Dave Sinclair confirmed this little bit of WTS statistical trivia to me a few years ago over a nice warm cup of Irish coffee.Marvin Shilmer
If the WTS monitors these boards you better be careful what you offer by way of personal info.
Jan 15th WT - Quiet desperation from the Governing Body
by truthseeker 46 Replies latest jw friends
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toreador
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stillajwexelder
Yes the invention of the printing press in the Middle Ages meant the Cathloic Church could no longer keep its flock in ignorance -and now it is the internet - oh long may there be a free flow of information
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heathen
YAH that's right just blame everybody else . They can't be serious with this crap , I mean how brain dead do people have to be to continually be insulted like this? . I can picture in my mind a bunch of angry villagers going up to castle frankenstein and tearing the miserable place apart . Exactly like 1984 . We don't lie we only tell the truth as it is revealed to us blah blah blah . Let's all suspend our disbelief here just to make the WTBTS happy . la da de da la ta do la de , oh look at me I'm suspending my disbelief wow I can wrap my mind right around any old WTBTS concept here .
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AlanF
truthseeker quoth The Watchtower:
At that time a group of Bible students discerned -- contrary to popular opinion -- that Christ's return was to be invisible. After being enthroned in heaven, Jesus would return in the sense of focusing his royal attention on the earth. A visible composite sign would alert his disciples that his invisible presence had begun.
This is an excellent example of the Society's usual practice of deceiving readers while technically telling the truth. They're especially adept at doing this with their own history, and even more especially with their history of false predictions.
The fact is that in 1876 Charles Taze Russell began teaching that Christ had already returned in 1874, so from the viewpoint of anyone hearing of Russell's / the Society's teachings between 1876 and about 1930 (when the 1874 date was replaced by 1914), The Watchtower's above statement is outright false. However, if one takes the viewpoint that the phrase "was to be invisible" refers to any time before 1874, then it could be argued that The Watchtower's statement is true in the sense that the Bible teaches that Christ's return, whenever that might be, would be invisible. But the statement is deliberately made ambiguous, through use of the subjunctive mood (note the bolded subjunctive usages) so that the impression is given that Russell -- who the Society claims is the founder of Jehovah's Witnessess -- received divine direction so as to "discern" what no one else could, namely, that Christ's future return -- in 1914, not 1874 -- was going to be invisible. This is done to reinforce their basic teaching that God personally directs the Governing Body.
Watchtower literature is chock full of half-truths and attempts to deceive like this. That's why JWs are such a fine example of a cult.
AlanF
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shamus
Very eye-opening thread.
I had no idea that the Watchtower reported statistics so deviously.
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toreador
Very eye-opening thread.
I had no idea that the Watchtower reported statistics so deviously.
Yeah, I didnt realize they dang near twist everything they write to butter their own a$$ just a little bit sweeter.
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xjw_b12
LOL at Marvin Shilmer
Jonestown Congregation
2002
TOTAL publishers - Aug 2002: 1, 012, 201
TOTAL publishers - Sep 2002: 971, 346 Decrease of 40,855 publishers. Decrease of 4.2%
2003
TOTAL publishers - Aug 2003: 1,029, 652
TOTAL publishers - Sep 2003: 981, 784 Decrease of 47,868 publishers. Decrease of 4.875%
2004
TOTAL publishers - Aug 2004: 1, 019, 696
TOTAL publishers - Sep 2004: 990, 551 Decrease of 29,145 publishers. Decrease of 2.9%
Seasonal shift or creative accounting? These guys could have worked for Enron.
I find it interesting that there were almost 10,000 less publishers in August of 2003 vs August 2004.