alanv

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Posts by alanv

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  114

  the watchtower is starting to crumble

  by pepperheart in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  for the december monthly broadcast instead of jws from around the world waving to you and items of how to shun people we will have to make do with repeats of of old gilead videos that have been on the jw website for a good while.

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  alanv

  It makes no sense saying they have run out of things to say. They have produced countless numbers of books and magazines, often saying the same things for 140 years. They can just go over the same old ground if they need to.
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  33

  the life saving message

  by jookbeard in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the life saving message of death and gloom brought to a town centre near to you!.

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  alanv

  What a joke religion they are these days. How on earth can they call that preaching? I bet the yearly hours figure goes over two billion this year and they will be so proud of that.
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  34

  Another congregation bites the dust

  by NikL in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  went to the meeting last night with my believing wife.

  the co was visiting and delivered a really cult-ish talk on loyalty but that's another story.. they made the announcement that starting january 1st they were going to have only 3 congregations in this town instead of 4.. they are dissolving one and growing the territories of the remaining 3. the reason given is that many of the elders are getting up there in age and can't do what they used to do.

  basically not enough elders and ministerial servants...or even men reaching out for that matter.

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  alanv

  redvip, when they say that elders and mini servants are appointed by holy spirit, they simply mean those ones fit the qualifications given in the scriptures. If ones are not appointed, then the elders consider them lacking in one or more of those qualifications. Also although elders etc may fade or be kicked out, it doesnt change the fact that at one time they did meet the requirements. The org would point to Judas Iscariot as an example.
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  69

  284000 baptized in 2017

  by jw-verite in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  seen in the 03/2018 watchtower study :.

  "during the 2017 service year, more than 284,000 “rightly disposed” individuals symbolized their dedication to jehovah by water baptism.".

  https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-march-2018/baptism-requirement-for-christians/.

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  alanv

  I dont think the org makes up the figures. Over the years they have reported many minus figures in different countries. Most who post on here are from USA and UK I think, so we would be surprised when we hear of increases. But those increases are not in the mainly developed world. They are often where people do not have the luxury of easy internet access. Once you drill into the figures you see why we think there is little increase. For instance in the UK last year there was an increase of just 26 publishers over the year. I also found that in the whole of Europe put together, there was no increase at all.
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  69

  284000 baptized in 2017

  by jw-verite in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  seen in the 03/2018 watchtower study :.

  "during the 2017 service year, more than 284,000 “rightly disposed” individuals symbolized their dedication to jehovah by water baptism.".

  https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-march-2018/baptism-requirement-for-christians/.

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  alanv

  eyeuse2badub. Although there is a reasonable amount of people getting baptised each year, the figure does not tell you how many witnesses have left, either faded or disfellowshipped etc. In other words they got 280,000 in through the front door but also a large number out the back door. JWfacts has some good graphs of this on his website.

  Hopefully if it is published we will see how many publishers have left later this month .
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  13

  Less magaiznes per year

  by punkofnice in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  only 6 very thin magazines per year and then recycling the propaganda within.. how are your local congregations spinning this?.

  i heard a local congo-abongo-i is launching a campaign™ to place as amny magazines as possible in the month (this or next...not sure..sources sketchy).

  which i find a bit strange.

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  alanv

  ttdtt. To them it is no contradiction to totally change what was very important a few years ago. They always use the excuse that they are moving on as times change. The rank and file have learnt over the years that it is no problem at all to suddenly change something that was either doctrine, procedure or policy just a few years ago. That is the control Watchtower has over their minds.
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  69

  284000 baptized in 2017

  by jw-verite in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  seen in the 03/2018 watchtower study :.

  "during the 2017 service year, more than 284,000 “rightly disposed” individuals symbolized their dedication to jehovah by water baptism.".

  https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-march-2018/baptism-requirement-for-christians/.

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  alanv

  At the moment there are only a few totals for 2016 on the ''about us'' part of their website. I cant help but feel they are getting closer and closer to just putting out figures that dont show how the org is doing in different parts of the world. Just a few years back they had local congregation reports on the notice boards, national reports in the Kingdom Ministry and the yearly report in the Jan 1st Watchtower as well as the yearbook. That has all gone now. They have moved a long way away from that because of the pretty bad reports over the last few years. It will be just another step to cut the info from their site to the bare minimum. I really hope I'm wrong though.
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  13

  Less magaiznes per year

  by punkofnice in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  only 6 very thin magazines per year and then recycling the propaganda within.. how are your local congregations spinning this?.

  i heard a local congo-abongo-i is launching a campaign™ to place as amny magazines as possible in the month (this or next...not sure..sources sketchy).

  which i find a bit strange.

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  alanv

  The ideal for the governing body is that as many people as possible get to read the magazines. However from their point of view they would much rather that was done electronically rather than having to produce costly paper magazines.
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  69

  284000 baptized in 2017

  by jw-verite in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  seen in the 03/2018 watchtower study :.

  "during the 2017 service year, more than 284,000 “rightly disposed” individuals symbolized their dedication to jehovah by water baptism.".

  https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-march-2018/baptism-requirement-for-christians/.

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  alanv

  It may be that their push for children to get baptised is happening. We will have to see the rest of the worldwide report to see other figures to judge how the org is doing. Thanks for finding that figure though.
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  15

  Angry the BBC covered J.W. child abuse on the national TV news at 1pm but not 6pm or 10pm

  by Isambard Crater in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  did the j.w lawyers gag the bbc or something?

  not even newsnight covered it.

  it was given 3 minutes every hour on the 24-hour bbc news channel though i guess..

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  alanv

  News items importance can change throughout the day. The BBC just decided some other news item was more important. It's important to us as JWs but most people have little or no interest in JWs.