[popsicesHoupe]

Having said that, although we can not know how many will be saved we do know that God desires all to be saved (do you agree with that?). So as Christians we have a responsibility to try to save as many of the "lost sheep" as possible so "there's joy in heaven". That's what I mean by saying that "numbers matter". I mean that we shouldn't just sit on our lap congratulate ourselves and say "Naaah, the world doesn't deserve the Church and the Truth anyway".

... That's why I care about numbers, not in a sense to say my Religion is the biggest and most popular, but to ask my self is my Religion (who holds the Truth) doing everything possible to convert as many people as possible?

Frankly, you don't need numbers to determine that. Just a good, hard, honest look at oneself. To look at numbers as a determinant of whether one is properly conducting outreach, is to run the risk of altering the message to increase the numbers - which I think we all agree is not the way to go.

In any case, the initial idea being debated, was of using the proportion a given faith community represented in the population, as evidence (or lack thereof) for its being the True Faith, not as an indicator of its missionary effectiveness. And the argument of "numbers don't matter" was in that context - of determining "who's right", so to speak.

In Christ,
Michael