The WTS also applies an illustration of a dragnet. This was the topic of a talk at this year's district conventions, and it was also studied in a Watchtower article.
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w92 6/15 p. 20 pars. 13-15 What Do the Dragnet and Fish Mean for You? ***13
Do you think that unfaithful professors of Christianity had any part in the illustration of the dragnet? Well, there is reason to answer, yes, they did. The symbolic dragnet included Christendom. True, for ages the Catholic Church tried to keep the Bible from the common people. Nevertheless, over the centuries members of Christendom played a key role in translating, copying, and distributing God’s Word. Churches later formed or supported Bible societies, which rendered the Bible into the languages of remote lands. They also sent out medical missionaries and teachers, who made rice Christians. This gathered vast numbers of unsuitable fish, who did not have God’s approval. But at least it exposed millions of non-Christians to the Bible and to a form of Christianity, although corrupted.14
All the while, the scattered faithful ones adhering to God’s Word exerted themselves as best they could. At any given time, they constituted God’s true anointed congregation on earth. And we may be sure that they too were catching fish, or men, many of whom God would view as fine and whom he would anoint with his spirit. (Romans 8:14-17) These fine professors of Christianity were able to bring Bible truth to many who had become rice Christians or who had gained limited Biblical knowledge from the Scriptures translated into their tongues by Christendom’s Bible societies. True, the collecting of fine fish was going on, even though most being gathered by Christendom were unsuitable from God’s standpoint.15
So the dragnet represents an earthly instrument that professes to be God’s congregation and that gathers in fish. It has included both Christendom and the congregation of anointed Christians, the latter having continued to collect fine fish, under the invisible guidance of the angels, in line with Matthew 13:49.
*** w97 11/1 p. 12 par. 14 Christians and the World of Mankind ***
14
In his illustration of the dragnet, Jesus foretold that there would be a large territory for the preaching work. (Matthew 13:47-49) Explaining this illustration, The Watchtower of June 15, 1992, stated on page 20: "Over the centuries members of Christendom played a key role in translating, copying, and distributing God’s Word. Churches later formed or supported Bible societies, which rendered the Bible into the languages of remote lands. They also sent out medical missionaries and teachers, who made rice Christians. This gathered vast numbers of unsuitable fish, who did not have God’s approval. But at least it exposed millions of non-Christians to the Bible and to a form of Christianity, although corrupted."