The largest religion in the world, Christian adherents number 2.3 billion, making up almost a third of the world population, according to the CIA World Factbook.

The United States has the world’s largest Christian population by country with 246,000 Christians.

Christianity is considered an Abrahamic religion, meaning it shares its origin of the religious figure Abraham with both Islam and Judaism. It shares with these religions the belief in one all-powerful God.

Christianity also shares with Judaism the obedience of the Ten Commandments. Christianity in fact began as a sect of Judaism in what is now Israel.

However, the major difference of Christianity is the belief that Jesus Christ is not only a prophet but the son of God and the savior of humanity, the Messiah that is referred to in the Hebrew Bible.

Christianity has three major denominations, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestantism.

Protestantism is a newer form of Christianity that arose in the early sixteenth century, in which the authority of the Pope is rejected, and is more broadly defined as Christianity outside of Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox.