity is subject
to arrest, detention, torture and execution. Open Doors, an
organization tracking persecuted Christians worldwide, says there
are up to 70,000 Christians in labor camps in North Korea.
In the Central African Republic where an internal revolution saw a
coalition of rebels of mostly Muslim origin - the Seleka group -
come to power, Christians face rape, robbery, kidnapping, torture
and murder.
3. The word “Christian” appears only three
times in the Bible: Acts 11:26; 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16. According to
the Bible, a Christian is someone who responds to God's calling,
and to follow the example set by Jesus Christ. In Acts, the Bible
says in order to be a true Christian, a person much change -
repent, be baptized and follow Jesus.
Jesus is mentioned more times in the Quran than Muhammad. Jesus -
who’s referred to as the son of Mary - is portrayed as a miracle
worker and sent to earth by Allah to do his work. But, the Quran
says you’ll be cursed if you call Jesus the son of god.
“The Jews call 'Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call
Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in
this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say.
Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the
Truth!” (9:30, Yusif Ali)
4. More people go to church on a Sunday in
China than in the whole of Europe.
Early waves of Christianity in China began with the Jesuit
missionary Matto Ricci in the late 16th century. The Bible was
first translated into Mandarin in the late 19th century, which
helped spread the word to the masses.
With the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in
1949, widescale religious repression became the norm in mainland
China. The Communist Party kept true to its Marxist roots and thus
declared itself ‘atheist’. The end of the’Cultural Revolution’
(1966-76), Mao Zedong’s death and his successor Deng Xiaoping’s
subsequent reforms reopened China to the outside world and freedom
of expression began to be restored. Today, the PRC officially
recognizes five religions: Buddhism, Catholicism, Daoism, Islam,
and Protestantism. The National Committee of the Three-Self
Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China and the
China Christian Council form the only state-sanctioned (registered)
Protestant church in mainland China.
China is on track to have the world’s largest Christian population
by 2030 - potentially around 160 million according to one expert on
religion in china.
China has witnessed a religious revival over the past four decades,
in particular with the significant increase in Christian believers,
accounting for 5 percent of the population, according to Pew
Research Center data.
5. There are 33,830 different Christian
denominations according to the world Christian encyclopedia.
There’s one church in San Francisco that worships Jazz saxophonist
John Coltrane as a Saint and uses his song lyrics are prayers.
Seichō no Ie, literally "House of Growth", is a ‘New Thought’
Japanese religion that has spread since the end of World War II. It
emphasizes gratitude for nature, the family, ancestors and, above
all, religious faith in one universal God. By the end of 2010 it
had over 1.6 million followers.
A Pew Research Centre demographic study of more than 200 countries
in 2010 found that there are 2.18 billion Christians worldwide -
nearly a third of the estimated global population of 6.9 billion at
the time.
Europe and the Americas are home to a majority of the world’s
Christians (63%), but that share is shrinking - it was in 93% in
1910. The proportion of Europeans and Americans who are Christian
has dropped from 95% in 1910 to 76% in 2010 in Europe, and from 96%
to 86% in the Americas.
In Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, Christianity is growing. Christians
in sub-Saharan Africa climbed from 9% in 1910 to 63% in 2010, while
in the Asia-Pacific region it rose from 3% to 7%.
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