[Updated on: Sun, 04 January 2009 19:51]

Alanbook wrote on Sun, 04 January 2009 14:42

james wrote on Sun, 04 January 2009 13:45 That was my original point in asking; I was asking from where came the numbers. Jae said, " If it is true that there are 500 million genuinely saved believers in the world "...So the obvious question is, "Sez who", that it's true? Just to appease my curiosity I googled several sites only to get different numbers at each one. I think most was speaking of 'christian' in the context of the world's population being either christian, muslim, hindu; not even practicing christians. You know, like the answer someone in america would give on a census survey with multiple choice...are you a christian, muslim, or hindu, please check only one... Then others had a breakdown of the different denominations worldwide and a list of their membership, from catholics all the way to baptist and everyone in between. They gave a number of over a billion. This is an unanswerable question...by anyone other than God. You know whats really sad is the fact I know people in our little rural community, that are shacking up (or occasionaly staying together, is the political correct term), and they call themselves Christian. I'm sure all these couples would fill out the survey and check yes I am a christian. I believe in christmas. Your right about one thing only the Lord knows who is a true born again believer. Another thought about this number situation is what about underground churches in communist lands. It would be impossible to come up with a figure here also. I think no one could even make an educated guess on this group and say there is 500 million. I can believe though there is a billion religious people. But this figure would be hard to narrow down also. It would mean an awful lot of surveys.

Hey guys, my referral to 500 million was simply a ball-park figure. A big ball park. Operation World (an excellent resource) in the 1992 version estimated the number of professing "Christians" at 1.7 billion. That would include all nominal Christians as well as fringe groups. It broke down that figure into smaller groups: the branches of Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox, plus the many different denominations. Of those, it estimated the number of evangelicals in the world at the time to be a little less than 500 million at the time. However, it acknowledges those to be estimates. There is no way to tell for sure how many born-again Christians there are in China, for example. Frankly, there is no way to tell how many are in any country, as only the Lord knows how many have genuine faith. It is most certainly more than 144,000. If you travel the world and meet some saints, there would be no doubt in your minds about it. The Lord is not concerned about people being superchristians as much as He is concerned that they are growing into Christlikeness. True believers around the world are at all levels in their growth.

A man of God with whom I am acquainted said that one day when he was in a field he noticed a grain of wheat that was far taller than the rest. He pondered why it was taller, and realized that it simply continued to grow when the others stopped growing. Applying that principle to himself, he realized that he did not have to stop growing even if others around him did. He did not have to be content with the teaching he received, the experiences he had, the progress he had made. He could keep growing and maturing, becoming more like Jesus.

J. B. Phillips once wrote a book called, "Your God is Too Small." He was a staunch believer in the absolute sovereignty of God. He pointed out that small faith is often a result of small understanding of who God is. He encouraged people to look for God's activity far beyond their own little world. He is far beyond our little realm of experience and exposure. In applying that principle to His work around the world, He is doing far above what we know or act or think among the masses in the world. He is bringing many people to Him in places such as Iran, Afganistan, Saudi Arabia and India among people who would formerly never have been willing or able to hear the good news before. Their committment to the Lord visibly surpasses that of the majority of believers in the west, even without all the tapes and books that we have. They make most of the former "faith camp" people look like spiritual babies.

Our job in this parable is to give that invitation to as many people as possible. All who are thirsty may come, regardless of background. Let the Lord take care of the numbers thing. We shouldn't concern ourselves with it.

[Updated on: Mon, 05 January 2009 03:50]

[Updated on: Wed, 21 January 2009 05:17]

[Updated on: Thu, 22 January 2009 03:54]