Comments on: Most people in the U.S. say there are many ways to God, even among Evangelicals!

By: Don

Don — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:43:46 +0000

Wow! I must be some producer (-;

By: Brett Blatchley

Brett Blatchley — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:39:46 +0000

No, I’m “resting” from the first part of a difficult relocation!

When you want to get something done, look for the busy person.

By: Don

Don — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:31:17 +0000

You have too much time on your hands.

By: Brett Blatchley

Brett Blatchley — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:57:17 +0000

Oops! Looks like I over represented the “cults” — “Christians” don’t add up to 100%. Oh well, it was a back-of-the-envelope estimate anyway; I don’t think my mistake changes much.

By: Brett Blatchley

Brett Blatchley — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:52:26 +0000

It seems to me that the Bride of Christ will comprise largely of children, all those from conception up accountability.

I’ve sometimes played mind games trying to “envelope estimate” the population density of the New Jerusalem. To do that requires estimating the size of the Church. It sounds that these stats will be fodder for another estimate. Let’s try a close-order estimate:

Let World population (WP) = 6.7*10^9

The UN says there are about 5 children for every adult woman today:
http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2002/WPP2002-HIGHLIGHTSrev1.PDF

So, let’s say that 5/7ths of the world population are children (and let’s assume that they are all under the age of accountability).

Let’s subtract the USA population since it seems to have the highest proportion of Christians of any large nation (and their birth rate is only around 2 children per woman):

USA population (UP): 3*10^8
Non USA population (NP): WP - UP = 6.4*10^9

Estimated Non USA children (NC): NP * 5 / 7 ~= 4.6*10^9
Estimated Non USA Christian adults (2%?) (NA): NP * 2 / 7 * 2 / 100 ~= 3.7*10^7

Estimated USA children (UC): UP * 2 / 4 ~= 1.5*10^8

(Here’s were our new data fits in…)

Estimate USA Christian adults

80% USA (assume adult) population “Christian” of these:

73.5 Mainline Protestant
26% Catholic
2.5% Cults
0.5% Evangelical

So 73.5% Mainline Protestant * (100% - 86%) ~= 10% of professing US Christian adults (MP)
So 26% Catholic * (100% - 79%) ~= 5% of professing US Christian adults (CP)
So 2.5% Cults (100% - 99%) ~= 0.025% of professing US Christian adults (TP)
So 0.5% Evangelical (100% - 66%) ~= 1.7% of professing US Christian adults (EP)

USA Professing Christan adult population (CA): (UP - UC) * 80% ~= 1.2*10^8 (120 million)

So Mainline Protestant Christian adults: (CA * MP) ~= 1.2^10^7 (12 million)
So Catholic Christian adults: (CA * CP) ~= 6^10^6 (6 million)
So Cult adults (being generous): (CA * TP) ~= 3*10^4 (30,000)
So Evangelical adults: (CA * EP) ~= 2*10^5 (200,000)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States
(I know how trustworthy Wikipedia is, but it’s just an estimate!)

By our simple estimate taking the only the “many roads to god” heresy into account:

Estimated Non USA Christian adults (UA): (12,000,000 + 6,000,000 + 30,000 + 200,000) = 18.23*10^6

Finally, let’s add everyone up:

World Children: (NC + UC) = 4.6*10^9 + 1.5*10^8 ~= 4.75*10^9 (4.75 billion)

World Adult Christians: (NA + UA) = 3.7*10^7 + 18.23*10^6 ~= 55.23*10^6 (55.23 million)

So that makes about 4.80523 billion souls, only about 1.2% of which are adults.

The road is narrow indeed.

By: David

David — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:20:21 +0000

I was reading this article yesterday and knew you’d be commenting on it today. These numbers do not surprise me at all. It saddens me when you see it in black and white like that, but it isn’t surprising. There will be many WASP and Catholics in the US and Eurpoe dealing with shocks to the system post-rapture. Wondering what happened. There are many true christians going through real struggles and persecutions across the globe. Many saved by American mission programs (and God’s grace of course).

In the end God will rapture many men and women from every nation and every tongue who truly love him, while many arm-chair, name only christians from western society will be left behind.

By: Don

Don — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:33:48 +0000

True, but these are supposed to be Bible believers, the numbers are shocking and that does not even including the other damnable heresies among the Christians. With that in mind,
.how many that call themselves Christians will really go in the rapture? Perhaps a tithe.

By: Joel

Joel — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:19:51 +0000

Don, it does not surprise me about the 2/3 of evangelicals believe there are other ways to God. But they need to remember what Jesus said about the end in the parable of the wheat and the tares, there are goats among us. Also, but they will not heed the warning, when King David punished the Moabites, he put 2/3 of them to death.