Learning more interesting facts about Christianity will help you brush up your historical knowledge as well as further embrace your faith.
Jesus is mentioned five times more than the number of times Muhammad is mentioned in the Quran.
Thirty pieces of silver would be worth about $600 today, which would have been enough to pay a skilled worker for four months during that time in history.
This is one of the most bizarre phobias. It is related to other types of phobias such as hierophobia (irrational fear of holy people or things) and ecclesiaphobia or ecclesophobia (irrational fear of institutionalized religions, the church and/or the people involved in it).
Muhammad’s tomb is housed inside the Green Dome in Medina, Saudi Arabia. According to Islam scholars, Jesus will come back to the Holy Land to destroy the Antichrist (the “false messiah”) and rule the land for 40 years. After this, Jesus will be interred next to Muhammad, and that explains the empty space waiting for Him.
Pope Francis, as Jorge Bergoglio, used to work in a variety of jobs before becoming a Jesuit priest: he worked as a janitor, chemical factory worker, and also as a nightclub bouncer.
Do you know that a holy man had once written a steamy romance novel? You’ll be shaking your heads at this, but a man named Aenas Sylvius Piccolomini wrote an erotic novel titled “The Tale of Two Lovers” (Historia de duobus amantibus in Latin) in 1444. The story centers on an unmarried woman and a man, and their correspondence to each other which takes up the bulk of the novel. This was written before Piccolomini was ordained as a priest; he went on to become Pope Pius II.
“The Tale of Two Lovers” has been translated into several languages, including English. Apart from the popular erotic novel, Pius had also written erotic poems.
The Christian population in the entire world is expected to grow, from 2.2 billion in 2010 to 2.9 billion in 2050. The most remarkable development is in sub-Saharan Africa where the Christian population is expected to increase by 38%. While the Christian population in Europe, on the other hand, is predicted to continue to decrease, from 26% in 2010 to 16% in 2050.
The Roman Empire once accused Christians of being atheists because they refused to worship the Roman deities, which sounds ironic. According to scholars, what irked Romans about Christians is that the Christian rites were simplistic. They were in complete contrast to the Roman worship (with temples, oracles, sacrifices, icons, elaborate religious rites).
To be more specific, world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham has preached to about 215 million in over 185 countries and territories. Graham has preached for more than 60 years.
The Roman Catholic Church derives its income mostly from donations, and it’s not so surprising considering the church has over 1.2 billion members around the world.
There are over 67 million Christians in mainland China. Since the death of Chairman Mao in 1976, the number of congregations and churches have skyrocketed.
And you think it’s just Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and Eastern denominations. There are actually about 33,830 several different Christian denominations scattered across the globe. But the numbers may differ — some sources say that there are about 43,000.
Christianity was the main religion in Egypt between the 4th and 6th centuries until the invasion of the Arabs during the early to the mid 7th century. An army of 4,000 Arab soldiers was sent by Caliph Umar (Muhammad’s successor) and drove away from the Byzantines from Alexandria, Egypt, therefore staging the success of the Muslim conquest of Egypt. Since then Islam has been the dominant religion in the country.
Among those countries where Christians face severe persecution are North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Bhutan, China, Iran, Laos, Maldives, Vietnam, and Yemen. Many of these countries don’t uphold religious freedom; for some of them, conversion to another religion is punishable by death.
Actually, there is seven cave church in the Mokattam Village, a community in Egypt dubbed as “Garbage City.” A certain cave church, the Monastery of Simon the Tanner (named after a Coptic Christian saint), is the biggest church in the Middle East, with a seating capacity of about 20,000.
Antarctica actually has at least seven places of worship, mostly Orthodox and Catholic churches, They include the amazing Ice Cave Catholic Chapel located at Belgrano II Base.
The most bizarre (and definitely the most macabre) episode in papal history is putting a dead pope on trial, called Cadaver Synod (Synodus Horrenda in Latin). The trial was conducted by his successor Stephen VI, who had the rotting corpse of Pope Formosus. The new pope made the corpse stand for trial for illegally taking over the papacy. After the end of this freakish trial, Formosus was found guilty and his rule as pope was declared null, in retrospect. The corpse was thrown off into the Tiber river. Following the Synod, the public had enough of Stephen’s morbid spectacle and turned against him. Stephen was thrown into a cell where he was eventually strangled to death.
According to a study conducted in Norway, church-goers experience less incidence of high blood pressure when compared to non-church-goers.
The reason for this may be attributed to attending religious services, where hearing sermons are beneficial to encourage healthy decision-making and coping up with stress. Engaging in church-related activities such as praying together and singing religious hymns may also impart physiological and mental well-being to a person, therefore reducing stress, which is one of the main culprits of hypertension.
