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....while every day another 5,000 to 10,0000 join the LDS church worldwide.

Let's see an actual source for that comment...oh wait...there isn't one.

Major Religious Groups

#	Faith	Congregations	Active Members	Adherents	Percent	Annual Growth
1	Protestant	0	0	168000000	56.00%	0.91%
2	Catholic	0	0	84000000	28.00%	0.91%
3	Jewish	0	0	6000000	2.00%	0.91%
4	other	0	0	12000000	4.00%	0.91%
5	none	0	0	30000000	10.00%	0.91%
6	Jehovah's Witnesses	11426	988469	2153268	0.72%	0.91%
7	Seventh-day Adventists	4422	861954	1723908	0.57%	3.00%
8	Latter-day Saints	12753	2276268	5690672	1.897%	1.69%

Country religious adherents data courtesy of the World Factbook.LDS membership and unit data are derived from the LDS Church Almanac. Seventh-day Adventist statistics are from the Adventist yearbook statistical reports. Jehovah's Witness data are from the Jehovah's Witness yearly statistical report. Other data are from a variety of sources available upon request.

Extrinsic Religious Challenges and Opportunities: National and Cultural

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in United States

Official LDS Statistics

LDS Members: 5690672

Missions: 106

Temples: 62

Stakes: 1390

Districts: 13

Wards: 10778

Branches: 1975

Total Congregations: 12753

Derived LDS Statistics

Approx. Active Members: 2276268

Percentage of Members Attending Church Weekly: 40%

Average members per congregation: 446

Average active members per congregation: 178

LDS, as percent of population: 1.8968%

Active LDS, as percent of population: 0.7587%

LDS, as percentage of churchgoers: 1.724%

National population per LDS congregation: 23523

Annual LDS Membership Growth

#	Year	Members	Annual Growth Rate	Wards	Branches	Units	Unit Growth Rate	Proportionality Ratio
1	1976	2336715	0%	0	0	0	0%	0
2	1978	2486261	3.1%	0	0	0	0%	0
3	1980	2693765	4.01%	0	0	0	0%	0
4	1982	2882145	3.38%	0	0	0	0%	0
5	1984	3049965	2.83%	0	0	0	0%	0
6	1986	3863598	11.77%	0	0	0	0%	0
7	1988	4100000	2.97%	0	1226	1226	0%	0
8	1990	4175000	0.91%	7456	1286	8742	75.4%	82.857
9	1992	4336000	1.89%	8056	1405	9461	3.94%	2.084
10	1994	4520000	2.08%	8433	1580	10013	2.83%	1.36
11	1996	4712000	2.08%	8719	1698	10417	1.97%	0.947
12	1998	4923000	2.19%	9189	1622	10811	1.85%	0.844
13	2000	5113409	1.9%	9627	1688	11315	2.27%	1.194
14	2002	5310598	1.89%	9999	1732	11731	1.8%	0.952
15	2004	5503192	1.78%	10357	1755	12112	1.59%	0.893
16	2006	5690672	1.67%	10778	1975	12753	2.57%	1.538

LDS membership and unit data 1976-2000 from Mark Davies' WW-LDS.

Proportionality Ratio is the ratio of the increase in units to the increase in membership. A ratio of 1 means that membership and church units are growing at the same rate.

National Population and LDS Growth Rates

Current LDS Membership Growth Rate: 1.67%

Current LDS Unit Growth Rate: 2.57%

Annual Population Growth Rate: 0.91%

Relative LDS Population Growth Rate (LDS membership growth rate minus population growth rate): 0.75%

Intrinsic Challenges and Opportunities of the Church of Jesus Christ

Convert Retention and Member Activity

While LDS activity rates in the United States are among the highest of any country in the world, less than half of members on the rolls are active. The Encyclopedia of Mormonism reports: 'Canada, the South Pacific, and the United States average between 40 percent and 50 percent [attendance at sacrament meeting].' (Source: Encyclopedia of Mormonism, edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, 1992, 4:1527.)

Marginal retention of new converts, and especially potential priesthood holders, remains a serious challenge:

'For the U.S. as a whole, only 59% of baptized males ever receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. In the South Pacific, the figure drops to 35%; in Great Britain, 29%. In Mexico (with almost 850,000 members) the figure is 19%; and in Japan, only 17% of the male members ever make it past the Aaronic Priesthood.' (source: Lowell C. Bennion and Lawrence Young, Dialogue, Spring 1996, p.19.)

Again I ask .... was Tertullian’s Lord Jesus Christ closer to yours or mine?

Undoubtedly mine. What was Tertullians Heresy has become your focus of worship!

As proof, I give you Tertullians own words....

Tertullian – Against Praxeas

Chapter II. “…were it only that it may not seem that each perversion of the truth is condemned without examination and simply prejudiced; especially in the case of this (Praxeus) heresy, which supposes itself to posses the pure truth, in thinking that one cannot believe in One Only God in any other way than by saying that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are the very selfsame Person.”

Chapter IV: “…we have been already able to show that the Father and the Son are two separate Persons, not only by the mention of their separate names as Father and the Son, but also by the fact that He who delivered up the kingdom, and He to whom it is delivered up-and in like manner, He who subjected (all things), and He to whom they were subjected-must necessarily be two different beings.

Chapter VII: “Whatever, therefore, was the substance of the Word that I designate a Person, I claim for it the name of the Son; and while I recognize the Son, I assert His distinction as second to the Father.”

“… I confess that I call God and His Word- the Father and His Son-Two.”

Chapter IX: “Now, observe, my assertion is that the Father is one, and the Son is one, and the Spirit one, and that They are distinct from Each Other.”

Chapter X: “In like manner, in order to be a father, I have a son, for I never can be a son to myself; and in order to be a son, I have a father, it being impossible for me ever to be my own father.”

Chapter XI: “If you want me to believe Him to be both the Father and the Son, show me some other passage where it is declared ‘The Lord said unto Himself, I am my own Son, to-day have I begotten myself’ or again ‘Before the morning did I beget myself’.”

Chapter XII: “..according to John ‘The Word was God,’ then you have two Beings – One that commands that the thing be made, and the Other that executes the order and creates.”