fast facts

im not putting this up here and saying its all true, but i had fun reading them so i thought i would share.

fast facts about Religion.

About 50 Bibles are sold every minute.

Christianity is the world's most widespread religion (1,7 billion Christians).

The Bible was written in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek.

The Slavonic Orthodox Church has twice as many adherents as the Baptist Church.

The 12 disciples were not were not allowed to carry food, money, or extra clothing.

Delilah was given a few thousand pieces of silver to deceive Samson into revealing the secret of his strength. (NKJV) Judges 16:4-5: "And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, 'Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may over power him....and every one of us will give you 1100 pieces of silver.' "

Dogs are mentioned 14 times in the Bible, and lions 55 times, but domestic cats are not mentioned at all.

The Bible, the world's best-selling book, is also the world's most shoplifted book.

The oldest almost-complete manuscript of the Bible still existing is the Codex Vaticanus, dating from the first half of the 4th century, now held in the Vatican library.

The word "Christian" appears only three times in the Bible: Acts 11:26; 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16.

Esther is the only book in the Bible that does not contain the word "God."

There are 66 books in the Bible, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament.

The 66 books of the Bible is divided into 1,189 chapters consisting of 31,173 verses. The Old Testament has 929 chapters, the New Testament 260. (King James version)

The King James Old Testament consist of 592,439 words consisting of 2,728,100 letters and the New Testament 181,253 words consisting of 838,380 letter (total 3,566,480 letters).

The longest line in the Bible is Esther 8:9 - 89 words, 425 letters.

The longest word in the Bible is Maher-shalal-hash-baz: Isaiah 8:1.

The shortest verse in the NIV Bible is John 11:35: "Jesus wept."

The longest book chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119, the shortest is Psalm 117.

Obadiah, with 21 verses consisting of 602 words, is the shortest book in the Old Testament, and the third shortest in the Bible.

II John has the fewest number of verses of any book in the Bible - it is the shortest book in the Bible.

III John has the fewest number of words of any book in the Bible.

Job is the oldest book written in the Bible - it was written by an unknown Israelite around 1500 BC.

Malachi, written about 400 BC, is the youngest book in the Old Testament.

James, written around 45 AD, is the oldest book in the New Testament.

Revelation, written about 95 AD, is the youngest book in the New Testament.

The verse in the exact middle of the Bible is Psalm 117:8. There are 594 chapters before Psalm 117 and 594 chapters after Psalm 117.

St Paul wrote 14 (of the 27) books of the New Testament.

The covering for the tabernacle was made out of ram skins and sea cow hides: Exodus 36:19.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say there were three wise men - Matthew 2:1 only says: "Magi from the east came to Jerusalem" and later they present three gifts. More

The word "Lord" appears 1855 times in the Bible.

The word "God" appears in every book except Esther and Song of Solomon.

The word "grandmother" appears in the Bible only once: 2 Timothy 1:5.

The word "eternity" is mentioned only once: Isaiah 57:15.

Seven suicides are recorded in the Bible.

In Old Testament times the Mediterranean Sea was called the Great Sea.

There are 7 different Jeremiahs in the Bible: 1 Chronicles 5:24; 12:4, 10, 13; 2 Kings 23:30; Jeremiah 1:1; 35:3.

The raven is the first bird mention in the Bible. It appears in Genesis 8:7, when it is sent out from the ark by Noah to see if the flood waters have abated. The second bird was a dove, in verse 8.

Almonds and pistachios are the only nuts mentioned in the Bible.

A chariot imported from Egypt cost around 600 shekels of silver (1 Kings 10:29). That would be about $77,000. One shekel was 4 days wages.

The word "trinity" is not mentioned in the Bible.

Methuselah is the oldest man on record: 969 years old (Genesis 5:27).

The 10 plagues of Egypt:
1. Water turns to blood
2. Frogs
3. Lice and fleas
4. Flies
5. Cattle die of diseases
6. Boils and sores
7. Hail
8. Locusts
9. Darkness
10. Death of first-born

The 7 last plagues (Revelation 16):
1. Sores
2. Sea turns to blood
3. Rivers turn to blood
4. People schorched by heat of the sun
5. Darkness
6. River Euphrates dries up
7. Earthquake

The 7 Fathers of the Church:
St Athanasius, St Gregory of Nazianzus, St John Chrysostom, St John of Damascus, St Basil of Caesarea, St Gregory of Nyssa, St Cyril of Alexandria.

During the 6th Century, it was customary to congratulate people who sneezed because it was thought that they were expelling evil from their bodies. During the great plague of Europe, the Pope passed a law to say "God bless you" to one who sneezed.

The last word in the Bible is AMEN.

flavers

so i have been thinking a lot about this emergent church thing. i have read about it, heard a message on it, as well as a long answer about it in a Q&A that i happened to download (it was off topic to and that made it ironic to me). it would seem that for some reason God has put this movement into my sight for the last two days in a row. so i have pondered the things i have heard both Good and bad and thought i would give my thoughts. i think and hope that Christians who are so against the emergents are so because of a total lack of biblical truth in the movement and not because of the way someone might dress or because of the style of worship that goes on. i really believe that there are things we should never depart from, and then there are things that the bible just does not talk about that i think comes down culture and personal likes and dislikes. i see nothing wrong with diverse styles of dress all worshiping together as long as everyone in the congregation is ok with that. i see nothing wrong with using video or modern music in worship. i do not have any problems with there being a different style of Christian. if that where a problem then all the world would have to become Americans to please God. and i think thats hog wash. the bible does not tell us what style to use, or what kind of music (other then psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs). i have to believe that God left the door open on some of these things for a very good reason.

now when it comes to the bible being the word of God, doctrine, and statements of faith i have to lean toward the conservative with a heavy lean. i think there is no room to question the gospel, or God's word. i think there is no room to question how man kind is saved, how we are to serve, and the lives we are to live. the bible is clear about sin, hell, and Jesus Christ being the only cure. for me i think this is where the emergent church has stepped out of Christianity compleatly.

is there a middle ground?
i hope so! and im starting to believe there is. i just heard about a congregation tonight for the first time that is a mix of both. there statement of faith would give most of the Christians i know a heart attack. yet i do not see anything that is against the word of God. also, they believe it is the word they believe in hell, and sin. they seek to live for Christ everyday. yet they will have rock shows on the stage there, and let people come as they are to worship. still they believe in living a moral God exulting life. im not going to say i agree with everything they do but i think we can learn from the way they seek to look past the outward, in order to get to peoples heart. the place where God is concerned with.

here is a clip out of the "who we are" section of their web site. im not going to say who they are for the sake of not promotoing something i don't 100% agree with.

"What We Believe
When it comes to doctrine, culture, preferences, traditions, lifestyles, politics, behavior, etc., blank Church takes a “closed-hand/open-hand” approach. The closed hand hangs onto the non-negotiable tenets of Christian orthodoxy: sin is the problem, Jesus is the answer, the Bible is true, and Hell is hot.

The open hand, however, allows room for differences when it comes to secondary matters; we liberally allow freedom for conscience and wisdom to guide where the Bible is silent. The open hand fosters unity among the diversity of expressions found in the congregation: Democrats and Republicans, soccer moms and indie rockers, carnivores and vegans, trendy bohemians and Microsoft nerds.

Hence,(enter name of church) is in favor of good beer (in moderation), great sex (in marriage), and even tattoos (Jesus has one). But our goal must always be love and concern for our friends so that we don’t enjoy our freedom at the expense of their faith.

In this way, we are seeking to simultaneously heed the Bible’s commands to have sound doctrine (1Timothy 4:16; Titus 1:9, 2:1), to love our Christian brothers and sisters (1 Peter 4:8; 1 John 4:7-21), and to avoid unnecessary divisions (Romans 16:17; 1 Corinthians 1:10, 12:25; Titus 3:10)."


something to think about....
maybe we just need to except that not everyone is like us, and maybe just maybe we might not have the only way. my pastor once said this. "when i was young i thought we had the only way, as i got older i started to think we have the best way, after a few more years i thought we had a good way, and now i realize we have a way." i know he was not talking about there being another way to salvation. he was talking about how we do church. and i think he is right, as long as you have the big things right you have "a way"