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280 million Christians live as a minority. About half of all Christians worldwide are Catholic, while more than a third are Protestant (37%). Orthodox communions comprise 12% of the world's Christians. Other Christian groups comprise the remainder. By 2050, the Christian population is anticipated to exceed 3 billion. According to a 2012 Bench Research study Center study, Christianity will stay the world's biggest religious beliefs in 2050, if present patterns continue.
Etymology The Greek word (Christianos), meaning "fan of Christ", comes from (Christos), suggesting "anointed one", with an adjectival ending obtained from Latin to signify sticking to, or perhaps belonging to, as in servant ownership. In You Can Try This Source , christos was utilized to equate the Hebrew (Maa, messiah), indicating" [one who is] blessed".
The abbreviations Xian and Xtian (and similarly-formed other parts of speech) have actually been utilized considering that a minimum of the 17th century: shows a 1634 usage of Xtianity and Xian is seen in a 163438 diary. The word utilizes a similar contraction. Early use The very first taped usage of the term (or its cognates in other languages) is in the New Testimony, in Acts 11 after Barnabas brought Saul (Paul) to Antioch where they taught the disciples for about a year, the text states that "the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch" (Acts 11:26).
The 3rd and last Brand-new Testimony recommendation to the term is in 1 Peter 4, which exhorts followers: "Yet if [any guy suffer] as a Christian, let him not be embarrassed; but let him glorify God on this behalf." (1 Peter 4:16). Kenneth Samuel Wuest holds that all 3 original New Testimony verses' usages show a derisive component in the term Christian to describe fans of Christ who did not acknowledge the emperor of Rome.
However Peter's obvious endorsement of the term caused its being chosen over "Nazarenes" and the term Christianoi from 1 Peter becomes the basic term in the Early Church Dads from Ignatius and Polycarp onwards. The earliest events of the term in non-Christian literature consist of Josephus, describing "the people of Christians, so named from him;" Pliny the Younger in correspondence with Trajan; and Tacitus, writing near the end of the 1st century.