A History of Christian Doctrine #3 - Online Christian Library

Christianity Today
Denominational Pentecostals 215,000,000
Chinese Pentecostals 52,000,000
Protestant Charismatics 71,000,000
Catholic Charismatics 92,000,000
Third Wavers (Protestant) 110,000,000
Total 540,000,000
As we will discuss, the two numbers for Pentecostals
include various groups that have some Pentecostal characteristics,
such as demonstrative worship and belief in
healing, even though they may not be fully Pentecostal.
The two numbers for Charismatics also include many
Protestants and Catholics who once participated in the
Charismatic movement but who are no longer active. The
number for the Third Wave consists primarily of people in
Protestant denominations who believe in miracles but do
not fully embrace Pentecostal theology or identity.
Even by the most conservative measurement,
Pentecostals are now larger than any other Protestant
group. By the more inclusive statistics, Pentecostals are
the second-largest group of Christians after the Roman
Catholic Church. Taking Pentecostals and Charismatics
together, in one hundred years they attained numerical
equivalency to the traditional Protestant branch, which
has existed for five hundred years. They now account for
about 27 percent of total Christian population and about
9 percent of world population. They are increasing by 19
million per year. 319
Based on the above statistics, we can identify the
three major branches of Christianity as follows: Roman
Catholics and Eastern Orthodox at about 1.3 billion,
Protestants at about 450 million, and Pentecostals
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