SPAIN

• Spain is a country of 44 million people and less than 60 independent Baptist missionaries.
• Spain is the least evangelized of all Spanish-speaking countries.
• Spain is 94% Roman Catholic.
• Spain has fewer missionaries per capita than China or India.

Spain was under the rule of a dictator, Francisco Franco, until his death in 1976. Until that time, Catholicism was the state religion and Spain was not open to any religious Western Influences. Because of that reason, Spaniards didn't have an opportunity to hear anything else than the false teachings of Catholicism. Now that the country is open, it is hard to explain how salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, is the only way to go to heaven. Many Spaniards have answered to us by saying: "If 'your religion' is the only way, why haven't we heard about it before now"?

But people are now tired of Catholicism and its hypocrisy. They are turning away from the ties they once had. In a recent article, I was able to see that now only 80% of the Spaniards claim to be Catholics, 17% claim to be agnostics and the other 3% represents all the other religions. True Christians represent less that 1% of the Spanish population. But of the 80% that claim to be catholic, 50% say that they never go to church. Those people, we believe, are the ones that believe in God, but say that they are Catholics because they don't know anything else or do not agree with the other cults that have been able to be known in Spain. That was the testimony of Pilar; she used to say that she was catholic but did not believe in Catholicism. That sounds like a contradiction in itself, but to her it made sense. You see, she said that she was catholic because she thought that if you believe in God, that made you catholic; but she didn't claim to follow Catholicism because she saw the hypocrisy and the contradiction of their teaching. It was because a missionary showed her with the Word of God what God says about idolatry and salvation that she was able to see the truth and get saved.

We want to go to Spain and show them, that there is something else, and that something else is Christ; that they can go to Him directly and that He already has paid it all. They are working for a salvation that already has been paid for by the precious blood of our Savior Jesus Christ. But how shall they know unless someone tells them.

 

To see more facts of Spain visit this website: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2878.htm