99% of that number each year is them breading stock their own cult members. I bet very small percentage is from the field.
Comparing Total Numbers Baptized During the 1990s and the Last Ten Years:
by steve2 30 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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dogon
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venus
JWs have been applying to themselves the prophecy found in Isaiah 60:22 "the tiniest group will become a mighty nation. At the right time, I, the LORD, will speed it up." Now they are going in opposite direction to this prophecy.
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sir82
it's my understanding if in the year 1980 they have 100,000 publishers and then in 1981 30,000 decided to get baptized then they would state in the next years book they have 130,000 publishers, am I wrong on this?
Yes you are wrong.
"Publishers" is publishers.
"Number baptized" is number baptized.
The WTS is scrupulous when it comes to numbers.
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WTWizard
And even those numbers are inflated. Back in the 1980s, people joining the cancer were more serious than they are now. In the late 1980s, you would have the books they pushed. You could not cross-reference it without a trip to the library and countless hours spent going through many different books (and hunting through them) or being an expert in the damnation book. Even if you know the damnation book well, they would come up with a counter-argument. Once you were in, you were usually quite serious about continuing.
Today, someone can do fake field circus and count the time, or simply turn in a fake time slip. New recruits, usually of lousy quality these days, can simply go to their computer and type in the religion into a search engine. Even someone well along in studying can go to a site and cross-reference the religion inside of an hour. This can result in their not giving a f*** if they are disfellowshipped instead of wasting the year or so to get reinstated, becoming more serious in the process. (Just start researching the religion the night when it is announced, and find that the whole thing is a scam.) Even if they return, it is usually for ulterior motives and not because they give a f*** about joke-hova (who doesn't give one about us anyways).
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steve2
There is no audit of monthly reports. JWs have always been "free" to round up the hours and even fake them.
Before I left, a pioneer sister who often witnessed alone was rumored to spend time in a cafe ( long before it became the norm for cruise-time JWs) and managed to run a household.
Yet she always got her time in. How do I know she got her time in? She made it clear she did.
Did anyone ever confront her about her lone ministry and penchant for long coffee stops?
Of course not! I've never heard of anyone being questioned about getting their hours in. The important point is: She got her pioneer hours in - and the brothers were happy with that.
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slimboyfat
I was questioned about getting my time in. I auxiliary pioneered at 17 years old for three months. The elders said they wanted a word with me. Did they want to tell me how good I was doing? No. They said they "heard reports" that I was "walking" in between return visits, some as far as half an hour apart. Was this efficient use of field service time? They asked me. I didn't have a car at the time, nor did the elders offer to run me around.
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redvip2000
And yes - Secretary's and other elders will put down 15 mins for residents of nursing homes without ever speaking to them or knowing they if they have done any "ministry".
This of course is shameful. As i recall, towards the end of my trance in the cult, I would get a call from my group leader to ask me about my report since he had not received it. After telling him I had not done field serve-us that month, he would go on to suggest that certainly I had spoken to a few people informally during the month. After my " I guess so" response, he would quickly offer to put me down for an hour. -
jookbeard
they constantly contradict themselves rather stupidly with quotes like " the love of the greater number would cool off" and " the tiniest group becoming a mighty nation etc, plus the "the entire world would know about the kingdom of god that only they have been commissioned to dispense" which becomes more of a joke every day the world wide population grows even more, and the huge continued growth of Islam, its either one thing or another, one thing that cant be overlooked is their terrible growth rates in first world nations, no amount of creative accounting can deny this.
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konceptual99
I don't understand Theoldhippie, it's my understanding if in the year 1980 they have 100,000 publishers and then in 1981 30,000 decided to get baptized then they would state in the next years book they have 130,000 publishers, am I wrong on this?
Publishers are counted based on the number of reports turned in during a month. People can be baptised and report, unbaptised and report (as an unbaptised publisher) or baptised and not report. Do the latter once or twice and you are irregular. Do it for 6 months consistently and you are inactive, even if you attend meetings. That's just a side point however.
Before one can be baptised then they have to be a regular publisher. So the publisher numbers always include a proportion of unbaptised ones.
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steve2
They said they "heard reports" that I was "walking" in between return visits, some as far as half an hour apart. Was this efficient use of field service time?
I am astonished that you were questioned over this - it just sounds so discouraging to be questioned this way! I can imagine elders approaching aux or regular pioneers when they don't get their hours in (on time).