1918: >>> Less than 4 publishers per congregation !!! <<<

by Calebs Airplane 15 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  Calebs Airplane

  When Jesus supposedly came down to the earth in 1918 to accomplish his inspection of all religious denominations, he supposedly chose the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society.

  According to the August 15, 2012 Watchtower (page 6, paragraph 12), in 1914, there were only 1,200 congregations worldwide....

  This means that Jesus was really looking for a needle in a hay stack... (probably had to use a pair of tweezers in the process...)

  But notice this gem I found in the Watchtower CD Library:

  In 1918 there were only 3,868 persons announcing the King and the Kingdom in all the world. - The Watchtower, January 1, 1950 page 11 paragraph 3

  Now, assuming the number of congregations remained flat from 1914 to 1918 (because of the 1914 fallout, etc.), this means that there were only 3.22 publishers per congregation in 1918 !!! Now, let's assume the number of congregations dropped by 50% (from 1,200 to only 600) between 1914 and 1918... that's still only 6.45 publsihers per congregation!!!

  I think the Watchtower should seriously consider opening a Bull Shit Monitoring Department... There's really no logical explanation for this!
• 

  Black Man

  But see, they'll say that it was evidence of Christ blessing them as they now have more than 7 million publishers worldwide.
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  AnnOMaly

  According to the Proclaimers book on p. 239, "by 1916, there were some 1,200 groups of Bible Students worldwide." There wouldn't have been a significant drop between 1914 and 1918. The major schisms occurred in the 1920s, although earlier there were those upset about the hostile takeover of the WTS by Rutherford and his buddies.

  There were 5,100 publishers by 1914 (p. 422); there must have been a drop in reported witnessing in 1918 due to persecution/curtailment of the WTS's activities (the imprisonment of the directors, etc.); in 1919, the figure had increased to 5,700 (p. 425) due to the hype from that world-shaking ;-) convention in Cedar Point, Ohio.

  It would be before the 'other sheep' really got going, and I think at that time it would only be the consecrated, i.e. 'anointed,' who'd be allowed to be publishers anyway.
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  hoser

  I don't think everyone who attended the meetings went out selling books door to door. Most of them had real jobs.
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  sir82

  Yeah I don't think they were quite as strict in counting "who is a congregation member" back in those days.

  Today they only count "publishers". If you don't fill in you time slip every month, you don't count, even if you attend all the meetings.

  But back in 1919, my best guess is that only a minority of congregation members actually went door to door.

  It would be interesting to follow the timeline to see how it progressed from "most people don't go door to door" to "if you don't go door to door you aren't counted".
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  nugget

  It wasn't until much later that witnesses were told to advertise, advertise, advertise so in 1918 there was no obligation for everyone to preach the word.
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  Calebs Airplane

  AnnOMaly... Weren't all JWs of the "annointed" up until 1935 (when the 1st members of the Great Crowd started to get gathered)???
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  AnnOMaly

  Most of them were supposed to be 'anointed,' yes. There were a few non-anointed 'other sheep' around, so the story goes. But the 'great crowd' back then were supposed to be spirit-begotten slackers, the also-ran class who'd lose out on the higher calling of being kings and priests and relegated to heavenly Levitical service. Nobody would know who they were until everyone had got to heaven. Something like that.
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  mP

  Its amazing how me centric so many ppl of the book are. The jews think the OT and the world is about and for them, because they are special. Then we have the JW pop up, and we fnd literally dozens of so called prophecies about them. Theres some text about them having a meeting in Ohio, theres another about JR having a beard and so on. Why God skips thousands of years in between and most of the entire world is never explained.
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  steve2

  Knowledge of the composition of the congregations back then is important.

  Remember, prior to Rutherford's "reign", the preaching work was far less organized and orchestrated. Russell did not expect every member of the congregation to actively preach door-to-door or on street corners. In fact, many of the break-away groups complained that Rutherford subverted Russell's views on this.

  I have no way of providing written evidence but the Bible Students attracted significantly greater attendance than "just" publishers. Indeed, it would be a fair assumption that probably more so back then than at any time since, the congregations would have bulged with non-preaching members.

  I'm sure some posters may be able to provide written evidence that this was the case - because it was only upon Rutherford's arrival that there was a marked lurch to pressuring getting everyone affiliated with "companies" (as congregations were then called) to actively engage in 'advertising, advertising, advertising' the Watchtower's message.