CO said; “Friends (plural) who’ve been raised in the truth are beginning to have doubts regarding their faith” (page 2)

Disillusioned JW

Is there anything ex-LDS, ex-Scientologists, and former members of other high control religions can do hasten the demise of their respective former religions?

As long there is gullible people who fall for Watchtower, then Watchtower will continue. It is until people really wake up and see Watchtower for a business disguised as a church all for it's own profit.

ScenicViewer

After the 1925 failure, not so far removed from the 1914 failure, MANY people did leave (I seem to remember reading 75%). Then Judge Rutherford went to work literally reinventing the religion, and it recovered.

I believe that kind of reinvention would be much more difficult today because of the internet. In the past the Watchtower Organization depended on people not knowing about it's past, or JWs would conveniently forget if they did know. But the internet doesn't forget, and the growing number of those revealing the real truth about Watchtower, such as Youtube presenters, is amazing. Most are very good at documenting their information.

Who knows ... Watchtower can be very clever in a deceptive way, but it will definitely be an uphill climb this time around, and I tend to think it won't succeed.

FFGhost

Due to the COVID variants spreading around, and the cautious nature of the org., I suspect it will still be at a bare minimum another year, quite probably longer, before in-person Kingdom Hall meetings begin again. And I suspect restarting door to door witnessing will take even longer.

I think they will be in for a rude shock whenever these things commence again. For maybe a month, the novelty and excitement of meeting in person will prevail....to followed, I suspect, by a precipitous drop in participation, as the reality of "oh, so we're really back to the drudgery again" settles in.

-- No more "shirt, tie, shorts, and slippers" for the meetings.

-- No more "turning off the video" while the meeting is in progress.

--No more "pizza & beer" while the video is off for the midweek meeting.

--No more "0 commute time" to the meetings, in fact with the sale of Kingdom Halls, commute time for many will have increased dramatically.

-- No more "taking 40 minutes to write one short letter wile I gab with my buddies and drink coffee". Field service is back to trudging through brutal heat or numbing cold, knocking on doors of people with better houses and better lives than you

-- No more "pioneers don't worry about your hours, do what you can". No more "even 30 seconds of witnessing lets you be counted as active". Hours, hours, hours, HOURS! Count your hours.

If there are any at Warwick with a few still-connected neurons, they have to know that restarting everything after 2, 3, 4 years of 100% virtual is going to just kill them.

But (a) I suspect there are few of such remaining, and (b) the nature of the organization has been and always will be reactionary. Rather than try to figure out in advance what to change to make things better, they'll just sit on their duffs, then be gob-smacked when things pan out as I explained above, then they'll do what they've done for centuries (literally, now): scold the sheep for being ungrateful and unappreciative and try to motivate folks by "fear of being annihilated in the near future". Only slight difference will be that the scolding will come via JW.Borg videos rather than WT articles.

Phizzy

The Internet and modern Cell 'phones are the problems for the Org. The younger generations brought up with both are savvy about their use, and do not have the fear of coming across dodgy stuff, be it Porn or anti-JW thoughts.

Also, because they communicate mainly by secure platforms on their 'phones that Elders can not spy on, they can be a lot more open about their feelings, doubts etc.

The JW Org is without doubt moribund, and the atrophy of the Org will no doubt accelerate from now on, I certainly hope so.

I think anyone under the age of about 45 is now likely to wake up and leave, there will be a few thoroughly indoctrinated younger ones who stay, but other younger ones that stay will be PIMO.

It will not just be an uphill climb for the Org, it will be like when I was young, and certain 1 in 3 Hills could not be climbed at all by the automobiles of the day. The Org will need some new strategies , because if they become just Congregations of the Elderly, the end of the Org is a mere decade or two away.

punkofnice

Well, almost the best news ever.

Well done Satan! (That's a joke by the way).

Biahi

If they expect to retain members long term, they need to become more mainstream, which they could do, with “new light”. Much of the reason I left, was due to not being able to live a “normal” life. If holidays, birthdays, flag saluting, etc. and blood transfusions became “conscience matters”, and they stayed out of peoples sex lives, they might last a bit longer.

truth_b_known

The only way for Jehovah's Witnesses to survive is the same way any living organization survives - evolve!

The problem is that Jehovah's Witnesses, whether they like it or not, are just one of thousands of Protestant religions resulting from Martin Luther's Reformation Movement. The Reformation Movement was, is, and will always be wrong.

Martin Luther preached that the Bible, and the Bible alone, was all you need to read. The Bible is to be taken literal, word for word. Not the whole Bible! No! Some of those Bible books had to be removed. Some Luther wanted removed, such as James and Hebrews (because they contain scriptures that directly oppose Luther's teachings), were not removed.

The Catholic Church teaches that the story of Adam & Eve are an allegorical story to teach. The Catholic Church accepts evolution. The Catholic Church evolves and therefor it survives.

pistolpete

hosero

It’s very similar to how the USSR fell. Nobody believed in communism anymore and

one day they just all stopped pretending.

Hoser------that comment is Gold!!!!!👍👍

minimus

There always will be believers but the key is that even if the numbers aren’t horrible, the QUALITY of the believer is not strong.

CO said; “Friends (plural) who’ve been raised in the truth are beginning to have doubts regarding their faith”