Partaker Number To Be Eliminated?

LostGeneration

The recent WT that has been discussed quite a bit here offers up this quote:

"We thus have no way of knowing the exact number of anointed ones on earth; nor do we need to know. The Governing Body does not keep a list of all partakers, for it does not maintain a global network of anointed ones." - Question From Readers, w2011 8/15 p. 22

As already noted, this statement is quite silly in an of itself, as the b0rg is truly a number-obsessed corportation. I think it may be a setting of the table of sorts, indicating they aren't going to report the partaker number anymore. It really does them no good anymore, and it hurts them a little more each year that it goes up and up. I guess we will know in a few months when the yearbook comes out.

james_woods

I think it may be a setting of the table of sorts, indicating they aren't going to report the partaker number anymore. It really does them no good anymore, and it hurts them a little more each year that it goes up and up. I guess we will know in a few months when the yearbook comes out.

It may take them longer than just this year, but I think you are certainly onto something there.

Many have predicted this before - I think the only reason they have not done it already is the fear of reaction from the rank & file.

This kind of statement "nor do we need to know" - sure does seem like they are softening the general population up for dropping it from the report.

Found Sheep

So with the overlapping generation crap and now we don't need to know how many anointed are left on earth, what numbers do they focus on to keep it in there head that the end is SO SO CLOSE?

BluesBrother

I have theorized also that they will not publish a figure in future....So why take a count of partakers?

If they do not need to know, why bother?

Funny isn't it? When the number was dropping steadily everyone was very keen to follow it. Now they cannot trust their own to decide to where they have been called - so the easiest thing is to just not know

james_woods

So with the overlapping generation crap and now we don't need to know how many anointed are left on earth, what numbers do they focus on to keep it in there head that the end is SO SO CLOSE?

Just guessing, but maybe the dozen or so reportable earthquakes worldwide?

slimboyfat

Maybe they will stop publishing numbers altogether. In the recent DVD about Watchtower history (volume 2) David Splane pretty much said he reckons Jehovah doesn't care about numbers.

wha happened?

If they do it really isn'y a big deal to the rank and file. They just follow. Are people that lame? Of course they are. I know of one religion based on Golden Tablets that no one has ever seen. Everyone knows it it, yet they follow. Signs of the end coming up will be provided as necessary, for the moment

LostGeneration

@jameswoods- I guess it all comes down to what will cause them less pain. Rip the bandaid off at once and you might accidently wake up a large number of the R&F all at once. But this slow drip of increases year after year also has to wake up people who are paying a little bit of attention.

@foundsheep - I'm sure they will continue to pimp their great crowd numbers for years ahead, at least until those start decreasing! The increasing partakers number though is a needle in the side of the b0rg, especially since they have taught their "dwindling numbers" theory for so long.

@blues- Oh the GB still wants to know the number! That is for sure...I am sure they will still tell the elders to take a count and report it, simply to know how many "emotionally unbalanced" ones they have among their flock.

sir82

The number is an embarrassment to them.

For all their "most partakers are mentally unstable" comments, most JWs still look at the number, and most accept it as legitimate (unless they happen to know a "mentally unstable" partaker themselves).

The number will continue to grow and grow, until it would become painfully obvious to even the most brain-dead JW that something is not quite right.

Publishing the number was just another of ol' Freddy Franz's tricks to whip up a sense of urgency in decades past: "See Martha? The number of anointed dropped another 200 between 1969 and 1970 - surely the time left is reduced!"

Since the 2007 article re-opening heaven's gate, and with the advent of the overlapping generations, publishing that number serves no useful purpose and, as noted above, will eventually become an obvious anomaly.

Hence, I fully expect them to stop publishing it, perhaps as soon as the 2012 Yearbook.

Joliette

^ Slimboyfat pretty sure that will happen.

Partaker Number To Be Eliminated?

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