by RULES & REGULATIONS 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
AWAKE! NOVEMBER 2015
Is Religion Dying Out? Millions of people with differing viewpoints have chosen to take an identical action.
Here is an exaggerated photo in the Awake! November 2015 showing an empty church proving that people are leaving the Church's of Christendom!
Here is a photo that was taken at a local Kingdom Hall (where it looks like it has very few members).This will never be shown in the Awake! magazine. WHY NOT,WTBTS?
The WTBTS must exaggerate everything becuase without the void they create, they have nothing to offer.
Organized religion, as it exists today, is dying out. When any person/group simply takes and takes, giving very little in return, they eventually reap the consequences.
DD
Obviously one image doesn't prove anything but the first image appears to be a photo-shopped composition (just a few tell tale signs apart from the fact that they are unlikely to allow a genuine photo to be taken like that).
The WTS still likes to go after the Catholic church as their main recruiting source but I expect they find that increasingly ineffective as the church enjoys a resurgence of popularity under their new cool pope.
WIKIPEDIA:
Church membership in 2013 was 1.254 billion, which is 17.7% of the world population,[4] an increase from 437 million in 1950[72] and 654 million in 1970.[73] Since 2010, the rate of increase was 1.5% with a 2.3% increase in Africa and a 0.3% increase in the Americas and Europe. 48.8% of Catholics live in the Americas, 23.5% in Europe, 16.0% in Africa, 10.9% in Asia and 0.8% in Oceania.[74] Catholics represent about half of all Christians.[75]
In 2011, the Catholic Church had 413,418 priests. The main growth areas have been Asia and Africa, with 39% and 32% increases respectively since 2000, while the numbers were steady in the Americas and dropped by 9% in Europe.[74] In 2006, members of consecrated life totalled 945,210; 743,200 of whom were female.[76] As of 2009 there were approximately 5,100 bishops total in the Latin and Eastern churches.[77]
Jehovah's Witnesses have an active presence in most countries, but do not form a large part of the population of any country.
As of August 2015, Jehovah's Witnesses report an average of 8.2 million publishers—the term they use for members actively involved in preaching—in 118,016 congregations.[2] In 2015, these reports indicated over 1.93 billion hours spent in preaching and "Bible study" activity. Since the mid-1990s, the number of peak publishers has increased from 4.5 million to 8.2 million.[284] In the same year, they conducted "Bible studies" with over 9.7 million individuals, including those conducted by Witness parents with their children.[4][285][286] Jehovah's Witnesses estimate their current worldwide growth rate to be 1.5% per year.[2]
The official published membership statistics, such as those mentioned above, include only those who submit reports for their personal ministry; official statistics do not include inactive and disfellowshipped individuals or others who might attend their meetings. As a result, only about half of those who self-identified as Jehovah's Witnesses in independent demographic studies are considered active by the faith itself.[287][288] The 2008 US Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey found a low retention rate among members of the religion: about 37% of people raised in the religion continued to identify themselves as Jehovah's Witnesses.[289][290]
They have been saying this about church numbers as far back as I can remember and no doubt a good deal longer. Today there is no excuse for ignoring non Christian religions.
Look at the millions who stream to Mecca to worship. In India ,and its diaspora , Hindu and Sikh festivals are celebrated with gusto while the temples are thriving(in my experience of the immigrant community anyway)
It should be noted that less traditional christian churches also are growing .... So yes. I believe they are misrepresenting the facts.
Trying to prove that the dying up of the waters in Babylon the Great is taking place. I doubt any jw has looked up Pew's statostocs/
*** w12 6/15 pp. 17-18 par. 16 Jehovah Reveals What “Must Shortly Take Place” ***
However, during the Lord’s day, Babylon the Great has seen the waters, the people who support her, dry up dramatically. (Rev. 16:12; 17:15) For example, when the image of the beast first appeared, the churches of Christendom—an influential part of Babylon the Great—dominated the Western world. Today, the churches and their ministers have lost the respect and support of the masses. In fact, many people believe that religion contributes to or causes conflict. An increasingly vocal and militant group of Western intellectuals is calling for the end of religion’s influence on society.
*** w82 1/1 p. 16 par. 1 Forward, You Ministers of the Kingdom! ***
TODAY, in many lands, the spiritual pastures of false religion have withered and the waters on which Babylon the Great is sitting are drying up. It calls to mind a prophecy of Isaiah that is being fulfilled in our time, namely, that found in Isaiah 65:13: “Look! My own servants will eat, but you yourselves will go hungry. Look! My own servants will drink, but you yourselves will go thirsty. Look! My own servants will rejoice, but you yourselves will suffer shame.” This is so because Jehovah’s people indeed are seeking first the Kingdom, making every effort to see to it that the good news of God’s kingdom in the hands of his King-Son, Christ Jesus, is proclaimed earth wide.—Revelation 14:6-8; 16:12; 17:5, 15.
*** w83 7/1 p. 7 A Pleasure-Loving World About to End! ***
Though ancient Babylon is no longer in existence as a political power, its religious influence has extended through the centuries to every corner of the earth. Thus, “Babylon the Great” is the world empire of false religion, including all the churches of Christendom. Revelation 17:15 indicates that the “many waters” this religious harlot sits on are the “peoples and crowds and nations and tongues” upon whom she depends for support, much as ancient Babylon depended on the waters of the Euphrates for its prosperity. So the drying up of the waters means the dwindling of the people’s support for religion.
*** w90 9/15 p. 29 Insight on the News ***
Interestingly, the Bible book of Revelation foretells that the waters of the Euphrates, on which the worldwide religious system—“Babylon the Great”—is seated, will ‘dry up.’ (Revelation 16:12; 18:2, 9, 11) What do the waters represent? “The waters that you saw . . . mean peoples and crowds and nations and tongues.” (Revelation 17:15) A drying up of “the waters,” or supporters, is clearly taking place in the Oriental realm of Babylon the Great.
Atheists being at the bottom of that chart seems surprising to me....everything I've seen indicates that atheists (or at least the "not affiliated") are the fastest growing religious group in the US. It doesn't make sense that their retention could be so low...
It depends how your define things. Really, everyone is born atheist and if they become religious (usually through upbringing) then technically they are a convert. Otherwise yes, it is bizarre. The other assumption would be that people are born a believer of their parent faith and can become atheist if they leave (or else chose a different faith).
Never mind that atheism isn't really a faith, it's the absence of one. It's really "none of the above".
