7th Day Adventist growth/decline stats similar to JWs

by fukitol 18 Replies latest jw friends

  • fukitol
    fukitol

    The SDA's are also getting most of their growth in Africa and Latin America but plateauing or declining in Europe and parts of the western world.

    What's also interesting is the SDA leadership fronts up and attempts to explain why there is decline in some areas of the world (albeit somewhat disingenously), eg, on the link below from 2014. But the Watchtower leaders have never tried to give any explanation for why membership is dramatically falling away in the western world. Increasingly worried JWs are instead turning to other sources of information to try and understand why the 'true religion' is contracting.

    http://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/2013-10-13/membership-nears-18-million-secretary-highlights-regions-of-growth-decline/

  • schnell
    schnell

    I don't know anything about SDA end-times predictions other than they have some, but I'm willing to bet they aren't as branding as that of JWs.

    PS: SDAs are huge in Oregon. Nice people, from what I can tell, and they've never once shied away or tried to hand me a pamphlet.

  • scratchme1010
    scratchme1010

    But the Watchtower leaders have never tried to give any explanation for why membership is dramatically falling away in the western world. Increasingly worried JWs are instead turning to other sources of information to try and understand why the 'true religion' is contracting.

    I know little about the SDAs. Not sure if they believe in some kind of abrupt ending of the world as we know it by divine intervention like the WT. To me that makes a difference in how they explain their numbers. The WT teachings mention that when the time for their great tribulation approaches, their numbers are supposed to dwindle since there will not be any people in the world left to be saved.

    To me, that fact that they are doing anything to grow and keep making money instead of accepting what they themselves preach is a major sign that they don't even believe the nonsense they teach. Their response to less numbers is supposed to make them happy that their work is supposed to be coming to an end, but instead they keep reinventing themselves to keep the money coming.

  • Cold Steel
    Cold Steel

    The SDA problem is similar to the JW problem and it has to do with eschatological teachings not panning out. Unlike the JWs, the SDAs regard their founder as a prophet. Ellen G. White had a number of visions that became part of their canon. First, she had it revealed to her that the true sabbath was Saturday and that Christians had changed the times and the seasons. The sabbath has never changed to the first day of the week but had remained the seventh day, she said, and she had it revealed to her that the Antichrist was the Pope and that the end times would be preceded by the Pope gaining control of the nations of the earth, then passing "Sunday-only laws," and killing those who failed to comply. (Imagine the bunker video, but for SDAs instead of JWs.)

    The Pope and the false prophet would take the nations of the earth down to Israel, where it would seek to take the city of Jerusalem by force, but they would be stopped in the valley of Armageddon and destroyed by the returning Christ.

    Somehow this just didn't seem to be panning out as no one seems to care which day one worships on and no one has offered to hand over their standing armies over to the vatican. Even so, go to YouTube and enter "antichrist" and "pope." So some are still pitching it.

    ...

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=khQkBk5CX6c

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=um-L_Ms29u4

  • schnell
    schnell

    Sundays only? That bastard!

  • slimboyfat
    slimboyfat

    Yes SDAs and Mormons make interesting comparison with JWs. Check out this article that compares growth in these religions.

    https://www.ryantcragun.com/the-secular-transition-the-worldwide-growth-of-mormons-jehovahs-witnesses-and-seventh-day-adventists/

    From my own recollection SDAs are particularly strong in certain African countries, including countries such as Kenya where there are few JWs. The SDA emphasis and support for education is apparently a major attraction for Africans and people in South America. A big contrast with the compete failure of JWs to offer such benefits to their members.

  • slimboyfat
    slimboyfat

    They run schools, colleges, hospitals, nursing homes... statistics you don't get in the JW yearbook.

    http://www.adventist.org/en/information/statistics/article/go/-/seventh-day-adventist-world-church-statistics-2015/

  • schnell
    schnell
  • slimboyfat
    slimboyfat

    Very interesting statistical breakdown.

    http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Statistics/ASR/ASR2016.pdf

    The numbers look good for SDAs. They even calculate deaths and losses in a way JW statistics leave to guesswork. But I suspect there is a degree of nominalism in their membership that is disguised in the figures. Plus they do well in Africa and South America where they offer education and health care. In Europe and North America they are struggling just like JWs.

  • dropoffyourkeylee
    dropoffyourkeylee

    I don't know much about the SDA, but I have looked at some of their reference volumes called 'Prophetic Faith of our Fathers' or something like that, in 4 volumes. Pretty good books in my opinion

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