How many anointed have come and gone; how many remain?

Moster

Just wondering if there is any data about how many anointed there were in say 1914, and considering most would have passed 'beyond the veil' already, are the JW's numbers adding up? We know there are more in 2017 then there were in 2016, but just where are we in the grand total column?

neat blue dog

Good topic. Someone who's good with math, (i.e. not me), should be able to apply general population growth and death figures to come up with a rough number of individuals. Not sure how. You know the GB knows, but they're not sharing it.

stan livedeath

its an overlapping number

Sour Grapes

At the end of the first century, there were over 1,000,000 Christians. I would assume that they all would have had the heavenly hope, but I guess only 144,000 would have really had their ticket punched for the journey to heaven. Then Russel and his gang came around and they were also going to heaven as part of the 144,000. God must have kicked some of the first century Christian out of heaven to make room for the JW's.

MrRoboto

I was wondering about this myself - they obviously have the 144k thing wrong, even if you believe in the bible.

dropoffyourkeylee

They invented the 'great multitude' in 1935 for this very same reason, the number of anointed JWs was growing and would soon be approaching 144000 and they couldn't explain it

careful

Sour Grapes, where in the world did you get this?

At the end of the first century, there were over 1,000,000 Christians.

As for any statistics for Memorial partakers for last year, knowing that depends on whether GB II decides to share that info or not. It hasn't happened yet.

careful

Correction: the JW org website now has the 2017 partaker stat:

Memorial Partakers Worldwide: 18,564.

That's up by over 500 from the 2016 number, 18,013.

Sour Grapes

"According to the World Christian Encyclopedia (1982), it is estimated
that by A.D. 100 there were 1 million Christians in the Roman Empire
out of a population of 181 million. This means that by the end of the
first century less than 1 percent of the population (0.6% to be exact)
was Christian."

bennyk

Contra dropoffyourkeylee:

The Watch Tower Society taught until 1935 that the "Great Crowd" was a second class of Christians with a heavenly hope.

The 144 000 were the Bride-class, the Great Multitude (Crowd) an attendant class ('Brides-maids').

The increasing numbers of Bible Students affiliated with the Watch Tower Society did not force the change in doctrine. The teaching allowed for large numbers of heaven-bound Christians. The Watch Tower Society taught the following in the 1917 publication The Finished Mystery on page 103:

FM103
Was ten thousand times ten thousand, and
thousands of thousands
.— The number of the
Great Company will apparently exceed one
hundred millions. Num. 4:46-48 and Ex. 28:1
indicate but one priest to each 2,860 Levites,
which would make the number of the Great
Company approximate 411,840,000.— T118,
119; Dan. 7:10. 5:12

Currently, belief that more than 144 000 will receive a heavenly reward will result in Disfellowshipping. (w 01. April 1986 QfR)

How many anointed have come and gone; how many remain?

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