"Growth is proof of God's blessing!" is - let's face it - a lot more convincing than "decline is a fulfillment of the 'love-of-the-greater-number-cooling-off' prophecy!" :smirk:
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They'll only switch to the latter if/when they absolutely have to.
Is the 'growth™' still being hyped?
by punkofnice 29 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Phizzy
It really is an Orwellian world in the JW Org. No growth is hailed as increase. Closing down all sorts of facilities is not mentioned, just the construction of some White Elephants, Warwick and Chelmsford U.K
(Can you ever see them being able to sell these ?).
I just wonder how long they can hang out until they really have to use the "love of the G number cooling off", which really would translate to the " love of the duped, gone, because they are pissed off".
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Vidiot
Phizzy - "Can you ever see them being able to sell these?"
David Miscavige could give 'em a good deal. :smirk:
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Seriously, though, I actually think that, with some refurbishing, it would make a decent college campus.
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Finkelstein
The growth of the JW religion has always been hyped, misunderstood and fabricated.
Some of this came about by the assemblies where there were so many in one place at one time.
If you go to an assembly now , you'll still hear Jah's chariot is moving even faster than ever before.
In actuality the JW religion is a very slow growing religion and its looks like its growth for the foreseeable future will be in third world countries where there is a whole slew of social problems , poor education being one.
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Vidiot
Finkelstein - "...it looks like its growth for the foreseeable future will be in third world countries where there is a whole slew of social problems, poor education being one.
Not to mention low internet penetration; that's a huge factor, too.
Fat lot of good this "growth" will do for the WTS, anyway...
...the vast majority of these new third-world recruits are so dirt poor, they can barely feed themselves, let alone financially prop up the Mother organization. Back home, the Conscious Class have pretty much zipped up their wallets, young people are leaving in droves, the loyalists are so undereducated all they can get are minimum-wage jobs, and the lawsuit tide is steadily rising.
Regardless of the value of their assets, the Org's cash flow is drying up...
...dissolving/consolidating congregations, selling off KHs, AHs, and brach offices, and pulling the plug on virtually all new construction pretty much everywhere in the developed world is evidence enough of that.
Even if the WTS is on the level regarding their so-called "growth" (color me skeptical), in the long run, what good does it really do them (other than propaganda use for the R&F)?
What else is left but decline?
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ttdtt
1984 again.
From the letter to full time servants this year.
Even though the ranks of temporary special pioneers and special pioneers are being reduced, you can be assured that this is not an indication that the work is slowing down. (Isa. 60:22) The 2015 world report indicates that more than a quarter of a million new disciples joined us in true worship last year!
But the number baptised in 2014 was 275,581- in 2015 it was 260,273.
I don't know much about math - but it seems the number in 2015 has decreased - to me that usually indicates a slowing down.From 1984
The chocolate ration in 1983 was 30 grams per week. In the year 1984, the chocolate ration went up to 25 grams per week. Winston himself is charged with the task of re-writing history to make this little feat possible.
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NeverKnew
When I talk to witnesses, they speak of the size of their group as being huge. In their minds the number is mind boggling.
My response has been, "oh, so your worldwide group is about half the size of our state? I guess that's not bad. How many are in the US? (Wait for answer)... Ah... Ok. Pretty much the population of our county. For 100 years of preaching work, that sounds like a start."
I did attend a midweek where that Amsterdam movie was shown. The real joke was when they were making a big deal about the multi language literature. Given the sorry number of Bible translations in comparison to traditional Christianity, they really should pipe down. Oh... I'm sorry. The literature that INTERPRETS the Bible is in more languages than their Bible. That's right. 🙄 Traditional Christianity doesn't produce interpretive material. Noooooo
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Vidiot
NeverKnew - "...oh, so your worldwide group is about half the size of our state? I guess that's not bad. How many are in the US? (Wait for answer)... Ah... Ok. Pretty much the population of our county. For 100 years of preaching work, that sounds like a start."
You're a bad, bad man.
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joe134cd
I Remember when I was in and fully indoctrinated, that the growth wasn't fantastic and had slowed down over the years. I was also aware just through observation that the growth and baptisms was mainly coming from born in youth.
Also please be aware particularly with the Mormons about how they count membership e.g both active and inactive members. In this country the census shows there is roughly twice the number of JWs as what is shown for publishers in the world wide report. Transpose that figure world wide and you would probably be up around the same figure as the LDS.
I was also thinking if you were after a better comparison of growth between the 2 religions a better way to go would be the count for the memorial attendance (which like the census for my country) is roughly twice the figure for active publishers.
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DesirousOfChange
My response has been, "oh, so your worldwide group is about half the size of our state? I guess that's not bad. How many are in the US? (Wait for answer)... Ah... Ok. Pretty much the population of our county. For 100 years of preaching work, that sounds like a start."
JW Reply: If you recall, the last time Jehovah clicked the "re-start" button on humankind he only needed EIGHT persons to do so -- NOT the 8 Million JWs we have today.
Doc