Definitions of Religion

  • 1 Religion
    a: a state of: as religious <a nun in her 20th year of religion>
    b: (1) : the service and worship: of God or the supernatural
  • (2) : commitment or devotion to: religious faith or observance

  • 2: a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices

  • 3: archaic : scrupulous conformity : conscientiousness

  • 4: a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

  • Examples of RELIGION
  • Many people turn to religion for comfort in a time of crisis.
    There are many religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism.
    Shinto is a religion that is unique to Japan.
    Hockey is a religion in Canada.
    Politics are a religion to some.
    Where I live, high school football is religion.
    Food is religion in this house.

  • Origin of RELIGION
  • Middle English religion, from Anglo-French religiun, Latin religion-, religio supernatural constraint, sanction, religious practice, perhaps from religare to restrain, tie back — more at rely

  • First Known Use:
  • 13th century

  • Related to RELIGION
  • Synonyms: credo, creed, cult, faith, persuasion
    Antonyms: atheism, godlessness
    [+]more
    Other Religion (Eastern and Other) Terms
  • Zen, antinomian, avatar, gnosticism, illuminati, ineffable, karma, koan, mantra

Religion Studies Website

A really good website to studies the differances of different religions is ReligionFacts.com

List of Christian Denominations

The most amazing list of confusion when it comes to the massive amount of Christian denominations has to be Wikipedia. Check out wikipedia.com . Totally mind-boggling!

Percentage of Christians Worldwide:

33% of the world's population is considered to be Christian.
Top 3 Largest National Christian Populations:
USA - 224,457,000 (85%)
Brazil - 139,000,000 (93%)
Mexico - 86,120,000 (99%)

The Major Denominations:
Roman Catholic - The Roman Catholic Church denomination is the largest Christian group in the world today with more than a billion followers constituting about half of the world's Christian population.
Eastern Orthodox - Approximately 225 million people worldwide are Orthodox Christians.
Protestant - There are approximately 500 million Protestants in the world.

 

Statistical Sources From:

Wikipedia.com, ReligionFacts.com, RiligiousTolerance.org, Adherents.com, Frontier Harvest Ministries, & World Christian Encyclopedia, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

 

The ABCs of Religion

Look here at the massive amounts of religions on the planet:

Aladura - Asatru - Baha'i Faith - Bön - Buddhism - Cao Dai - Chinese Religion - Chopra Center - Christianity - Christian Science - Confucianism - Eckankar - Epicureanism - Falun Gong - Greco-Roman Religion - Hare Krishna - Hinduism - Islam - Jainism - Jehovah's Witnesses - Judaism - Kemetic Reconstructionism - Mayan Religion - Mithraism - Mormonism - Neopaganism - The Occult - New Thought - Rastafari - Satanism - Scientology - Shinto - Sikhism - Stoicism - Taoism - Unification Church - Unitarian Universalism - Vampirism - Wicca - Zoroastrianism

And now look at the massive amounts of Christian Denominations:

Catholicism Catholic Church - Eastern Orthodox Church - Assyrian Church of the East - Protestantism - Lutheranism - Anglican Churches - Reformed Churches - Presbyterianism - Congregationalist Churches - Anabaptists - Brethren - Methodists - Pietists and Holiness Churches - Baptists - Apostolic Churches – Irvingites - Pentecostalism - Charismatics - African Initiated Churches - United and uniting churches - Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) - Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement - Southcottites - Millerites and comparable groups - British-Israelism - Miscellaneous/Other - Christian Revival Church - Latter Day Saints - "Prairie Saint" denominations - Rocky Mountains denominations - Nontrinitarian groups - Oneness Pentecostalism - Unitarianism and Universalism - Bible Student groups - Swedenborgianism - Other non-Trinitarians - Messianic Judaism - Jewish Christians - Esoteric Christianity - New Thought - Syncretistic religion s - Branch Davidians - Church of God International - Church of the Great God - Intercontinental Church of God - Living Church of God - Adventist Church of Promise - Creation Seventh Day Adventist Church - Seventh-day Adventist Church - Seventh Day Adventist Reform MovementChurch of Christ - Church of Christ with the Elijah Message - Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite) - Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite) - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)

And There are a lot more than this too!
Next- I can't list all the denominations because there are more than 1500 different Christian faith groups in America alone.
There are approximately 38,000 Christian denominations in the world.

 

WHAT'S THE POINT??

 

The point is that the devil has many ways of keeping people away from His Truth. Let's study this and we will see the reason for all these denominations.

 

Who is Right?: Can every single one of these thousands of religions be right? Certainly not! Yet every single one of them claim to be right. Claiming to be right doesn't mean you are right in God's eyes. Just because a church teaches parts of the message doesn't mean they have The Whole Message. And for a church to not be teaching The Whole Message, that certainly would not be right in God's eyes. That's why we need to study and search for The Whole Message. By a process of elimination, it would be simple enough to eliminate the churches who are not teaching The Whole Message of Christ Jesus. But first we certainly have to be more familiar with The Whole Message ourselves. Staying in Reading More, Studying More, and Praying More. When we have the depth of knowledge ourselves then we can better able see the deceptions surrounding us.

The Fact of Simple Math: The fact of simple math is that all these churches have differences, some are small and some are large, but they all have many differences and many beliefs. So mathematically speaking, If every single one of them is different, that would mean that only one could possibly be in a complete and total alliance with God's Holy Word, if any. Now there are thousands of churches out there with truths from God's Word, In fact every single religion on the planet has parts of the Bible in their organization, but not The Whole Message. WHY IS THIS?

The Devil's Numbers Game: Let's look at the numbers! The devil is a numbers person. Satan knows that if there are one hundred possibilities and only one True Church, the odds of you picking that True Church are a hundred to one. And if there are ten thousand churches of deception out there, your odds are really, really, slim. Now we are literally looking at the one hundred thousand to one situation, it's the needle in the haystack. In today's world of deceptions, the odds of you getting into the wrong church are greater than ever. So in all reality 99.9% of the people joining churches are joining churches with certain sorts of the devils deceptions already woven into them. So the devil wins when it comes to the numbers game. We must know God's Holy word in order to know the devils deceptions.

The Devil's Confusion Game: Having so many churches and so many denominations is so confusing?? Which one should I choose? And so many people are just completely turned off by all the confusion between churches that they just stay away from all of them, and the devil wins again. Your confusion may drop you into a deceptive church just because you didn't do your homework, or you might just stay away from all Christian elements. Once again either way Satan wins.

Then Devil's Duplication Game: This is where the Devil gets the best of most everybody. So many churches look the same, act the same, teach most of the same lessons. So people just join one church or another. The problem is here again where the churches are not teaching The Whole Message, and millions of people join churches that are not in line with God's Word. They may look alike on the surface, and they may even be validating each other because of their common beliefs, and many of them have the common deceptions that are now accepted as truth when in fact they are against God's Word. Just because a thousand churches are doing it doesn't make it right according to the Bible. But it is so amazing that we fall into this trap that Satan has taken thousands of years to develop. It is easier to fool a million than it is to fool one. and that is exactly what Satan is doing, fooling the millions. Again the devil wins.

The Devil's Simulation Game: This is where the Devil hooks people into what they believe is the True Church of God. The devil is so familiar with the Holy Spirit that he presents you with a simulation spirit and you are over-thrown in an awe of enlightenment. The problem is that it is a simulation and not of God. It is used to keep you from searching for The Whole Message. Then you are complacent in your beliefs. Millions of people are mesmerized by their particular religions, they are so convinced of their truth that they will commit any sins including murder to validate their spirits, and that is not from God and His Holy Spirit. if you are sucked it by the simulated spirit, Satan wins. I could go into almost every church denomination and religion on the planet and the people will be totally convinced that the Holy Spirit is their validation in their hearts that they are in the true religion. Once again the numbers come out. It would be impossible for the true Holy Spirit of God to support a false body of Christ. This just goes to show you how good Satan is at simulating the Holy Spirit. These false spirits can't all be right, in fact once again 99.9% are actually false spirits. We need to once again go back to the Bible for The Whole Message so that we are not fooled into a deception.

The Devils Traditional Game: Once you have that false spirit in you it is very easy to remain complacent and then the traditions of mas start to develop. Once you develop these traditions of man, they're extremely difficult to break. Traditions of man, created by man, are one of the devil's greatest tools. People create self validations of their truth even though it is not God's Will. The "lost to tradition" reconfirm constantly to themselves that they are right because of the generations before them and by the time that they have spent, invested, dedicated into their traditions. If there is a traditional element, we must study more to see rather it is Godly or an ungodly deception. Most traditions of man are exactly that, of man! When you believe that a "tradition" makes it truth and fact, without ever questioning and searching for the real truth, Satan wins. Traditions are extremely deceptive, We need to go back to the Bible and know what The Whole Message of the Bible says. We need to put our own thoughts aside and learn exactly what the Bible says. You can't argue with what the Bible says. That is why it's so important to know what the Bible says.

The Devil's Ease and Attacks: Now the devil is going to leave you alone, because you're right where He wants you. If you start to search outside the deceptive church and simulations that Satan has put you in, then he will come in and attack you and keep you from searching for the Truth. And if your not searching and in ease with your traditions with a simulated spirit, Satan wins.

You see the main point I'm making here is that there are many ways for Satan to get his grips on you and you won't even know it! So we need to be very careful in our steps, we need to know that Christ is in our hearts and minds. He is here to guide us and direct us thru the maze of confusion that Satan has presented to keep us from The Whole Message. God can do it, if you are willing to Learn, Listen, Prey, Study, and literally Surrender to His will. Trust and Obey, Because we love Him!

This is Just The ABCs of Religion

Our job is to search for the Truth! Satan's job is to keep us away from it.

 

If we are not searching, Satan wins. If we search ourselves into a false religion, Satan wins. But if we continue to Read More, Study More and Pray More, we will constantly be directed to the Truth, and Christ wins. And the main point is to continue growing. The familiar verse of: Luke 11:9 "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. The original meaning is this: Luke 11:9 "So I say to you, Keep on asking, and it will be given to you; Keep on seeking, and you will find; Keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you.

These are the ABCs of Religion:

Ask, Again and Again,

Boldly Seek,

Continue Knocking

 

Most churches do not want their congregations to read the Bible, and the devil certainly doesn't want you to read the Bible, they do not want you to search for the truth, or ask questions. And the reason is because if you actually knew the truth, you would not be attending their churches of deception. Please remember that, as we learned above, over 99.9% of the churches out there are not teaching The Whole Message of Christ Jesus, and most of them aren't even coming close to following the teachings of Jesus.

So Keep on Asking, Keep on Seeking, and Keep on Knocking - JESUS LOVES IT!!

______________________________________________________________

More Notable Notes

The really interesting part of the "RELIGION" aspect is that it's first known use of the term "RELIGION" was actually in the 13th century. Why not before? Why then and why now? It is an actual term to define belonging. And the interesting part of this is that we all belong to Christ Jesus. Belonging to Christ and living with Him is a way of live, it is a journey of fellowship, friendship, and love that has not the characteristics of the belonging to something earthly, or anything other than Christ Jesus. Satan literally uses the term "religion" as a tool to separate and confuse. It creates hatred, anger, wars, personal opinions rather than Godly fact, and a whole list of other horrible situations.

Christianity in America:
Today in America, about 75% of adults identify themselves as Christian. In comparison, the next largest religions in America are Islam and Judaism. Combined they represent only about one to two percent of the United States population.

Evangelicals:
Of the approximate 2 billion Christians in the world today, 648 million (11% of the world's population) are Evangelicals or Bible believing Christians. Evangelicals have grown from only 3 million in AD 1500, to 648 million worldwide, with 54% being Non-Whites.