Posts by jstalin

9

Will Jesus return as a man with flesh and blood?

by Star Moore in

hope you don't mind if i share a couple of points of why i think jesus is returning as human.

(just my thoughts).

2. his quest "to break kings to pieces, to execute judgement among nations, to break to pieces the head one over a populous land" how can a spirit man execute judgement?.

jstalin

Revelation 1:7 - Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. Matthew 24:30 - (Jesus says) And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Sounds like an invisible second coming to me!

12

Some fun w/US Watchtower numbers

by jstalin in

jw
friends

below is a graph of us wt numbers.

yellow is total annual baptisms, purple is average publishers, and cyan is attrition rate (total people who left the organization each year).

these numbers relate to calendar years, not service years.

jstalin

Incidentally , it isn't conjecture that most are disfellowshipped for immorality - this has several times been stated in the Watchtower. From local experience , 80% are expelled for this reason. The number disfellowshipped for apostasy is negligible in comparison , despite the best efforts of some.

I wasn't aware of any WT statements on disfellowships. However, I doubt that majority of the attrition is due to disfellowships - I would be willing to guess that more either fade or disassociate than are disfellowshipped.

The WT in the US has become a revolving door.

12

Some fun w/US Watchtower numbers

by jstalin in

jw
friends

below is a graph of us wt numbers.

yellow is total annual baptisms, purple is average publishers, and cyan is attrition rate (total people who left the organization each year).

these numbers relate to calendar years, not service years.

jstalin

(1) Law of Diminishing Returns ; ; ; Inevitably , growth decreases over time , otherwise all the inhabitants of the USA will become witnesses. The same effect is felt by large companies (Wal-Mart , Shell etc) who find it very difficult to grow year on year.

You're correct, but Wal-Mart's problem is market saturation. JWs number less than 1 million in the United States, a nation with a population approaching 300 million. That's about 0.3% of the population. Saturation could hardly be the problem here. The US is an overwhelmingly Christian nation, so one would think that WT ideology would get more traction, but the cult methods have a limited appeal. So, I think your conclusion of diminishing returns could be correct in a sense - we can guess that 1 million Americans are particularly susceptable to cult membership.

(2) Moral Decline ; ; As the vast majority of JWs are disfellowshipped for immorality , inevitably the increasing "permissive society" has made it more common for people to leave for this reason.

This is pure conjecture. We don't have any info on disfellowships, disassociations, fadings, so we have no idea how many of those who have left the organization are due to moral decline. In the strictest sense, moral decline can only be a guess, based on anecdotal evidence. I don't think we'll ever know the real numbers relating to the attrition rate.

25

Did you ever preach door to door on a Christmas day?

by JH in

jw
friends

.

i don't know if it's only our congregation or every congregation was the same, but no door to door was organized on christmas day.

that was the only day of the year that the jw's in our area wouldn't go pest people.. wonder why?

jstalin

53

THE MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR THREAD!

by Dansk in

jw
friends

please post your christmas and new year messages here so that we can keep them altogether:

merry christmas & a happy new year to everyone on jwd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ian, claire, karl & dominic

jstalin

Happy Hannukah.

7

Special Talk

by feelinsketchy in

jw
friends

either next monday or the following, word has it that a special announcement is being made after the bethel wt study.

all nbethelites have been summoned to attend.

supposedly something has come up rather quickly and needs to be addressed.. could this be the big news?

jstalin

Special announcement: "The end is just around the corner!"

32

Am I weird, in that I actually want the world to end?

by free2beme in

jw
friends

since leaving the witnesses, i have noticed that i enjoy movies about the world ending.

they might be movies about major disasters killing off the world (deep impact) or maybe movies about a world after civilization has fallen (the postman, waterworld).

i even like those movies that show society falling apart in alien invasions (war of the worlds, independence day).

jstalin

Does anyone truly think with the world situation in it's ever downward spiral of deterioration, can go on for another 50 years, 100 years, or even another 20?

Downward spiral? The world is better than it has ever been. Standard of living is up for most of the world's population, global GDP is up, disease is down, lives are getting better. I'm not sure which world you live in, but the one I live in is full of hope and promise.

32

Am I weird, in that I actually want the world to end?

by free2beme in

jw
friends

since leaving the witnesses, i have noticed that i enjoy movies about the world ending.

they might be movies about major disasters killing off the world (deep impact) or maybe movies about a world after civilization has fallen (the postman, waterworld).

i even like those movies that show society falling apart in alien invasions (war of the worlds, independence day).

jstalin

I enjoy those types of movies too, and judging by the box office returns, a lot of people do. It's one thing to enjoy end of the world movies, it's another to really wish it would happen in real life. I mean, I really like my Internet, fast food, and porn. I would rather not do without those things.

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