Leaving/abandoning ship! Sure evidence that others have got it wrong! Check it out!
*** g70 4/22 4-7 Why Religious Leaders Are Worried ***
Why Religious Leaders Are Worried
For the first time in centuries almost every orthodox religion in Christendom sees the ranks of its clergymen growing smaller. Each year more and more are leaving. Enrollment at most seminaries sinks even faster. And now there is also a drop in church attendance. Hence, many religious leaders fear that their churches are dying!
True, you personally may not have noticed all this. Or it may be that your community, your church, has not been affected greatly so far. But this religious decline is going on all over the world. Nothing like it has happened in centuries. A former counselor to Pope Pius XII said of his church: "The crisis that the Church is going through is more serious than the Protestant Reformation."
Before commenting on why all this is happening, let us first look at what is happening. When we examine the facts, they show that the situation is far more serious than most people suspect.
Clergymen Leaving
One of the most worrisome problems for church leaders is the growing number of clergymen leaving the ministry now. The well-known Presbyterian minister David Poling stated bluntly: "We are watching the collapse of an historic profession-the clergy."
For centuries the ranks of the clergy grew. However, some years ago the increase slowed down, then stopped. Now it is in reverse! In the last few years more and more clergymen of different religions are leaving. ……………..
The situation in the Roman Catholic Church is striking. Newsweek described it in this way:
"Everywhere they turn, the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church are faced with statistics underscoring what many of them-out of personal experience-already know: that more of their priests are leaving the ministry. . . . In the next decade, predicts sociologist Father Andrew Greely, the church in America may well lose half its 59,000 priests."
A report showed that the number of American priests leaving the ministry in 1968 was up 31 percent over a similar period in 1967. And Chicago Today said: "What was then [two years ago] a trickle of Roman Catholic clergy leaving the religious life has swelled into a stream that threatens to become a torrent." ………………………………………….
So the alarm of church leaders is well-founded. Indeed, if you were the captain of a large passenger liner, would you not be alarmed if you saw more and more of your crew abandoning ship?
Greater Drop
Many church leaders are even more alarmed at what is happening in the seminaries of most religions, where future clergymen are trained. David Poling says, in The Last Years of the Church:
"If the church watchers had kept a journal or diary of the early warning signs of decline in ecclesiastical control, they might have first noted the slip in seminary enrollment. What has become an alarming drop in recent years began a decade ago with just a faint decrease from one year to the next………………………………………………
Church Attendance Down
Growing losses in clerical ranks are matched by losses in church attendance. It is not just the 'crew' that is abandoning ship. The 'passengers' are too!
Church attendance in England has seen a fantastic drop: only 8 out of every 100 baptized now attend Anglican services on Easter! In Canada, typical is this report from the Toronto Daily Star: "If membership of the 150 United churches in Metro Toronto continues its alarming drop there will be no churches or members left within 15 years." And the Catholic Church in Germany estimates that it is losing members at the rate of 50,000 a year………………….
Yes, the 'captains' of religion are alarmed. But if you were the captain of a ship, would you not be alarmed too if you saw both your crew and your passengers abandoning ship?
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But look where these ones have gone to and note that surefire way to I.D. the 'True Religion' is to note its 'prosperity'.
*** g70 4/22 27 How to Identify the True Religion ***
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.
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So we now know that the WTS enjoys 'True Prosperity' because 'entire families' are joining the WTS and the numbers are going up by the week!...and there's definitely no decline or confusion!
Hmmmmm……..
ISP