BobRyan
Well-Known Member
I was watching John Paul's funeral this morning and saw all those peoples from many nations, tribes and tongues with all those head's of state and kings of the earth... and (well a Bible verse came to mind).
The symbol for "waters" in the book of Revelation is defined as ...
Truly the papacy is a world wide church that has influence among the "Waters" and the "kings of the earth" (obvious to all at this time and for many centuries before this).
My question is - "How many Catholics" are there on the earth?
How does one get "counted" as a Catholic.
I have heard that - in Catholic countries where the "state religion" is Catholic - simply being born in a hospital affects the catholic "Census" because to get the "general" numbers they simply take the population count for those countries that are officially Catholic.
That means that millions of non-Catholics and non-Christians are "being counted as Catholic" in that "rough-ball world-census" number.
And in countries like America - if you are christened in a Catholic Church - you get counted. However - do you "remain counted" even if you later stop attending?? If you then become Agnostice/atheist or even join a non-Catholic church are you still in their Catholic "number" for world-wide Catholic membership count?? Does the "rough estimate" for the US Catholic count "stay the same" in terms of having "counted you"??. Do they have some vigilant workers constantly revising the numbers to keep them accurate for "Actual" Catholic membership in countries like America and non-Catholic countries in Europe?
This would mean that millions of Baptists, methodists, atheists etc in America are ALSO counted the general count for "number of Catholics in the world today".
As those of you know who have churches that practice believer's baptism - it is hard enough to "keep the books accurate" by constantly updating the records and distinguishing between the huge population of non-attending ex-memebers in a city or community and the actual number of attending members. That ratio can be has high as 10-to-1 in some communities. (And of course those "ex-members" may have gone on to other faiths or may have become atheist or ... so it is good to keep that number updated if you really want to know "how many Baptists there are in America" ).
So...does anybody know that the RCC actually has an "accurate" method of counting or are millions of Adventists, Baptists, Lutherans, Muslims, Agnostics, Atheists, Hindus world-wide being "counted" in that rough-guess "world-wide Catholic census" count?
In Christ,
Bob
The symbol for "waters" in the book of Revelation is defined as ...
And of course there is also a reference to all the "kings of the earth" in Rev 17 and 18.Rev 17
15 And he said to me, ""The waters which you saw ... are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.
Truly the papacy is a world wide church that has influence among the "Waters" and the "kings of the earth" (obvious to all at this time and for many centuries before this).
My question is - "How many Catholics" are there on the earth?
How does one get "counted" as a Catholic.
I have heard that - in Catholic countries where the "state religion" is Catholic - simply being born in a hospital affects the catholic "Census" because to get the "general" numbers they simply take the population count for those countries that are officially Catholic.
That means that millions of non-Catholics and non-Christians are "being counted as Catholic" in that "rough-ball world-census" number.
And in countries like America - if you are christened in a Catholic Church - you get counted. However - do you "remain counted" even if you later stop attending?? If you then become Agnostice/atheist or even join a non-Catholic church are you still in their Catholic "number" for world-wide Catholic membership count?? Does the "rough estimate" for the US Catholic count "stay the same" in terms of having "counted you"??. Do they have some vigilant workers constantly revising the numbers to keep them accurate for "Actual" Catholic membership in countries like America and non-Catholic countries in Europe?
This would mean that millions of Baptists, methodists, atheists etc in America are ALSO counted the general count for "number of Catholics in the world today".
As those of you know who have churches that practice believer's baptism - it is hard enough to "keep the books accurate" by constantly updating the records and distinguishing between the huge population of non-attending ex-memebers in a city or community and the actual number of attending members. That ratio can be has high as 10-to-1 in some communities. (And of course those "ex-members" may have gone on to other faiths or may have become atheist or ... so it is good to keep that number updated if you really want to know "how many Baptists there are in America" ).
So...does anybody know that the RCC actually has an "accurate" method of counting or are millions of Adventists, Baptists, Lutherans, Muslims, Agnostics, Atheists, Hindus world-wide being "counted" in that rough-guess "world-wide Catholic census" count?
In Christ,
Bob