Around 257 million people speak Portuguese, making it the ninth-most-spoken language in the world.¹ Brazil has by far the largest number of Portuguese-speaking people, followed by Portugal, Mozambique, and Angola.
\nThis provides an incredible opportunity to serve Portuguese-speaking local churches with sound, biblical resources. The Portuguese-speaking church is in great need. Since its beginning, it has been deeply influenced by an imperialistic Roman Catholic Church with a greater interest in colonization than in orthodoxy. This has left the door open for the prosperity gospel to make deep inroads in Latin America.
\nIn recent years, however, Reformed teaching has grown in prevalence. The number of people in Brazil identifying as Roman Catholic fell from 74 percent in 2000 to 65 percent in 2010. During that same time period, the number of Protestants rose from 15 percent to 22 percent.² Reports suggest that the number of Brazilians who adhere to Roman Catholicism today may be little over 50% of the population, with a third of Brazilians now identifying as Evangelicals. Second after the English-speaking world, Brazil leads as the largest market for Christian literature.³ Like Latin America in general, Brazil is seeing its first taste of reformation.
\nIn Portugal, on the other hand, about 80 percent of the population still identifies as Roman Catholic, and there is a secularizing influence as in the rest of Europe.⁴
\nLigonier has been very active in Portuguese outreach over recent years, including participating in resource distribution at both the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
\nWhen you donate to support our international outreach efforts, you help Portuguese-speaking Christians rediscover and preach the biblical truths that undergirded the Reformation. Your gift will help us strengthen the global church with trustworthy books, video teaching series, and more. Will you join with us to make these vital discipleship resources available where they’re most needed?
\nLigonier Ministries strives to reach Portuguese-speaking pastors, laypeople, and unbelievers from all walks of life through the following donor-supported outreach efforts:
\nThe Reformation Study Bible
\nTo survey the global church is to see false teaching abounding. Whether facing the prosperity gospel or secularism, Portuguese-speaking Christians need sound biblical resources to deepen their knowledge of God and help them recognize and resist unbiblical worldviews. To meet this need, the Reformation Study Bible has been translated into Portuguese, and is available in print. Ligonier, with the help of generous supporters and partner churches, distributed over 7,000 Bibles to pastors and church leaders in Brazil, Mozambique, and Angola.
\nOnline Outreach
\nPortuguese is the sixth-most-used language on the internet, so translating materials is of strategic importance.⁵ Ligonier’s Portuguese website, together with our Facebook page, Twitter account, and Instagram account enable us to reach further into the Portuguese-speaking world. When you give to support this outreach, you’re ensuring that even more solid Bible teaching becomes readily available and accessible.
\nOn Reformation Day in 2020, Ligonier hosted an online event in Portuguese on Romans 8. The Portuguese online event reached thousands of people through Youtube and Facebook.
\nThere have been thousands of views of our short video Do que se tratava a Reforma? (What Was the Reformation All About?), which was released online for the five-hundredth anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The two-minute Coram Deo video (Behold the face of God) is available in Portuguese, so more people can discover what it means to be a Christian—saved by God’s grace to live humbly under His authority and joyfully for His glory. Social media is spreading biblical truth far and wide, as the printing press did for the Reformers, and it is equipping Portuguese-speaking Christians everywhere.
\nThe Ligonier Statement on Christology
\nThere is much confusion regarding Christology—the doctrine of Christ—in Brazil, Portugal, and around the world. As the church continues to grow, it is imperative that believers learn the truths of Scripture as summarized in the great confessions of faith. We produced The Word Made Flesh: The Ligonier Statement on Christology to help Christians know what the church has historically taught, providing clarity on the person and work of Christ. The statement has already been translated into numerous languages, including Portuguese, and our goal is to distribute it worldwide. Your gift, large or small, will help achieve this goal.
\nForthcoming Books
\nGrowing interest in the Reformed tradition has sparked an eagerness for more resources from R.C. Sproul and Ligonier. With your giving and prayerful support, we will be able to translate, print, and distribute the following Reformation Trust titles:
\nPublished Books
\nWe also regularly translate Tabletalk magazine articles into Portuguese for distribution in churches and seminaries. Your donations allow countless people to enjoy these popular and practical materials in their native language.
\nVideo Teaching Series available
\nOur video teaching series promote theological education, and the accompanying study guides encourage students to interact with the material. The following teaching series has been dubbed into Portuguese, and is available through the Portuguese YouTube channel.
\nWill you help us translate and dub series to aid more Christians’ spiritual growth in Brazil and around the world?
\nFunding needs reflect quoted estimates based on April 2024 foreign exchange rates and current translation fees.
\nThese are only a few of our many international outreach projects underway. We ask you to prayerfully consider supporting our efforts in the Portuguese-speaking and global church through your financial gifts. Your generosity helps translate, print, and distribute trustworthy resources, providing countless opportunities to reach people with the truth of God’s Word. You can donate here.
\nOur policy is to apply gifts given toward a specific program. If we receive more contributions than can be wisely used for a given project, we apply these funds to meet other pressing needs in our outreach efforts. We are committed to stewarding all gifts wisely toward the goal of proclaiming the holiness of God to as many people as possible. Ligonier Ministries is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.
\n¹ See https://www.ethnologue.com/guides/ethnologue200 as at Sept 2, 2021
\n² See http://www.pewforum.org as at May 24, 2019
\n³ See http://www.pewforum.org as at May 24, 2019
\n⁴ See http://evangelicalfocus.com as at May 24, 2019\n⁵ See https://www.statista.com as at May 24, 2019
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