The main thing is that the Watchtower organization really believed the increases of the early 1950'S were going to continue. They presumptuously thought that it was a sign of God's favor. Statisticians surely would not be impressed. If the increases of the 1950's would have been sustained there would be about 60,000,000 JW's by now. That would be about 1 in every 60 people on earth. That would be impressive!!! Alas. It didn't happen. But the counting continues.
proplog2
JoinedPosts by proplog2
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45
Something significant changed in the WTS in 1984... but what was it???
by Elsewhere inlooking at this chart i can't help but notice that pre-1984 the growth statistics were extremely erratic.
then, all of the sudden in 1984 the growth statistics calmed down and have ever since fallowed a much more stable trend.
it's almost a straight line after 1984.. so what happened?
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45
Something significant changed in the WTS in 1984... but what was it???
by Elsewhere inlooking at this chart i can't help but notice that pre-1984 the growth statistics were extremely erratic.
then, all of the sudden in 1984 the growth statistics calmed down and have ever since fallowed a much more stable trend.
it's almost a straight line after 1984.. so what happened?
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proplog2
The trend using moving averages is really quite predictable. The 1975 blip smooths out. This is a graph that reflects a slowing growth. As someone else mentioned - as the number of individuals increase there is a general smoothing of the trend.
The 1975 jump and subsequent correction is the most obvious event.
Rutheford liked "advertising". If he were alive today he would have to acknowledge the "brand" is tired and it needs a "new and improved version" to keep it going.
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Bible-Believing and the End Times
by jgnat inauld soul and star moore, i'm starting a new thread on this topic so we don't entangle black swan's excellent thread.
like auld soul, i am also very interested in how a bible-believer comes to the conclusion that we are living in the end times now.
i'm not questioning the bible here, but the observations that make a modern reader come to this conclusion.. and secondary to that, like auld soul, i would like to understand how believing the end times are imminent change a christian's behavior, if at all.. star moore:.
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proplog2
The whole thrust of the Bible is Salvation through a time of great tribulation that involves the formation of a new world. The "faithful" are awake and "watching".
A Christian is not allowed the luxury of thinking the "end" is a long way off. If a Christian really reaches the conclusion that the end is in the distant future it will be their human nature to quit looking for the signs and indicators.
For example if you buy a brand new car and you've driven it for a couple of months during the break-in period without any problems you settle in to a period where you just enjoy your car. You aren't hyper-alert - listening for signs of trouble. You realize that at some point your car will get old and prone to failure but that's in the distant future.
If you buy a used car with 150,000 miles on it - you pay attention to every little noise and mechanical action knowing that some major failure is "near".
You can't safely drive an old car like you do a new one.
One of the marks of the "holy ones" is that they would be watchful.
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Is the truth of something the path of least resistance?
by Spectrum inunless hidden or confused by disinformation i believe that knowing the truth is found by following the path of least resistance.
if this criterion is not met then you cannot conclude that you have the truth.
the truth has a way of sorting itself out unless unatural forces are used to skew it.
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proplog2
Do a google search on the words PARSIMONY + SCIENCE
Lot to say about simplicity & truth.
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Evolution Sunday
by startingover ini found an article in my local newspaper this morning about "evolution sunday".
it seems to me that religions will bend whatever way it takes to keeps people attending.
http://www.uwosh.edu/colleges/cols/rel_evol_sun.htm.
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proplog2
Thank God For Evolution
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I Talked To A Friend About His Feeling That JWs Are Right In "Some" Things
by minimus inthis friend was a fellow elder with me.
in the last few years he's successfully faded with his immediate family.
however his mother who was never "strong in the truth" is still a "believer".
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proplog2
Well now we know the meaning of religion. Helps us avoid having to come to grips with our own mortality. Tell your friend he's getting closer to the truth every day. People are dying to know the answer to the question of life after death.
I believe in an after life. After life there is death.
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Witness history or As I See It
by joelbear insome guy reads the materials of some other guy and gets the idea of marketing it himself.
adds pizazz "i am the faithful slave", dramatic effect, the end will come in 1914 and boom you have a product.
advertise, advertise, advertise thee kingdom of god.
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proplog2
I didn't see this post until after I posted something similar. Your are right. Rutheford was really a PR man. Would have made agreat politician if not campaign manager. Most of the jargon that he introduced would fit in great with AMWAY or other MLMs.
It's no wonder he had his eye on California.
He even had his own personal dietician. How cool was that!
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Missing Light
by proplog2 inthe february 15 watchtower article "walking in the path of increasing light" reviews what they consider evidence that they are directed by holy spirit.
sometimes it's what isn't said that speaks the loudest.
the article tries to highlight what they consider significant events.
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proplog2
I know it sounds a little self-absorbed. But I've been on this forum long enough. I don't expect anyone to comment on what I wrote but I am surprised at how slowly it has taken off. I used to post and within an hour there would be 200 readers. Perhaps the subject doesn't grab attention.
The length has no bearing on how many click on it. You don't know the length until you click.
It seems to me that there used to be a place you could click that would bring up the posts in chronological order. It doesn't do that anymore. For some reason a post can take a pretty quick dive as soon as its put up.
Certainly there are a lot of excellent threads here that don't get much attention. That was Farkel's gripe - and I believe that's why he doesn't post extensively anymore.
So be it.
Thanks for paying attention.
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Missing Light
by proplog2 inthe february 15 watchtower article "walking in the path of increasing light" reviews what they consider evidence that they are directed by holy spirit.
sometimes it's what isn't said that speaks the loudest.
the article tries to highlight what they consider significant events.
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proplog2
It looks like this post was a complete waste of time.
No Comments?
If after 4 years on this forum no one cares to read what I've written - then I guess I'd better quit wasting time.
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13
Missing Light
by proplog2 inthe february 15 watchtower article "walking in the path of increasing light" reviews what they consider evidence that they are directed by holy spirit.
sometimes it's what isn't said that speaks the loudest.
the article tries to highlight what they consider significant events.
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proplog2
The February 15 Watchtower Article "Walking In The Path of Increasing Light" reviews what they consider evidence that they are directed by holy spirit.
Sometimes it's what isn't said that speaks the loudest. The article tries to highlight what they consider significant events. First of all they skip one-third of the organizations history from 1879-1919. Apparently they figure the Russell years weren't significant. Or maybe it's too hard to explain pyramidology. They conveniently sweep all that stuff under the carpet of "Babylonian Captivity"
Next they fast forward to 1919 when they supposedly took the first step toward getting democracy out of the organization. What's so "enlightened" about top down management. It makes more sense to view that move as the consolidation of Rutheford's personal authority. The next big event was the invigorating introduction of "Advertise, advertise, advertise the king and his kingdom". What a novel inspired idea - combining a word , hated by everyone except Madison Ave, with redemption and salvation!! 1931 Rutheford put his trademarked Jehovah's Witnesses name on what was rapidly becoming HIS organization. No doubt he thought any name that uses "Christian" in it was a little time-worn and wouldn't attract much attention. He needed something different to go along with his advertising concept.
1932-1938 continues the attack on democracy. But then the article jumps forward to the next big change in organizational structure - which really involved a return to democracy. Well not exactly - democracy. By 1972 the organization was full of second-bananas all wanting to be top bananas. So they organized a coup. The actual article involving the change came out in the 11/15/71 Watchtower and the title was "A Body of Elders with ROTATING CHAIRMANSHIP".
Whatever happened to the "rotation" feature? The current Watchtower doesn't tell us what happened to that aspect of this divinely guided improvement. Back in 1971 we spent a couple hours on Sunday studying all the reasons why rotating the chairmanship of the elder body was THE DIVINE WAY of running things. Many secular theologians were quoted in those articles justifying this idea. But there was some amazing new light that came out in the July 1983 Kindom Ministry. In the announcement section there is a brief reference to presiding elders being appointed to "indefinite" period (time indefinite = forever?) But the article about increasing light made no reference to this move back to the old structure.
1976 is marked by the establishment of Governing Body committees. 1992 is a reference to the "given ones". Apparently this controversial explanation is still in good standing. What all of this really amounts to is the very ordinary changes (evolution, really) any organization goes through over time. There is nothing enlightened in any of it. It surely bears no extraordinary mark of being directed by some omniscient "mind". Why does it take over 100 years to get things right when God supposedly organized the Israelites in a few weeks at Sinai?
THE BRIGHTER DOCTRINAL PATH
Again the pre-Rutheford era is ignored. 1925 marks the revolutionary discovery (March 1st 1925 article "Birth of the Nation") "that there are two distinct organizations - Jehovah's and Satan's". Now that's a dichotomy that never passed through the mind of any religious person until then! And once again you have to wonder about Rutheford's use of popular culture to come up with names for things. "Birth of a Nation" was a popular movie in 1916. Was the title of that inspired article planted in D.W. Griffiths head first with the real target being a Watchtower article in 1925?
1935 was another no-brainer. When you have more than a 144,000 members combined with first century Christians you've got to come up with another hope. Guided by holy spirit?. Nope. Guided by simple math.
Although the article mentions new light about the relationship between JW's and the authorities it avoids talking about the realization that all those JW men who had their lives interrupted with prison terms because they couldn't do alternative military service really didn't need to go to prison after all. Blood doctrine is also presented as significant new light. But nothing is mentioned about the confusion over organ transplants. Nothing is mentioned about the startling new light that the "heart" mentioned in the Bible was figurative and that it didn't have it's own brain.
The article tells us in paragraph 18 that in 1987 the meaning of the Christian Jubilee was thoroughly explained. And I thought the jubilee was thoroughly explained in 1966 and that it was going to start in 1975. No mention of that.
The article says in paragraph 19 "In 1995 the separating of the sheep from the goats was more clearly understood. Then it jumps to the year 1998. But didn't they forget the biggest doctrinal brightening that took place in 1995? Yes it was in the November 1 1995 Watchtower where it was explained that we were wrong to be counting years from 1914. The "generation" that we believed for over a "generation" was no more. Again we have to ask Was this spirit guided enlightenment or just a matter of doing the math. This is an obvious sore spot that they didn't want to deal with.
The article ends with the ATF rules (Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms).
All in all it portrays an organization struggling for identity, organization power grabs, failed attempts at prophecy and petty pharisaical rules. No extraordinary knock out proof that this organization has an invisible divine hand guiding it.