If you think Watchtower is disappearing any time soon…

by Reservations 29 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • JeffT
    JeffT

    I have thought for some time that if the Watchtower disappeared tomorrow, its followers would just go find something else to follow. I imagine there are bus loads of COs, Branch overseas and the like who would be happy to pick up the slack.

    Incidentely , I find it unlikely the child abuse lawsuits will wipe out the WTBS. The lawsuits total up to millions with an "m." The WTBS's assets are in the billions with a "b." Most large businesses regard such things as a cost of doing business, I'm sure the Watchtower is cynical enough to think the same way.

  • pistolpete
    pistolpete

    The Watchtower is Disappearing-----perhaps not immediately, by slowly it is dissolving into who knows what.

    With each SUCCEEDING GENERATION, millions of supporting “FULL BELIEVERS” ARE DYING OFF.

    Every 10 years, a great part of a Generation will die off. Very few, if any, that are 90 years old today, will be around 10 years from now.

    Leaving only HALF BELIEVERS, QUARTER BELIEVERS, and SOMEWHAT BELIEVERS to support the entire Watchtower Corporation FINANCIALLY.

    Gone are the days when EVERY JW BELIEVED THAT THE GREAT TRIBULATION WOULD BEGIN ---BEFORE----THE GENERATION THAT SAW AND UNDERSTOOD 1914, WOULD DIE OFF.

    Gone are the days when EVERYONE in the Organization believed 607 BCE was the date Jerusalem was sacked by the Babylonians.

    Gone are the days when NO ONE HAD ANY IDEA THERE WAS CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE GONG ON IN THE ORGANIZATION.

    Gone are the days when Jehovah’s Witnesses went DOOR TO DOOR PREACHING THE GOOD NEW OF GOD’S KINGDOM

    Gone are the days when Special Pioneering and Missionary work was considered a necessary work that was to be done in THE LAST DAYS OF THIS SYSTEM OF THINGS.

    Gone are the days when 2 day Kingdom Halls were being built every other weekend.

    Gone are the days when any question you had about anything could be found in the Awake or WT magazine------now there’s google.

    The Watchtower is basically done. The only thing the WT leaders are doing now is continuing to encourage the FULL BELIEVERS so that they can WILL THEIR ASSETS TO THE SOCIETY LEGALLY when they finally DIE.

    And figuring out what they are going to do with their billions in assets when this is over.

    I CAN GUARANTEE THIS----NOT A SINGLE JW WHO IS 20 AND YOUNGER WILL LEAVE THE SOCIETY ANY OF THEIR ASSETS.

    The internet has pulled the curtain on the WT, and this Internet Generation is totally Awake to the ruse the Watchtower has pulled on their parents, and grand parents.

  • steve2
    steve2

    I don't recall ever reading on this - or any other exJW - forum people expressing an expectation that the Watchtower would soon disappear. I certainly haven't seen a main topic that has advanced such an expectation. On the other hand, numberless posters have said that any decline would be gradual, acknowledging that there are so many reasons that "keep" end-times groups surviving despite prophetic failures.

  • DesirousOfChange
    DesirousOfChange

    Simple answer: NO!

    Loss of members? Likely

    I suspect any growth will be no more than the population growth from people reproducing.

    Their only hope at this point is another complete economic collapse like 1929. Then people will grasp at straws for hope and WT will come to help them.

  • slimboyfat
    slimboyfat

    The decrease in 2020 was due to the pandemic. I expect their numbers will bounce back in 2021. In the UK they have, including the largest Memorial attendance ever recorded by a significant margin. (Which I find incredible actually, but that’s another issue.)

    Over the longer term JWs have an ageing demographic, fewer children are remaining in the religion, and they are making fewer converts. So it seems plausible they will begin to decline soon. But even if that happens, they will have performed better than most other comparable religious groups.

  • FFGhost
    FFGhost
    the largest Memorial attendance ever recorded by a significant margin

    Why would that be surprising? It has never been easier, literally, to attend the Memorial.

    Log onto the Zoom meeting from your living room while wearing your robe and fuzzy slippers. Go ahead and eat & drink the emblems if you like, with your camera off no one will ever know the difference.

    I expect their numbers will bounce back in 2021

    Why? The restrictions on door to door are still in effect in 2021, and most likely will be in place for at least the first part of 2022.

    No door to door = no return visits = no new Bible studies = fewer new publishers. Not to mention COVID itself killing off JWs at a higher rate than the normal death rate.

    Numbers will continue to be down. Not the "collapse" that many on this site eagerly anticipate, but a slow, leaky-balloon deflation.


  • slimboyfat
    slimboyfat

    I didn’t say it was surprising. I said it was incredible. Because I think Watchtower were counting people who were not present in any real sense. (Everyone in the household, regardless of whether they were watching the meeting or not)

    Memorial attendance in Britain was 262,000 in 2021. That’s a 24% increase over last year’s figure 211,000, and 14% higher than the previous all time peak of 229,000 in 2011.

    Why do I expect JWs to bounce back in 2021? Because there was an initial drop in Britain during the first lockdown and they bounced back later in the year. I expect a similar pattern to hold elsewhere.

    We’ll find out in a few months, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if 2021 showed the biggest increase in publishers for many years.

  • ballistic
    ballistic

    Reservations, you predict a single rate of decline based on a recent small set of data. It will go more like this:

    Map of the Rise and Fall of Toys "R" Us - YouTube

  • notsurewheretogo
    notsurewheretogo

    Time has a massive effect on cults. As we move on from 1914 they have some serious doctrinal issues to address.

    It is not going to be ended any time soon as long as they do not change any major doctrines but they HAVE to change the generation, 1914, 1919, anointed doctrines at some point otherwise they just look stupid.

    The fact they have attached themselves to key dates and old doctrines poses big issues hence why I think the mantra of obeying no matter what is said is key to retaining JW's given they have to change major doctrines soon to survive.

    If they hit 2040 still saying 1914 etc it becomes laughable to join them. Thus that 0.6% decline may rapidly increase.

  • slimboyfat
    slimboyfat

    On the other hand the Seventh-day Adventists still hold that investigative judgment began in 1844—over 170 years ago now. In fact their best growth has occurred in recent years as the date has receded further into history.

    Another sobering thought about the “generation teaching” is this: I calculated the numbers and there are more active JWs alive now who were baptised after the 1995 adjustment than were baptised before it—by a considerable margin. That means that for a majority of JWs now active the traditional “generation” teaching is old news they know little if anything about.

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