Preaching work ? could it ever be completed ?

by run dont walk 16 Replies latest jw friends

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  run dont walk

  The saying goes "Once the good news of the kingdom has been preached in all the inhabited earth, then the end will come." (something like that)

  Now, only 6,000,000 witnesses, one planet of 6,000,000,000 people, (the jw's amount to 0.1% of the earth's population, man sure annoying for only 0.1%) I don't see, how it would be possible to reach every person or land. So many new being born in the world, new subdivisions going up in every city across the planet, conceivably the cycle will never end, therefore the "good news" will never reach everyone.

  And, a few threads of late regading going out in service, most people hate it, do as little as possible, count excess hours (donuts, driving time, etc.)

  Could it ever come close to be being completed ???

  Do you think the Watchtower will stop it (temporaily), to scare everyone and increase donations ???
• 

  Nosferatu

  Like it's been said before, the preaching work is to keep the R&F busy. If they were to spend their spare time doing other things, they may be caught up in the snare of the world! Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!

  If this scripture was really important, they would count how many people they've preached the "good news" to, rather than count the amount of hours spent preaching it.
• 

  Hamas

  One billion people in India.

  24,000 publishers.

  Do the maths.
• 

  stillajwexelder

  at current world population growth rates and including JW poor growth rates -- I do not think it possible for the work to be ever completed -
• 

  stillajwexelder

  Hamas you are correct and I bet the figures for China are worse or at least comparable -- though it could be argued with their one child per family policy it is not as bad as India -- but doing the math -- yes it can not be achieved -- and this good news of the kingdom will be preached in ALL the inhabited earth and THEN the ened will come
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  shotgun

  Paul said it was complete in his day...and it certainly had not covered even a majority of the earth. He didn't even bother going to territories where the message had already been spread because the end was so near. In South America they had to wait for the Spanish to bring them the Christian teachings along with death and disease. I'm not sure about the North American Indians ...the Mormons believe Jesus came here don't they or was it Joseph Smith...somebody fill me in on that one.

  But it will be complete when the GB says it is and that's all most dubs care to know......
• 

  Hamas

  Yeah, I remember an elder getting up on the platform - an elder I really looked up to.. simply because the platform was higher than me so I had to look up to see him.... anywayz....

  He once said that we will all be surprised to see exactly WHO makes it through the big A . He mentioned that because the end is so near, many of our asian friends and others in tribes who have never heard the 'Kingdumb message' will not be destroyed by God.

  I remember telling him afterwards that his logic was foolhardy because then we are to expect one hell of a lot of chinks and Indians in the 'New System'.

  Sometimes, their logic defiles the boundaries of belief.
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  mustang

  I rode for over 200 miles in China and saw a "quadplex" dormitory style house EVERY 500 FEET before the buildings thinned out. Most places had more than one row of houses. And this was "out in the country". The people were friendly, humble and pleasant.

  You can't tell me:

  1) They will all be contacted.

  2) They will all be destroyed, "because of their leaders".

  Mustang
• 

  maxwell

  I concur.

  While the worldwide ratio may be 1:1000 right now, as has been demonstrated by other posters in some countries the ratio is much more skewed. There's people in the US and I'm sure in the UK who have never heard of JW. If I'm not mistaken, world population is rising exponentially. JW are not growing at an exponential rate, so I think pretty much impossible that they will ever complete the preaching work. If by some supernatural circumstance, we froze world population and eliminated all the cultural and governmental obstacles, and gave them unlimited time, then maybe it could be done.
• 

  proplog2

  When Russell began publishing the Watchtower the population of the earth was only 1 billion. There is definitely a need for the Watchtower to their goals.

  The key word is "witness". The scripture doesn't say the purpose of the preaching work is to reach every individual but simply to put the world on notice. The Watchtower has correctly realized that the separating of the sheep & goats has not happened yet. Unfortunately they still don't realize that the separating work doesn't begin until Jesus comes. If he is already here then the separating work would have started. The separating work is the same as the final judgement where everyone truly has an opportunity to be judged individually according to THEIR deeds and not some stupid concept such as "community responsibility". Final judgement isn't based on how you react to strangers coming to your door to sell you a magazine.

  In the 1960's and 1970's JW's, knowing that they weren't anywhere near the goal of reaching all the Moslems, Hindus & Chinese invented the concept of "community responsibility" to justify the destruction of 2/3 of the human race.

  Actually the Bible indicates that those who die at Armageddon go to hades and not the lake of fire. The only things thrown into the lake of fire are the Wild Beast & False Prophet. Humans aren't assigned the punishment of the second death until they have been resurrected. Makes sense that you can't die twice if you haven't died once.

  I do believe that the Witness work is done. The growth is absolutely stagnant in the richest third of the Earth which will be the target of the great tribulation.