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.