Hi everyone
I've just uploaded the third article in my four-part "Under The Microscope" series - looking at the Society's claims to be God's sole channel with mankind. A link is below:
http://jwsurvey.org/cedars-blog/under-the-microscope-the-watch-tower-societys-claims-to-divine-direction-part-3
A commonly used argument is that Jehovah's Witnesses are the only ones preaching worldwide. My article attempts to explain that, (1) preaching is by no means an activity exclusive to JWs, and (2) Jehovah's Witnesses are barely scratching the surface when it comes to reaching the entire "inhabited earth" with their message.
I found it particularly interesting when researching the "30 Other Lands" mentioned in the 2011 worldwide report from the latest 2012 Yearbook. Obviously, the Society doesn't name these countries, but through the process of elimination it is fairly straightforward to take an educated guess as to which countries are being referred to.
I propose that they are the following:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bhutan, China, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, North Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, Syria, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Western Sahara and Yemen.
If that's the case, here is what they look like on a world map:
The "30 Other Lands" highlighted in red make up a whopping 16% of the earth's land surface, and account for 1.9 billion people, or 27% of the earth's population. Despite this, last year saw a peak of only 26,272 publishers across these countries combined, which is 1 in every 72,207 people!
And the good news is really being preached "in all the inhabited earth"?
As always, I look forward to your observations and feedback!
Cedars