10/19/2026
Can you see the orange dot? That’s the size of the hyper-fundamentalist group I (Natalie) grew up in compared to the number of broadly Protestant/non-denom Christians.
And to be clear, there are many genuine believers who wouldn’t be included under the “Protestant” label, but if we tried to represent them too, the dot would no longer be visible.
40,000 is the estimate used for Independent Trinitarian Holiness Pentecostals (a very generous approximate for a group that doesn’t count or keep records)
750,000,000 is the estimate used here for broadly Protestant Christians
That’s 1 in 18,750
So, when I was a teenager, if you had put me in a crowd of 18,750 people who believed the gospel (1 Cor 15:1–8) and had placed their faith in Christ, I would’ve wandered around for months, searching for someone who followed our exact dress code, and conducting interviews to make sure God had led them into our doctrine and churches, before I could confidently report back that I had found someone who was “really saved.”
Along the way, I probably would’ve run into a Conservative Holiness Christian or someone else who was dressed the part, but as soon as I realized they didn’t speak in tongues or fellowship our churches, I would’ve moved on.
People like that were “good people,” in my Holiness Pentecostal mind, but they were the kind of people you befriend and try to “bring into the full light.”
The tragic thing is, in this hypothetical situation, I would be surrounded by thousands and thousands of genuine believers and be completely blind to recognizing them.
Yet, in reality, that’s not far off to how we lived our lives. The weights that we added to the gospel made us unable to recognize true believers, even if they had the fruit of the Spirit, obeyed Christ’s commands, and had other fruit of true conversion.
Imagine all the missed opportunities for
fellowship,
missions,
outreach,
and serving our communities.
Hyper fundamentalism isn’t harmless. Cultish mentalities and extra-biblical rules always end up distorting the gospel and hindering kingdom work.
May we all do better to recognize fellow believers according to the litmus tests of God’s Word, rather than the length of their sleeves or the name on their church door. How encouraging to realize the Body of Christ goes beyond our four walls!
“Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
– Matthew 16:18
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Read more on this topic in Nathan’s article, “How Big is the Church?” linked in the comments.