by Knowsnothing 17 Replies latest jw friends
In the short time I've lurked and been on here, I've seen a couple of new people join, and tell their experiences. My question is, how big is apostasy in numbers? Could we take a rough guess? I know jwfacts has touched on this subject, but there is also the question of "faders" or people that keep face for the sake of not getting shunned.
I'm just curious to see how we(apostates) measure up to JW membership(the believing membership).
And I suppose this also outs me as one ;)
It has been postulated that there are more ex-JWs than current ones.
One thing's for sure, by the look of the July 15th Watchtower, the governing body think it's a MASSIVE problem.
Pretty difficult to estimate, we don't fill out an excel spreadsheet each month for Jehovah each month like faithful witnesses.
If they still DF 1% a year and only 1/3rd go back like some of their stats admit, I'd say more than a million in the last 15 years have left.
I guess you first have to define what the word "apostate" refers to. The Watchtower has used varying degrees of language to describe apostates, from anyone who speaks out or is critical of the Watchtower, to any and all persons who have left the oranization for any reason.
Unfortunately there is no public set of data that records the amount of outspoken ex-JW's there are... but we can perhaps make guesses according to how many people are disfellowshipped. The Watchtower has occasionally published disfellowshipping figures as being between ~35,000 to 60,000 per year. If each of those persons at one time or another says or writes something critical regarding the organization, then they could be called apostates.
I'd bet the figure is in the millions. I've heard some say that there are more exJWs then there are current JWs.
See this page: http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php
It is about 8 inches.
about 8 " on a good day you mean
How big is apostasy?
*puts hands 'yay' apart*
This big.
-Sab
Technically speaking (jdub technically that is )
everyone who is disfellowshipped is apostate as their definition is :
a standing away from the truth.
Since its THEY who decide what is truth, anyone who does not even obey them, let alone disagree vociferously,
is an apostate.
So that makes 73000 a year.
This question should be qualified as "How big is apostasy to the Governing Body?"
In their minds, the Bible is for them, to them, and about them. They are God's mouthpiece and Jesus' roadies whom we have to get through to hang with the band backstage. I mean, come on, they listed JW conventions as fulfillment of the trumpet blasts of Revelation. These guys believe everything in the world revolves around them.
Some country levies a tax on them and it's fulfillment of a prophesy about persecution. But if they win a court case, it's God protecting his organization. They are convinced no matter what happens to JWs, it's earth-shattering and it "means something". Meanwhile, a large portion of the planet has never heard of Jehovah's Witnesses. The rest just see them (ugh, us - now I need to go gargle with something) as an annoying cult who wake people up on Saturday to give them magazines to throw away.
Of course, the Society tries to make apostasy seem like a major plague on the earth. Why not? They've taken a passing remark by Jesus - faithful and discreet slave - and made a whole religion around it. Their messiah complex, narcissism, and total indulgence in their own fantasy world cause them to believe some universal spotlight is on them and every person and angel are holding their collective breaths waiting to see what will happen next in the unfolding saga of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Every newspaper headline, they direct back on themselves. Every natural disaster, every crime statistic, every time a church pastor (except for their own) is caught molesting a child - everything - is perceived as "This is what we've been prophesying about." Since they don the name of "Jehovah", they feel that the Creator is now bound to them and forced to take responsibility for them. I guess if they can write about what time for Armageddon would be "appropriate", that's not shocking.
very big
