In a Watchtower magazine article of September 1, 1951 entitled "Hated for his name", an era of 10 persecution of Christians is discussed. But just to show how little insight the writer of this article shows, it goes on stating:
-It is said that in the year 95 alone some 40,000 suffered martyrdom
-In a single month 17,000 were slain
-In the province of Egypt alone, 144,000 such professed Christians died by violence in addition to another 700,000 who died as a result of fatigues encountered in banishment or under enforced public works
The figures above total 901,000 and represent only the larger numbers of executed Christians, not the killings that occurred in small and isolated pockets here and there. These died faithful to Christ because they refused to compromise, or were killed simply for being Christians.
The same article goes on to say:
And is it the same today? The experiences of Jehovah's witnesses would seem to prove it so. In the same manner as with Christians of the first few centuries they have been falsely labeled as seditionists, Nazis, communists, capitalist American spies, and generally 'haters of everything', depending upon where they happen to be and whatever will make them the most readily unpopular. But the facts prove their accusers the haters and their acts simply a fulfillment of part of Jesus' great prophecy for these last days: "You will be hated by all the nations on account of my name."
Nice so far, right? No, because the letters, comments and telephone calls must have started to come in fast, because only 4 months later the WTS printed this Question from readers in the January 1st 1952 Watchtower magazine:
*** w52 1/15 62 Questions from Readers ***
According to the article "Hated for His Name" in the September 1, 1951, Watchtower, hundreds of thousands of Christians died in the "ten persecutions" starting in Nero's time, 144,000 dying in Egypt alone during one of the persecutions. How can this be harmonized with the Scriptural limitation of 144,000 placed on the number being in Christ's body, and which position was the only one open to Christians during those centuries?-J.A., Dominican Republic.
The article did not class with any finality the individuals that died during these persecutions, but spoke of the results in a general way. Note that a key qualification was made in the case referred to in the question: "In the province of Egypt alone, 144,000 such professed Christians died by violence in the course of this persecution, in addition to another 700,000 who died as a result of fatigues encountered in banishment or under enforced public works." The victims are identified as "professed Christians", not Christians in fact. Many of those persons might have been caught in the wave of persecution, but may never have actually preached the truth or followed in Jesus' footsteps, being only professed Christians. They knew the world they lived in was rotten and they were listening to the message of the Christians and willing to die for it even though not in line for the high calling in Christ Jesus. Many professed Christians today might be willing to die for their faith, but still not be Jesus' footstep followers and meeting the Scriptural requirements for such.
Imagine that! The article of Sept. 1951 actually means that those who died faithful to Christ were probably over 1 million during the first few centuries. So that if 144,000 was a literal number for the maximum number of people going to heaven, then it would have been reached by the end of the first century. But that can't be so!!! So they had to backpeddle past to keep the 144,000 teaching as the correct one.
Its sad that they make comments like "but may never have actually preached the truth or followed Jesus footsteps, being only professed Christians". It belittles their sacrifice they made to live a Christian life and to die by it.
Edited by - stichione on 7 October 2002 22:3:13