Christianity is the world's largest religion, with over 2.4 billion adherents, about a third of the world's population.
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In 2001, the World Christian Encyclopedia counted 33,830 different Christian denominations.
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Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament.
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Most scholars say Jesus never viewed himself as creating a new religion per se, just reforming Judaism.
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The three largest branches of Christianity are the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the various denominations of Protestantism.
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Christianity began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century in Judea. It quickly spread to Europe, Mesopotamia, Asia and by the 4th century had become the official state church of the Roman Empire.
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Christianity was the main religion in Egypt between the Fourth and Sixth Centuries.
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Christianity is severely persecuted in at least 27 countries.
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38%
of Christianity is projected to live in sub-Saharan Africa in 2050.
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Judas sold Jesus for the equivalent of 4 months' pay of a working man.
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Pope Pius II wrote a popular erotic book called "The Tale Of Two Lovers" before assuming office.
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There's an empty place
next to Muhammad's Tomb,
Islam's main Prophet,
reserved for Jesus.
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Billy Graham personally preached Christianism to over 200 million people.
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Going to church is good for you: Services lowers your blood pressure, a study found.
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A 62-foot Jesus statue built by a megachurch was destroyed by a lightning strike and subsequent fire.
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The Catholic Church once put a dead Pope on trial.
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Jesus is mentioned more times in the Quran than Muhammad.
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Papaphobia is the fear of the Pope.
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There's a Christian church in San Francisco that worships John Coltrane as a Saint and uses his lyrics as prayers.
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There are at least seven Christian churches in Antarctica.
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There is a sect, offshoot of Christianity, that believes Jesus is currently living in China as a Chinese woman.
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The Catholic Church considers the Theory of Evolution to be "virtually certain", and believes that intelligent design "isn't science even though it pretends to be."
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According to the Vatican, you can reduce the time you spend in purgatory by following the pope on Twitter.
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At least 20 million people died during the Taiping Rebellion in China, led by a man who claimed to be the brother of Jesus, and who attempted to impose a theocracy based on his interpretation of Christianity.
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Christianity is the fastest growing religion in Iran.
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Pope Francis used to work as a bar bouncer in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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Vladimir The Great, Prince of Kiev, considered converting to Christianity or Islam. He sent envoys to study both religions, but upon hearing that Islam forbade alcohol, he got baptized.
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The keys to the holiest site in Christianity, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, are held by a Muslim family that opens the church every morning. This arrangement has been in place since 1187 CE.
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There is a pilgrimage site in Sri Lanka that is holy to four religions for a "sacred footprint": Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and Christianity.
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Christmas ham, originally a pagan tradition, was endorsed by the Catholic Church as a test of truthful conversion from Judaism.
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Armenia became the first nation to adopt Christianity as a State Religion in the year 301.
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359 years after the Catholic Church forced Galileo Galilei to recant his theory that the Earth moves around the Sun, it declared he was right in 1992.
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In 2001, Pope John Paul II entered and prayed in a mosque and even kissed the Qur'an to improve relations with Islam.
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Christian Atheists believe in the teachings of Christ but not that they were divinely inspired. They see Jesus as a humanitarian and philosopher rather than the "son of God."
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The first Frenchman known to visit Japan was imprisoned, tortured and killed because he tried to promote Christianity.
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Early Christians were called "atheists" by Romans as they didn't pay tribute to pagan gods.
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7% to 10% of Arabs are Christians.
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16,000 African Muslims convert to Christianity every day.
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A Church built into a cave is the largest church in the Middle East.
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A man in Nebraska is breeding red cows and sending them to Israel
so that Jews build a Third Temple and "Jesus comes again".
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More people go to church on Sunday in China than in the whole of Europe.
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The Pentateuch (Torah in Judaism, Old Testament in the Christian Bible), lays down the death penalty for murder, kidnapping, magic, violation of the Sabbath, blasphemy, and a wide range of sexual crimes.
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The Catholic Church had a list of banned books until 1966, one of which was "Les Miserables."
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Only half of American Christians can name the four Gospels.
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When Pope John Paul II died, the entire funeral events amounted to € 6 million.
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Most Medieval Europeans were illiterate and needed visual reminders of hell to get them into church, so gargoyles were invented.
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Buzz Aldrin received communion on the moon.
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Until 2015
it was illegal
for the British monarch
to be Catholic or married to one.
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The site of the Vatican is where Emperor Nero attempted to crush the Christians in Rome by persecuting and murdering Christians.
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St. Clare of Assisi is the Catholic Church's patron saint of television.
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Every Good Friday in the Philippines, they reenact the crucifixions of multiple people, and they are real.
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St. Julian the Hospitaller is the Catholic Church's patron saint of circus workers and fiddle players.
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Saint Drogo is the Catholic Church's patron saint of those whom others find repulsive, unattractive people, cattle, coffee house owners and deaf people.
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The odds of any given person becoming a saint are 1 in 20,000,000.
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Pope John Paul II created more saints than all his predecessors in the previous 500 years put together.
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Most of the first 30 Catholic Church popes died violently.
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Saint Thomas More is the patron saint of statesmen and politicians.
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It's unsafe for travellers to rely on ‘St Christopher' any more: he was removed from the calendar of saints in 1969.
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In the year 20860, the Islamic and Christian calendars will finally agree.
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Before the current era of commercial skyscrapers, there was an era where the tallest buildings were Christian churches and cathedrals (c. 1250–1901).
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