believe that the world religion, Christianity is in line with Islam and Buddhism, allow the extent of its spread and impact on the course of history.If we talk about the other trends, they absolutely do not consider what force drives the development of mankind.Thus, it turns out that the scope of their attention completely falls story.But Christianity as a world religion, perhaps the only views it as a process of nonrecurring directed in one direction and controlled by God from the beginning (from the moment of creation) and the end, that is, until the Last Judgment.
gist of it is the drama of a man who has committed the Fall and fallen away from God, but having the opportunity, by grace, to find redemption through the Savior and the church.So, Christianity as a world religion, almost from the first minute of its existence has been associated with the most important moments of the history that influenced later on the fate of humanity as a whole.
In the late 20th century, Oxford University published interesting data.According to them, at that time they called themselves Christians almost half a billion people in the world, ie one third of its population.In comparison, while Islam professed 720 million., And Buddhism - 270 million people.
Nowadays Christianity as a world religion - is a collective term, which includes three areas: Protestantism, Orthodoxy and Catholicism.In their framework for more than two thousand years of history there was a lot of religious associations.All the followers of this direction believe in Jesus Christ.For them, it is both man and God at the same time.They fully accept his teachings and try to match it by their conduct in life.
Like any other religion, this also has its own cult book - Christian Bible.It consists of two Testaments: the Old, is considered sacred and the followers of Judaism and the New, written after the death of Jesus and the story about his life and teachings.The latter consists of the four Gospels, left followers of Christ, the Apostle to the world's communities, Acts of the Apostles and the Apocalypse, or Revelation.All these parts are considered sacred because they were written by people not by himself, but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.Christians believe that Jesus is our resurrection defeated death itself and all the people gave hope for a new, eternal life.In this way comes the reconciliation of humanity with God.
Christianity arose, when the Roman Empire - a civilization based on slavery, was already on the verge of decline.Finally, in the lower ranks of the rich and ripe conviction of the ruling, there was a commitment to the transformation of life.In such circumstances, Christianity with its belief came in handy.The first followers of Jesus believed in no doubt that God will soon intervene personally in matters occurring on Earth, destroy the existing world and establish his own.Christianity also attracted the promise of salvation.And there is hope in all suffering, including the poor.
While there were several communities within which allocated several sects and heresies.At the head of each of them was a presbyter, there are new positions: a deacon, the bishop.
At the end of the 4th century Roman Empire after centuries of enmity on the grounds of religious and political divisions split into eastern and western parts.At the same time there was the separation of church and.At the head of the eastern patriarchs steel and west - the Bishop of Rome (the pope).Since then, Christianity has forgotten about the period of persecution and, on the contrary, became the state religion.And even a complete rupture (in the middle of the 11th century) between the two branches did not contribute to its destruction.Just in Southeast and Eastern Europe mainly established orthodoxy deriving from the Byzantine and West - Catholicism.
Nowadays Christianity as a world religion has become even bigger, his position is as strong as ever.Now the number of his followers more than 2 billion..The largest in the world that religion and geographical raprostranennosti.After all, there is virtually no country in which there would be at least one Christian church.
