Quick Overview of Major World Religions.


Total world population is 7.7 billion. Numbers and dates are approximate. List of major world religions:
1) Christians. 2.4 billion. Holy Book Bible. Began 33 AD. Founder Jesus. Matthew 16:18. Jesus was a Jew and Christianity emerged out of Judaism. Jeremiah 31:31. Matthew 5:17. Most Christians believe in the one god Jehovah there are three persons the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. An illustration of the Trinity or Godhead is God is like a government that has a president, the Father, a vice president, the Son Jesus, and a secretary, the Holy Spirit. Jesus is called the Son as He is the one who became a Human Being 2000 years ago. The death of Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins, His burial, and His physical resurrection are central to Christianity. 1st Corinthians 15:1-8. John 3:16.
2) Muslims. 1.6 billion. Holy Book Quran. Began 610 AD. Founder of Islam was Muhammad. The Hadiths record the deeds and sayings or Sunna of Muhammad. To become a Muslim one must believe Allah is God and Muhammad is his prophet. Muslims believe God has no son.
3) Hindus. 1 billion. Scriptures Vedas. Began in India 4,000 to 10,000 BC. Believes a) Each living creature has a soul. B) Good and bad Karma each yielding good and bad results in this and the next life. C) Reincarnation - that is one's soul is reborn until it unites with the Supreme Soul call Parmatma. Many Hindus believe there are millions of gods but only three main gods.
4) Agnostics and Atheists. 660 million and 160 million. Agnostics believe God may or may not exist. Atheists believe God does not exist.
5) Buddhism. 500 million. Various Texts. Began 530 BC by the Indian Buddha probably Siddhartha Gautama. Scripture is the sayings of Buddha called Sutras as in the Dhammapada plus other non Buddha writings. Core beliefs are The Four Noble Truths. Noble Eightfold Path. The Five Precepts. They also believe in Reincarnation. Most buddhist do not believe in god and certainly usually not a personal god.
6) Judaism. 14 million. Scriptures at least the Torah or first five books of the Old Testamen OT and sometimes the entire OT. Father of Jews is believed to be Abraham around 1800 BC. Abraham was the father of Isaac, who was the father of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. Jacob or Israel became the father of 12 sons from which the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel arose. Moses the receiver of the Law or Torah the first five books of the OT is held in high regard. Jewish believers in Jesus as the promised messiah are call Messianic Jews. People Jewish in religion believe in one God, Jehovah.
I believe it is good to question what one believes and was taught by asking questions and looking at the evidence. I reasoned I could have been born into a family that was atheist, moslem, hindu, buddhist, etc. So how would I ever come to know and believe in Jeus if I wasn't willing to ask questions and look for answers. So I believe it is okay and good to carefully examine our beliefs. Following are some questions I think are good to consider.
1) Is there a God or a "First Cause"? Where did all the stars, planets, souls, angels, etc., come from? Notice evidence from the wmap satellite starting at one minute point of video. Colossians 1:13-16. John 1:1-3.
2) If there is a God what is His nature? Is He physical, or non-physical? Is He loving? John 4:24. Luke 24:39. Colossians 1:15. 1st John 4:8.
3) Do we have a soul or spirit that survives our physical death? I have viewed many life after death testimonies on youtube and in books. Many detail events that happened when the person was clinically dead.
4) How reliable is the Bible we have today? We have over 24,000 old manuscripts that is hand written copies of the New Testament NT, with over 5,000 being in Greek the language the NT was written in. We can construct all but a few verses of the NT from the writings of the Early Church Fathers. Less than 3% of the words of the NT are in question. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were found our oldest copies of parts of the Old Testament OT went back another 1,000 years. We found out the OT had barely changed in 1,000 years. Many prophecies in the Bible have been fulfilled. Many prophecies about the coming Messiah were fulfilled in Jesus.
5) Is what the Bible says about Jesus true? His diety, virgin birth, death, resurrection, coming 2nd coming, etc.? I suggest a careful reading of the first four books of the NT. Also, consider the fact that many of the eyewitnesses to Jesus' death and resurrection suffered a painful death rather than recant their testimony about Jesus. 1st Corinthians 15:3-8.
Note: I am a Christian, that is I am trusting in Jesus as my Savior and Lord or Boss. I believe in both evolution and creation. I think Genesis chapter one involved evolution and chapter two involved the special creation of Adam and Eve. I believe Adam was first in importance but not in time. 1st Corinthians 15:45.
I also believe at least some people have lived before. "Young's Literal Translation" tells us Hell will last "age during". "Age during" means for an age. I think the evidence shows the Greek words aion or aionius often translated eternal or forever, etc., should instead be translated for an age. Concerning a man born blind Jesus' disciples asked him if the man was born blind because of his sin or his parent's sin. How could the man have sinned before he was born unless it was in a previous life? John 9:1-3. Romans 9:11-13. So like many Hindus and Buddhists I believe that at least some people have lived before. Witness the many children on youtube and in books who at a very young age tell in detail about the person they say they used to be.
I also believe Noah's erets and cosmos flood affected the whole earth but did not cover the whole earth. I do believe it covered the whole erets or adamah or area.
I do trust the God of the Bible for the things I do not understand. I am always looking for the answer to scientific questions I have that concern the Bible. Because of what God created me to do, I believe God wants me to seek out that information.
By the way, Copyright 2019 by Wayne Mckellips. Last updated 4/17/2019. Please copy and share but don't sell.

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