Why hasn't there ever been or ever be a mass exodus from the WTS?

by RULES & REGULATIONS 36 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Mickey mouse
    Mickey mouse
    Then the numbers began to rebound during the Great Depression in the early 1930s with new converts being attracted to the movement,

    See, I had high hopes for a massive exodus in 2009 but this factor puts a pin in my balloon.

  • still_in74
    still_in74
    That posed a potential contradiction with his existing "remnant" doctrine

    Leolaia - can you expand on this doctrine of the time?

  • slimboyfat
    slimboyfat

    Also the exodus after 1975 was not uniform across the globe. Most countries had only modest declines, or just a slower rate of growth. But there were a few countries where there was a serious decilne for a few years: The Philippines, The Netherlands, The Czech Republic, (see recent Yearbook history for that example) and Chile. In Mexico, Japan and a few other places there was no discernible dent on growth at all.

  • Leolaia
    Leolaia

    still_in_74....Simply put, Rutherford taught that the anointed were then being severely tested, and that this testing would increase and intensify until Armageddon itself. As more and more are shaken out of the body of Christ, the number of those professing to be of the anointed would decrease while the truly committed anointed would step up their activity and prove themselves worthy of their elect status. This was a rationalization of the steep declines in membership in the second half of the 1920s.

    These statements by Rutherford are representative:

    *** w27 9/15 pp. 279-281 Jehovah Alone Be Thy Fear ***

    From time to time there are some who suggest that all trials and tests are done, that now the anointed are marching triumphantly on and will never again have such severe trials as in the past. Probably the desire to have it thus is father to the thought. Such scriptures as Revelation 12:17 and others strongly indicate that there is a great test yet to be endured by the faithful...That old dragon is exceedingly wroth with the remnant of the seed that remains. (Revelation 12:17) The giving of the strong witness against him and his agencies will bring this greater wrath upon the witnesses. The forces of the enemy will be gathered and are being gathered to Armageddon. The Servant class, small in number and insignificant in strength, would be destroyed instantly except for the protection that the Lord of hosts has provided...But it is not certain that every one who is now of the Servant class will continue therein...Of course there must be fiery experiences for the anointed class ahead; otherwise this promise would not be made...This company will be small. The Lord refers to it as a remnant, which means the faithful ones left after the less faithful have withdrawn. The conditions surrounding this little faithful company may be such as to strike terror and dread into the hearts of all; but none of them will fear, none of them will have any dread or any terror of the enemy, because the Lord of hosts is their strength and shield...

    There are several ecclesias in the land wherein brethren who are acting as elders are opposing the service work. Whether they will ever get their eyes open sufficiently to see their mistake the Lord knows. There are some members in the ecclesias that are being misled by these blind leaders that may get their eyes opened at a time when they will greatly regret that they followed men or feared men...[A]lthough a less number partook of the memorial in 1927 than heretofore the reports show that there is a far greater number today actually in the field service work than ever before. It is a healthy sign.

    *** Government [1928] pp. 206-212 Proclamation ***

    Are all who were anointed obeying the command to give this witness? They are not; and therefore they are to that extent in opposition to the righteous government of Jehovah. Many of such who were once in line for membership in the royal family refuse to obey the Lord's commandment and therefore show a lack of love for God, for Christ, and for his kingdom. Jesus said that at the end of the world, and necessarily at the time of coming to his temple, he would cause a separation between all of the consecrated by gathering out the lawless. "The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity." -- Matt. 13:41.

    These words of the Master show that the ones gathered out were for a time in line for the kingdom. Otherwise they could not be brought out from the kingdom. They are gathered out because they become offended at the Lord's manner of carrying on his work...The message of truth that comes to their ears is so strong, and points so clearly as to what the followers of Christ at this time must do in reference to announcing the kingdom, that it offends them and hardens their hearts; thereby they are shaken out. Instead of God's trying to get men into heaven, he is shaking out every one that can be shaken, in order that the approved ones might be made manifest.--Heb. 12:27.

    During the past fifty years a goodly number have been brought to a knowledge of "present truth" and have made a consecration to do God's will and, having been accepted as his sons, have received the call to a place in the kingdom. Some of these were by nature better endowed than others and more apt to teach and have been placed in the position of elders of the various ecclesias. Failing to walk in meekness and humility, and becoming impressed with their own importance, they have fallen to the wily influence of the evil one and have become ensnared by him....These leaders or elders have influenced others of the consecrated to imitate their wrongful course. Failing to see the great privilege of announcing God's righteous government, and being impressed with their own importance in the Lord's arrangement, they think that to study, talk to each other, "develop character," and get ready to go to heaven, is all that is expected of them. They overlook the fact that God has commanded his beloved ones to do his work now, and that work means that the good news of his government must be proclaimed to the people....

    Jehovah foreknew and foretold that there would be but a small number. The Lord God caused the natural Israelites to foreshadow the experiences of those who are of spiritual Israel. Amongst the Israelites there were a few faithful, but the mass of them did not appreciate God's favor. God gave to Isaiah his prophet a vision, and in that vision the Israelites were likened unto an olive tree with practically all the olives shaken down; and unto a vineyard with the grapes all gathered excepted a few to glean. (Isa. 17:6; 24:13) That foreshadowed that when the final test should come as to who would engage in the great and wonderful work of God on earth there would be but a small number who would avail themselves of that happy privilege.... The important point is that the experiences of Israel developed a remnant which foreshadowed that there would be a small remnant who would joyfully engage in the Lord's work. (Isa. 1:9) Corroborative of this Paul wrote concerning the Jews: "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." (Rom. 11:5) What came to pass upon natural Israel foreshadowed what would come to pass at the end of the world upon the professed followers of Christ and clearly shows that there would be a remnant at this time. A remnant is that which remains after the larger number has been taken away. That means that, after the shaking takes place and after the gathering out from the kingdom, mentioned by the Lord Jesus, a few would remain true and faithful unto God and would delight to do his will and such would be moved wholly by an unselfish devotion to him. That class constitutes the remnant.

    And here are some additional statements from the time about the mass exodus leaving Rutherford's group (even involving whole congregations, then called "companies"):

    *** w27 12/1 p. 355-358 "A People For a Purpose" ***

    The work in Holland has been greatly retarded, doubtless due to the machinations of the adversary. Some brethren who apparently were deeply interested fell away....A year ago there was much disturbance amongst the brethren in Switzerland, due to the work of the adversary in turning the heads of some who had been entrusted with the kingdom interests. Some of these became offended and withdrew. A goodly number of those who withdrew are drifting back into the world, while the honest-heared ones, devoted to the Lord, are returning to his service....During the past fifty years God has been causing his light to shine with increasing power upon his Word. He has not given his people new truths, but illuminated the truths already given. During that short period of time many have separated themselves from all organized systems of religion and have tried to walk in the way that Jesus and the apostles walked. For a time they made progress; and then many became tired and weary in well doing or thought more highly of themselves than they should think or became lawless, while others became offended. These turned away, so that today the larger percent of those who withdrew from so-called organized Christianity have turned aside and again gone back into the world.

    *** w30 11/15 pp. 341-344 Opposing God ***

    The total number of those who have withdrawn from the Society and now oppose its work is comparatively large, when such are taken all together. These are now divided into many companies, all claiming to be followers of Christ and claiming to be God's little flock...It is well known that every company that has withdrawn from the Society, and every person forming a part of any of these companies, has done so of his own volition. Ambitious and selfish leaders in little groups have led this company of opposers out...No man or company of men has put these opposers out of God's organization, nor could they put them out; bu tthe opposers, by persisting in their wrongful course of action, have been gathered out by the Lord. (Matt. 13:41)...

    In 1914 the kingdom was born, as pictured by the man child. Thereafter, to wit, in 1918 and 1919, great travail or trouble came upon the people of God. This of itself should have caused the consecrated to look sharply for the evidence of the beginning of the kingdom; but even after 1925, when the Lord through The Watch Tower brought forth the clear testimony proving that Zion had given birth to the man child, which is the kingdom and which shall rule the world, many of those who had been of the Society refused to accept that truth and began to bitterly oppose The Watch Tower and the work of the Society...It is a well known fact that many stumbled over this very truth concerning the birth of the nation or kingdom and became opposers of the Society. God also showed the beginning of the kingdom by the laying of the chief corner Stone in Zion, and over this the same class stumbled and fell and became opposers of God.

    *** w31 1/1 p. 5 Preservation of the Unselfish ***

    The nation of Israel had the favor of God, but because of selfishness and unfaithfulness, all, with the exception of a few, fell away to the enemy. With the little remnant of Israel the Lord organized his church, and caused his faithful disciples to proclaim the truth to others that they might take their stand on the side of righteousness....Approximately A.D. 1879 Christ Jesus began the work of preparing the way before Jehovah; and that work progressed until 1918, when the Lord suddenly came to his temple. (Mal. 3:1) In that period of time the fundamental truths were gradually restored to the faithful, and these truths were preached by them to others. Many heard the truth and embraced it gladly. The facts now made known, however, show that the major number of those who in that period of time received a mental conception of the truth received it in a selfish manner and not with a pure and unselfish motive....This class the Lord collectively designates in his word as the "evil servant" who 'says in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming.' This class in mind concluded that the Lord had delayed his coming to take them to heaven, and they became sour and began to smite their brethren who were born of the same mother covenant.

  • Mrs. Fiorini
    Mrs. Fiorini

    In my opinion there is a mass exodus going on all the time. Recent surveys show between 60% and 67% of JW's leave the organization. While they aren't all leaving at one time, that's the highest churn rate of any major religion in the US. If they weren't bringing new ones in all the time, they would have a huge decline in membership.

    It seems to me this problem will just increase in the future as more and more information about the WT comes out and they are exposed for being false prophets and manipulators.

  • justhuman
    justhuman

    It depends how do you define mass exodus...if you believe that in the next year report will show one million JW less, then that is a fantasy. In the past years we had occasions of huge numbers that left WT, and in my case I hardly recall 1975, since I was only 8. There are previous posts that show huge numbers leaving the WT in 1925-30. Even in the recent year you can see that tens of thousands are leaving, or becoming innactive.

    I have made a reasearch from the years 1996-2005 in this subject with the following outcome:

    a)In 1996 WT shows peak publishers of 5,167,258

    b)From 1996-2005 we had a total of baptisms 2,967,901 almost 3 millions got baptized

    c) Also in 1996 JW's reported 4,855,030 bible studies. Since the WT reports only the publishers end not the Baptized JW's, from the Bible studies we have a big number that they were JW's children. I would say, having in mind my cong that 20% of the bible studies are JW's children. So the 20% of the 5,167,258 is about 4,320,000 baptized JW's. So if we add the number of the baptized publishers in 1996, and the number of those that got baptized from 1996-2005, we have the total number of 8,784,000 puplishers in 2005 adding and the 20% of the unbaptized JW's .

    d) But we must also have in mind that from 1996-2005 we had an increase in the Bible studies from 4,855,030 in 1996 to 6,061,046 in 2005. So we have 1,200,000 more bible studies, and a huge number of them supposed to get baptized. (The rate of 1% dead it is balanced with the rates of birth, although this is not and the most correct calculation)

    Conclusion:In the year 2005 JW's should be more that 10 Millions world wide.

    The WT to be more correct in their figures they should report every year the number of the:

    1.Total Publishers

    2.Number of unbaptized publishers

    3.Number of baptized ones

    4.Number of disfellowshiped ones

    5.Number of innactive ones

    But for sure this is a joke since WT is hidding the actual figures because they really scare to show the dicrease they have to the remaining faithfull JW's. The increase of the WT is a plasmatic and not real, having in mind the earths expanding rate births and population

    So as you see from the figures above there is a mass exodus from the WT, it just takes some calculation to find this out

  • Fisherman
    Fisherman

    Because jws are happy with the wts.

  • still_in74
    still_in74

    thanks Leolaia !

    where do you get the old WT articles from? Old CD ROM's?

    I can only go back to 1950...........

  • AndersonsInfo
    AndersonsInfo

    In response to one poster's question asking about an exodus from the organization after the death of Russell and especially due to Rutherford and other WT directors' court trial and subsequent prison terms, the figure for those actively engaged in the Watch Tower Society's preaching work through-out the world was 3,868 in 1918. That was a remarkable decline in the group. This figure can be found in the January 1, 1950 Watchtower on page 11. Ten years later, the figure was 23,988. By 1938 there were 47,143, etc. I can verify these figures because when I was working in the Writing Dept doing research for the Proclaimer's book, I was given a copy of the old chart which contained these figures. (I was forbidden to make a copy of that chart to keep for myself but had to return it to Don Adams in the Executive Offices.)

    My recollection is that it was from this chart that the older figures found on page 717 of Proclaimers, "Reports of Global Witnessing," were taken from. Some figures for literature placed before 1919 were also on this chart, but to get an accurate picture of literature placed by Russell's group from 1879-1919, there were four people, including myself, involved in tallying up all literature placements year by year as recorded in the old Watchtower magazines.

    Interestingly, a tremendous exodus from the Watch Tower organization began in 1909 because of the "mediatorship," "new covenant" and "The Vow" explanations by CTR which he constantly discussed and defended during 1909 and 1910 in the Watchtower. When I was in the Writing Dept., I was told that as many as 40,000 supporters from around the world ceased following Russell, including Russell's sister, Margaret Land, because of Russell's "present light" teachings on those subjects.

    Barbara

  • OBVES
    OBVES

    This could be and should be the main reason why so many stay within that organization. You would have to find a good replacement to quit the organization and you will not find a better one I assume.You would need a very good new organization to be in and feel well and assured of salvation.

    If you know my post history I proved how important is the date 1914 AD in the end-time era . But you have to learn also whay is the nature of the present end-time predictions and who can make such predictions.

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