One of the ways to identify the true religion is consider its ‘prosperity’. It is a handy line of argument…providing things go well! And during the ‘70s things were going well. The WTS was gaining followers based on the false prophecies concerning 1975.
This of course was only a transitory ‘prosperity’ but the WTS milked it for what it was worth. Later confusion, disintegration and decline would in fact typify the WTS!
*** g70 4/22 27 How to Identify the True Religion ***There is more milking of the Japanese situation. Here again the WTS gloats over apparent ‘prosperity’ in comparison with Christendom.
Prosperity of True Religion
While the churches and their clergy are in confusion, disintegration and decline, there is a religion today that is enjoying marvelous spiritual prosperity. Newsweek of January 5, 1970, observes: “The Catholic diocese of Rothenburg [Germany], for example, reports that ‘entire families are suddenly converting to the Jehovah’s witnesses.’” Actually thousands of persons every week, on the average, are now associating with Jehovah’s witnesses and taking up true worship.
*** w87 1/1 6 Jubilation Among God's People ***
The Wall Street Journal of July 9, 1986, published a lengthy article under the headline “Barren Ground—Christian Missionaries Sow the Seed in Japan But Find Little Grows.” A missionary of the United Church of Christ was reported as saying, “There is no way that Christianity will ever really take root in Japan,” and a Franciscan priest as stating, “The day of the foreign missionary in Japan is finished.” Both had labored in vain for more than 30 years. The article said: “Less than 1% of the population is Christian, and despite all the missionary work, the percentage is dropping.” So much for Christendom’s religions! But what of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who teach the pure Christianity in that land? For the past 92 months in a row, they have increased their number of active ministers to a peak of 113,062 (including an average of 46,390 pioneers each month). In Japan 146,316 home Bible studies are being conducted with newly interested people. This is surely a harbinger of further grand increase. Here, we see a living fulfillment of Isaiah 65:13, 14.
*** Rbi8 Isaiah 65:13-14 ***
13 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Look! My own servants will eat, but YOU yourselves will go hungry. Look! My own servants will drink, but YOU yourselves will go thirsty. Look! My own servants will rejoice, but YOU yourselves will suffer shame. 14 Look! My own servants will cry out joyfully because of the good condition of the heart, but YOU yourselves will make outcries because of the pain of heart and YOU will howl because of sheer breakdown of spirit.
Well the ‘living fulfillment’ did not last long. As if by divine providence the WTS presumptuousness and stupidity have been turned on themselves. Japan has turned from being the jewel in the crown to a major embarrassment. Publishers have fallen from an average of 222,347 in 1998 to 218,866 in 2000. Over the same period we have baptisms going from 5,343 to 4,139…pioneers from 81,125 to 73,695….congregations from 3,732 to 3,305….hours from 81,773,468 to 73,324,070….bible studies from 152,198 to 134,769…memorial attendance from 357,053 to 345,223. So that is every indicator pointing downwards. Looking at the ‘living fulfillment’ of Isaiah 65..would you not say it is those remaining in the WTS that are ‘hungry’… ‘thirsty’….suffering ‘shame’…’breakdown of spirit’ and ‘pain of heart’. And what of us? Well things are not always as good as we like but compared with dublife in an ironic way we are the ones that cry out joyfully! While I have taken the mantle here of ‘prophet’…I would apply the following to dubs everywhere who are spending hours in the ministry accomplishing a decrease, who attend 5 meetings a week but still feel guilty, who after years in the Borg find they have no real friends and the bethel workers, publishers and pioneers who have worked hard and sacrificed much for a ‘bag having holes’
*** Rbi8 Haggai 1:6 ***
6 YOU have sown much seed, but there is a bringing of little in. There is an eating, but it is not to satisfaction. There is a drinking, but not to the point of getting intoxicated. There is a putting on of clothes, but it is not with anyone’s getting warm; and he that is hiring himself out is hiring himself out for a bag having holes.’”
So if the 'prosperity' of the WTS was a good reason to join it...its impoverishment should be the cue to take stock and leave!
ISP