Yes, of course. But, like you pointed out, they started out as Muslims.

I don't follow religious dogma
I follow Christ
It's just a lot less complicated

The tricky part is in that 4000 do they count Lutheran, and Catholic as one or two where the basics are the same, and how many of these are that way and the number of 4000 may drop considerably so your question may become mute.

So many questions.
Here's one. Ever wonder with so many people going to heaven, What happens to the waist when they flush the toilet?

4000 sounds like a lot considering how many countries there are.

Is there a list that shows all 4000 religions?

I’m guessing the person that figured out there’s 4000 religions is the same kind of person that believes in more than two genders.

Leave it to us humans to creat 4,000 plus ways to distort the message of God to meet their view of what they feel is the "real" religion for mankind.

Bryce

How many times have you heard "I do not not need to be a member of any church or belief because i believe in God "
Could it be that they do not want to be obligated in any way to do any thing at all other than believe ? Belief that God is real can cause people to grow ,to change ,to share .All this because they want to . There is lots of good and truth in all religions however some religions contain more truth than others ! God Bless America

4000 and which one is right??

To answer your question foxkidd44,
Christianity is the only religion that believes that the Messiah has beat death though living a sinless life.
Becoming a living sacrifice for an atonement for our sins. The resurrection from death and the grave and taking our sin to the grave is God's gift of grace and mercy for those that understand that no one is worthy of eternal life without faith in the loving sacrifice that God gave us through Jesus.
Man will always imagine God in our own minds. This is probably why we have so many different denominations in Christianity. Other religions are the same its human nature.

Ty everyone for your replies

The one thing that's supposed to bring us together is the one thing that divides / us the most = RELIGION
I pass 4 different churches just to go to Kroger 2miles away (having churches is not bad in itself)
I study religion now more than when I went to church, I find it fascinating to here both sides what we will believe and
our cognitive dissonance about religion
Here's a novel concept stop feeding the religious gene in our DNA
and start feeding facts as best we know them there is no magic blood that can save you from death
people die it's scary nothing you can do about it. it does feel good to think there is more and a better
place after all this. doesn't make it true because someone told you it.
Live life to the fullest, love your family, help others, be kind, cause no harm
and no that's not the bible.

500 million Buddhists believe the Buddha lived a sinless life and was reborn after death.

Keith

That would depend on which channel you watch.

In response to the original question, I don't have any data with which to supply you, but I will say that most of the Messianic religions are derivatives or variants of the Abrahamic religions. Regarding fulfilled prophecies, there are many religions that will list and claim prophetic fulfillment of all kinds of things, messianic or otherwise.



In my opinion, these questions reveal some of the biggest theological problems with our modern Christian culture. Christians claim to use the Bible as their standard reference but cannot account for the answers they give to these questions using the Bible. Our answers are really answers out of Plato or Greek mythology, and we cut and paste Bible verses like a magazine cut-out ransom note in order to make the Bible say what we think it says. Then we spend all of our church and Bible study and devotional hours trying and struggling to use the right book to answer the wrong questions. If you think that the Bible is about how to get to heaven when you die, then I would (as kindly as possible) suggest that you go read your Bible again...



I hear you, and I can agree with a lot of what you said. The cognitive dissonance really irks me too. A lot actually. I do have a question for you, though, regarding the bolded text. Why?

Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis, Attis, Zagreus, Dionysus, Odin, Mithras and a multitude of other gods all supposedly died and came back to life.

There is supposedly 45,000 different Christian denominations, probably because of all the independent churches, like many of the Baptist ones.

I don't think it's likely a being as great as God cares how or even if they are worshipped. They would not be petty, like we are.

Keith

Don't forget Harry Potter and Gandalf. Messianic notes in LOTR are scarce, but HP plays it up quite a bit.

A neighbor kid of ours growing up, Jim, started worshiping a tree, when he was around 14. We of course all made fun of him and ate the food sacrifices he offered to it, such as Ho Hos, Twinkies and King Dongs. We made up a song making fun of him and his tree god, that we sang while he raged and we ate the treats.

People will believe all sorts of weird crap. All religions seem mostly made up to me.

Because of the ridicule we gave him, Jim stopped worshipping the tree, which his dad soon after had cut down. Jim ended up on a nuclear submarine in the Navy, which he later retired from.

Keith

All anyone needs to know, no "religion" necessary, follow the golden rule, in plain english, do no harm, don't be a ****

That brings up something that I, as a believing Christian, have a hard time reckoning with.....

Let's say that tonight, before I go to bed, I pray to the Christian God to keep me safe on my drive to work tomorrow. I get up tomorrow, and my drive to work is uneventful. As a Christian, I might say that my prayer worked; God kept me safe on my morning commute.

Now lets say that instead of praying to the Christian God, I pray to a stick I found in the yard. "Oh wise and powerful stick, please keep me safe on my drive to work tomorrow." Again, my drive the next day is uneventful. Did the all-powerful stick God keep me safe, by his own generosity? Of course not. That's ridiculous. Sticks aren't God. But I, at the same time, believe that praying to the God of the Bible kept me safe. And your friend Jim would have felt that the tree he made sacrificing to kept him safe, as well.