by Captain Obvious 16 Replies latest jw friends
Thanks for the info! The increase does continue to decrease year by year but there are no outside audits of the figures. They did not mention a new peak in the Jan KM for the US August report which I think they would have if there was one.
But magazine production had a large increase to about 1.2 billion.
They never give # of elders and # of ministerial servants. That would be interesting.
Are there results for the US alone?
The #s are virtually meaningless IMO...and not proof of ANYTHING.
There was about six million publishers in the 1960's as i recall. Babylon the Great Has Fallen, God's Knigdom Rules anyone remeber that book ? The whole message throughout the seventies and eighties was that all other "False" religions in Chrisendom would "dry up" and see a mass evacuation and Churches closing. The Babylon book said " the waters mean people in Christendom and the waters dry up " Ironically the exact OPPOSITE has happened. The Evangelicals now have Mega Churches with congregations of thousands. Tell your relative to look around their city and see these huge churches, built after the gloomy predictions that Christendom would "dry up " Then look at the number of Halls being sold off. The dwindling size of congregations in old Halls that used to be packed and now only a few attend at all. The sense that we were all "hanging on" by our white worn out knuckles to "make it" to Armageddon which had to happen soon, because the generation of 1914, those who were "of an age of understanding" had to be alive when Armageddon struck and destroyed everyone but us. That is now 100 years ago and another false prophecy is explained away. Never does the WT say " We made a mistake, we are at fault, we influenced and thwarted lives with false predictions." Instead they claim not be Prophets. Really ? They claim to be the only "Channel" that God is speaking through, the only representative of God himself on earth and THIS is not claiming to be a Prophet ? Eight men control a multi-billion dollar publishing, land holding, organization with no accountablity to its members and who will tolerate no criticism on pain of banishment. This makes the Wall Street CEO's look like humble servants of the people.
Just seen this thread. Regarding your point Londo111, they don't publish the elder/MS numbers, but I did get the UK figures for those at a ministerial school 2 years ago (prior to awakening):
There was about six million publishers in the 1960's as i recall.
Your memory is slipping!
They didn't even break 2 million until the 1970's. It was far under 2 million throughout the 60's.
The only years in which there was an actual decrease in publishers was in the late 70's as the 1975 disappointment shook out people.
Well said, villagegirl. Although I do think that stricter branches of Christianity are on their way out, it's a slow process because there's always some kids raised with that type of religion who choose to carry that on as adults. But I definitely don't see humans becoming less spiritually inclined. The Pope may have less power than he used to, but it's difficult to see any real "fall of Babylon".
I do wonder from time to time what it's like to have spent decades as an adult Witness and to see that the system keeps on going. They must think to themselves, "We were sure it was coming around 1975, and now it's 2013! 2013!! And my parents thought the end was coming in the '50s!" Surely they should be starting to doubt, to lose their sense of urgency by now? And yet, the older ones I know seem to be convinced that the end is still right around the corner. I eventually devoted a thread to this psychological phenomenon (search the forum for "Shepard Scale").
