Jehovah's Witnesses - Once Again the Fastest Growing Faith in the U.S.

by davidl7 99 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Black Sheep

  Anyway...to make a long story short, the couple concluded that the Witnesses are teaching the truth....

  Hi David

  If they have the Truth then they should have the truth on which king reigned in each year of the Neo-Babylonian Empire David.

  Have they?

  Can you or your former Baptist draw me up a list of those years showing which king reigned in each year? (Please supply references)

  If not, why not?

  If you think it isn't important, can you please explain why it isn't important?

  Thanks in advance

  Chris
• 

  just n from bethel

  SBF said No other church benefits from immigration I suppose only Jehovah's Witnesses.

  Who said they didn't? I thought we were talking about JWs here.
• 

  Gordy

  Does anyone have access to the 2009 report?

  Slimboyfat

  Go to www.jwfacts.com he has them there.
• 

  slimboyfat

  Who said they didn't? I thought we were talking about JWs here.

  The thread is about the claim that JWs are the fastest growing faith which involves comparison. Citing immigration as an explanation for why JWs are growing faster would only make sense if JWs benefitted from immigration more than other religious groups, which may be true but has not been demonstrated.

  Thanks Gordy. The 2009 report shows a peak of 8,411 for Hawaii and 1,154,275 for the United States which gives a total of 1,162,686 which is the figure given in the article. So that explains it. The article is not wrong it is simply using last year's numbers and covers the United States as a whole rather than exclusing Hawaii as the Watchtower does.
• 

  jookbeard

  I think you are wrong on a lot of accounts there David first and foremost is the huge drop out rate that The WTS or WT Apologists hardly ever mention, the answers of the UN membership always seem to use the old excuse of that they were used just for the library, utter bollox, 3rd Witness has been shown to be nothing short of dishonest in his response to the major scandals that afflict the cult, and the WTS are not making any response at all to the virtual standstill/negative and zero growths that is happening in the whole of Europe/Australasia and Japan.
• 

  slimboyfat

  JWs may be standing still in much of the West, but that's a lot better than most churches that are declining steeply.
• 

  jay88

  davidi7-The couple asked the pastor why, and of course, was given the usual argument that Jehovah is a fake name, etc...interestingly...they did some research, and found pro and cons arguements against the pronounciations Jehovah vs. Yahweh...they decided to speak to the Witnesses to get their take on issue. Witnesses explained that they are aware of the arguements, and one of them noted that their appears to a growing number of scholars that are now saying that Jehovah is the correct pronounciation based on some ancient writings, even though most still think is Yahweh. The Witnesses pointed out that no one argues against the name Jesus (as welll as other Bible names), even though that was not the exact way it was pronounced in Greek or Aramic..The former Baptist also compared different Bibles, and found out that the ASV, YLT, BLE, NEB, LB, Websters, Darby, JNT, etc, all contained the name as the form Jehovah, even though their former pastor, who has MS degree in divinity, was saying only the NWT had the name.

  >>>>>>>>>>

  No one knows the correct pronounciation of the Jewish God 'Yahweh', and from what I have read the name Jehovah originated for the RCC, which derived from common names giving to god- adonai and elohim.

  The WTBTS themselves say in their literature that the use of the name is only because of its popularity and not for accuracy.

  I hope you plan to post more often, your post's are entertaining!
• 

  factfinder

  slimboyfat-

  I agree with you. The fact is that Jehovah's Witnesses are growing year to year. This should not surprise anyone. They have 8 million bible studies. Some of these will become jws this year. Others, who are not jws attend the dc and mem- some of these become jws each year. And too, when jws kids become old enough- they become publishers too. The number coming in still exceeds the number going out by nearly 200,000 per year.

  Whenever I look up jws in the various almanacs, book of the year etc at a bookstore- they almost always have a different figure than the yb. Sometimes they use an older figure, sometimes a higher one.

  I only trust the official figures that come out in the yb.

  The wts is not claiming jws are the fastest growing religion in the US are they? I have not seen them make this claim.

  Those who claim the number of witnesses are dropping clearly are not reading or examining the yearbook each year. The only years the number

  of jws dropped while I was a witness was :

  1977-1%

  1978-1.4%

  They reported those decreases. If they were making up the publisher figures the number of jws should be over 12 million by now!

  I trust the YB figures.
• 

  just n from bethel

  SBF: The thread is about the claim that JWs are the fastest growing faith which involves comparison. Citing immigration as an explanation for why JWs are growing faster would only make sense if JWs benefitted from immigration more than other religious groups, which may be true but has not been demonstrated.

  And it's about the #s showing JW's growth in the US of what ... 25,000 new members (net positive)? A lot are making a big deal about it. Personally, as I already made clear,it doesn't bother me that JWs or any other religion has growth. But I happen to have personally observed enough Spanish vs English growth in recent years, that I do know where most of the numbers come from in the US.

  I don't know where SBF lives, but I do know two things. If you're in an English hall in the US and you've really seen growth from the territory, you're an exception to the norm. The COs and Bethelites have confirmed for several years now that there has been mainly negative growth. If it weren't for young children getting baptized and a few unbelieving mates - the decline of JWs in English would be more notable. As it is, I can't even count anymore how many circuits assemblies I've been to where the baptisms have been in the single digits - mostly teens and youngsters. This is not just me - this is across the US in most English circuits.

  The other thing I know is that Spanish has been doing amazing, not just in the US but in Mexico as well. I think (can't verify it 100%), JWs may be the 2nd biggest religion in Mexico after catholics. So now, English and Spanish and all foreign language groups combined gain a net plus+ of 25,000.

  How much of that is Spanish? Observable entire new circuits in Spanish but not english - JWs offerring Spanish classes to get people to 'help where the need/growth is great'. Not to mention the social dynamics of hispanic families. Usually much larger than non-hispanic families. They also are more connected as families, meaning, when one member converts, it usually results in other family members converting.

  So of the net+ 25000 that added a 4% growth rate to JWs in the US by this one study, I'd say the majority of the growth comes from Spanish 1st, other foreign languages 2nd, English last if any at all. Not hard to imagine that the 25,000 net plus, most of that comes from Spanish. It's not a huge number, and imho 4%, if its true, is not that big of a jump for the US. But as the COs and current bethelites have confirmed, it is not english that is growing. Period. End of story.
• 

  just n from bethel

  Factfinder - you are right on the money.