Ozzie,
Good post. The article states there are 3 major catacombs, the largest of which contains 500,000 tombs. So maybe we have a million people buried in total in the these catacombs (my assumption).
If only 10% of that million were Christian, that would still comprise 100,000 people.
Oh, but they obviously (according to the WTS) fell away from the "truth" after the first century, so hardly any of these thousands count as ahem, true Christians. From the second century on until 1879 and the self-conversion of C.T. Russell to the "true organization" (ahem), there were just a small trickle of true Christians? Maybe 10-15 people somewhere in central Europe meeting for the annual observance of the Memorial each spring? What evidence is there that the number of faithful Christians with a heavenly hope was so small?
No evidence. Only assumptions, based on the dubious idea that the 144,000 is literal. This idea that only a few people in the whole world gained God's favor over the centuries seems superstitious (believing in things you can't understand or prove!!).
Your last quote "Can these be the remains of true Christianity? Hardly" seems best applied to what remains of the shrinking organization and the shaky theology of the JW's today. (hehehe)
Gopher