by steve2 47 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
WT - The most recent published report is for the year 1995, and it shows 28 more partakers than in the preceding year though the ratio of partakers to those attending did actually drop.
Thanks for those figures Darksplver, even that line of thinking is not working out for them.
Thanks for those figures Darkspilver, even that line of thinking is not working out for them.
Yes, and as OrphanCrow highlighted, the number is a finite one anyway - not a proportional one, thus WT's argument here is really a strawman one, and one that isn't even working out for them now. Crazy.
That's why I did that quick number crunch - to prove the point.
Besides, as Dreamerdude also highlights, even if you do believe the 144,000 literal figure - if you add the first century christians who the WT view as all being of the 'annointed', along with the modern day 'annointed' from the 1920s and 1930s and the current day - you can kinda quite easily get to more than the 144,000 anyway. Crazy.
And then you get WT's most recent (?) "mental or emotional imbalance" reasoning - but that kinda poses questions regarding the Governing Body ver 2.0 themselves. GB ver 1.0 were all old-skool - the rank and file could easily accept them as 'annointed', but ver 2.0? Mark Sanderson? It must be getting harder and harder, even for the hard-core true believers....
Watchtower 15 August, page 22
A number of factors—including past religious beliefs or even mental or emotional imbalance—might cause some to assume mistakenly that they have the heavenly calling.
For what it's worth, these are some figures that were reported on JWTalk. The person reporting them is a 'gold' member and said that the figures came from the Bethel in Germany.
If those partaker numbers are true, that's more than an 18% increase in partakers year over year. Last year was a 7.4% increase in partakers. That's a HUGE explosion from one year to the next.
From 2010-2015, here are the partaker numbers and the YoY growth percentage:
2010 11202 +3.1%
2011 11824 +5.5%
2012 12604 +6.5%
2013 13204 +4.7%
2014 14121 +6.9%
2015 15177 +7.4%
And still not one direct comment from the organization about this consistently consecutive annual increase. By contrast, when other facets of their practise experience such large annual increases, they will directly comment about it.
Maybe no direct quotes but a big shift in emphasis. In years gone by the declining number of partakers was seen as a good indication that the end was near. Now it doesn't matter anymore and there is an implication that those new partakers may be a little deluded.
Thanks, Listener!
Service Report still claiming Peak Pubs. (1.5% increase) to be close to world population (1.1% increase percentage). Baptisms claim +1.6% increase.
They claim Pioneers decreased ( -.6%). They have claimed big increases in Pioneers some years past. Perhaps the WT deleting 'Special Pioneers' impacted this?
