doubtfull1799

I just had a thought inspired by @newboy's recent post:

Why is it that despite the Watchtower corporation being arguably the biggest publishing house in history, having produced billions of tracts, brochures, magazines, books for o very 100 years, and having the largest army of volunteer publicity agents on the planet, that 99% of the population is still clueless as to what their message is all about?

If you ask random people what JW's beleive you will rarely get the so-called "good news": Gods kingdom is going to soon usher in a paradise earth and fix all the worlds problems under the 1000 year reign of Christ.

You will instead get: "They're the people who... 1. Don't celebrate Christmas or birthdays, 2. Don't take blood, 3. Go around with the Watchtower, 4. Have big assemblies... etc etc"

Maybe God should get the stones to cry out, because the system he's used for the last 100 years hasn't really worked!

Instead of advertising the King and his kingdom (ADV at 1922 convention) as Rutherford envisioned, all that has been advertised is the blood issue and the pagan origins of worldy holidays!

waton

Yeah, ~15 minutes a year for every baby, human, anywhere, that now lives.For decades now. Wt is very generous, wasteful with the time of it's slaves.

carla

As for their book making I only have this response and to which my jw had no response back when they were still all about the litterature-

Ecclesiastes 12:12 New International Version (NIV)

12 Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.

Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.

You would think with all their hours in fs and leaving their trash all over the place the general public would have some clue as to just what the hell jw's are all about! but no, they really don't even after 100+ years. I guess we should all be thankful they are so inept about getting their message out there. Then again most jw's don't even know what their own message is either! With all the flip flops it is much safer for a jw to only direct people to the website. They wait with bated breath to see what they will believe next week set out by their god, the gb.

stuckinarut2

Great thread Doubtfull1799!

Yes, if the ALMIGHTY is backing the efforts of "his one true organization", then he is not doing a very good job!

days of future passed

On a news channel, the JW's were promoting the newest convention. I posted it on another thread. Even tho they had plenty of time to explain what the convention was about, never once did they discuss God's Kingdom. They didn't share the "glorious Good News of the Kingdom that will bring about a paradise, wipe out injustice and you can live forever" Just about how people need something to deal with stress.

Little wonder that no one knows about it.

smiddy3

Good points doubtfull1799 and I personally believe it has a lot to do with their name Jehovah`s Witnesses and their main publication "The Watch Tower Announcing Jehovah`s Kingdom" and their emphasis on that name Jehovah.

Christians in general throughout the earth have been conditioned through the Centuries to accept that Jesus Christ is the King of Gods Kingdom and that he is the one to worship .Jesus is the one that gave his life under suffering and is the central point of Christianity." The name of Jesus is to be above every other name in heaven on earth and under the earth." according to the New Testament.

Jehovah`s Witnesses came along and preached an "Old testament God Jehovah" and have never ever done so effectively enough to compete with what Christendom has accomplished over the Centuries.

Jehovah`s Witnesses main accomplishments have come from poaching Christendoms non attendees ,those ignorant of their faiths beliefs ,and those that are most vulnerable in society with few exceptions.

They have had zilch success by comparison in the non Christian world .

Xanthippe

you will rarely get the so-called "good news": Gods kingdom is going to soon usher in a paradise earth and fix all the worlds problems under the 1000 year reign of Christ

Yeah this frustrated me for years that people see the JWs as harmless, nicely dressed people who knock at the door. When I tell them JWs actually believe Jesus is going to rule the world and they're never going to die they wonder why I didn't leave sooner!

I think many of them are embarrassed to tell people the crazy beliefs and the public don't read the literature they give them so they don't know what they believe. That's why the JWs like cart work so much now, they don't have to actually say anything.

Half banana

The wind has gone out of the Watchtower sails. The org started on a spiritual high with the 'certainty' of God and Jesus conquering and ruling the earth by 1914. It was a load of rubbish-- but who has benefitted? I will remind you; the business organisation which resulted from peddling this utopia now known as JW org.

I even read this WT hype in the local library from a provincial UK newspaper of around 1880. It declared cheerfully that sickness and death was soon coming to an end obviously based on Russell's sermons emanating from USA at the time. So Doubtful1799, Russell seemed to have be influential in getting his message across but his successors have left more of an ill defined one.

People who are struggling to cope with the common hardships of life are more likely to respond to this hope beyond hope. They are the shallow thinkers who put hope above reality and dreams above fact. Most of JWs are in this cocoon and the thought of letting go of their precious vision of paradise is emotionally devastating. Therefore the denial of anything which would destabilise their precarious niche in the world. Their faith is in the bringers of this dream: the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses. The humble JW has been instilled with the notion that faithfulness to God equals obedience to the GB.

Times have changed, no longer do JWs need to research, it is just a matter of remaining obedient to their leaders and this alone gives the Witness the sense of emotional security they crave.

There are in the Western World few new JW converts so what seems to have happened is the shift towards the quest to retain born-ins, no longer is deep Bible knowledge important or stressed (the leaders after all are forever changing their minds on what bits of the Bible mean) no need to make a defence of belief or arguing your case especially as your case for being there is not clear even to the JW!

The evangelical fire has gone from the organisation, which is not surprising since the JW promises never have any semblance of truth in them. Now it's more a matter of the self satisfaction of letting others see you at the cart and hope some of them might join you.

Phizzy

Certainly Jehovah is not a Just God if, as JW's claim, he bases his judgement on someones reaction to their preaching.

Their efforts have been worse than pathetic. The latest iteration, the cart work, is even less effective than the efforts of the past.

Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho

Associating Watchtower publications with people who door knock or have big assemblies is tantamount to associating Reader's Digest with people who digest stuff.

Vague and ineffectual to say the least.

Strange conundrum