"Its not about the numbers...Its about Love"

by Solzhenitsyn 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Solzhenitsyn

  In the ORG did anyone ever tell you that its not about the numbers...Yet the reality was that it was ALL about the numbers?
  

  I ran into a PIMI who asked why my family and I were AWOL. I told him that it was private and personal and I wasn't at liberty to discuss it. He then asked quite the question coming from a PIMI..."Have you found any positive aspects from stepping down and not associating with the congregation anymore?" Great question that needed a careful answer.

  I wanted to throw him a bone so I told him that no longer keeping track of and discussing numbers, hours, and averages that make up the yardstick by which my and others spiritual worth was measured has been a great relief. I shook his hand and gave him a bro hug while vocalizing a "I love you...unconditionally." He got the implication immediately and said "Its not about the numbers, its about Love."

  I smiled and told him, "you keep telling yourself that," and walked away.

  Here is a snippet from one of my last elders quarterly meetings with the CO. The agenda was written by the CO.

  
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  Finkelstein

  Yes the big LOVE seems to be the recent propagation coming from the JWorg cult.

  Is it loving to infuse people with lies and false theological teachings just to create widening circulation of published literature made and written by the WTS ? In a overall inherent attempt to lure people into the organization so they can be exploited and manipulated for labor and money .
  

  Is it love when families are broken apart when one of the family members sees the lies and corruption by the WTS. and the family members who are still in are instructed and enforced by organization to not to associate with the family members who left ?

  Not to mention the thousands of people who died needlessly for refusing a blood transfusion, vaccination and organ transplant.
  
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  neverendingjourney

  We become very good at lying to ourselves as JWs. For me, it started with telling people I preached to that I was just there to share a message from the Bible and wasn't there to convert them. I could justify that by telling myself it was in the householders' best interest.

  This kind of thinking could devolve into the absurd. For example, there was a guy in my congregation who once told a householder that JWs did in fact believe in the trinity. I was in shock. After the conversation ended, I asked him why he would say such a thing and he responded that a circuit overseer had once told him it was okay to answer this way during early visits because Jehovah didn't want us to scare away anyone who was otherwise rightly disposed to the truth.

  After leaving the JWs, I began to see it as a spectrum ranging from clever word placement intended to convey a message contrary to the one we actually held (Do JWs believe only they will survive Armageddon? We don't say that. Only Jehovah can judge), to lying when the other party doesn't deserve the truth (was once called theocratic warfare in the publications and justified by citing Rahab as an example), to outright lying when it was viewed to be in the religion's best interest (such as the guy telling the householder we believed in the trinity).

  I was comfortable with word games, but never truly became comfortable with theocratic warfare or outright convenient lies. The issue, of course, is that once you become comfortable lying to others, it becomes easier to lie to yourself.
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  blondie

  My husband, not raised a jw, said to me after his first service meeting, "it sounds like a business meeting concentrating on statistics."

  How right he was and is.
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  ToesUp

  "I smiled and told him, "you keep telling yourself that," and walked away."

  Great response! It's ALL about the numbers! They know that but just won't admit it!

  If they keep saying it, they will keep believing it. I truly believe that this years RC was titled "Love Never Fails" because WT knows that the word on the street is they are a cult that shuns it's former members. Looking VERY unloving to non JW's.
  
  
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  Anna Marina

  Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert believed that statistics would do away with the need for religion. The WBTS likes to describe itself as non-religious. So maybe that is where it is heading, a statistical society where numbers and words mean nothing.

  Statistics mixed with Dadaism.
  
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  JayDubyaDotOrg

  Pardon my maths/English language skills, but 'irregular publishers are up to 4 from 5'.

  Should that not be 'up to 5 from 4', or even 'down to 4 from 5'?

  Has this CO also been doing the convention accounts, where every single time there is still a deficit?
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  sd-7

  I say we let the WT speak for itself, with regards to numbers:

  
  

  *** w60 10/1 p.579 NumbersAreNotEnough***

  NUMBERS are not a sound basis on which to build faith. If Christianity had been founded on numbers, it would have failed. At Christianity’s darkest hour, namely, when Jesus was on the torture stake, there was not one of his apostles that stood by him. Yet Christianity triumphed, not because of its numbers, rather because it is of God.

  Large numbers tend to create a false sense of security.

  *** w60 10/1 p.580 NumbersAreNotEnough***

  Today, religious organizations have a habit of pointing to their great numbers and wealth as proof of their being favored by God.

  *** w092/15pp.26-27par.10They“KeepFollowingtheLamb”***

  Shortly before he ascended to heaven, the resurrected Jesus appeared to his faithful disciples and made a promise to them, saying: “Look! I am with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.” (Matt. 28:20) Has this promise proved reliable? In the last 15 years, the number of congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide has grown from some 70,000 to over 100,000—an increase of over 40 percent. And what about the new disciples added? Nearly 4.5 million disciples were baptized in the last 15 years—an average of more than 800 a day. These spectacular increases are clear evidence that Christ is directing his anointed followers at their congregation meetings and is supporting them in their disciple-making work.***

  That, indeed, says it all.

  --sd-7
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  smiddy3

  When you stop and think about it the whole Bible is all about numbers .

  7

  10

  12

  40

  666

  144000

  Have I missed any ?

  Of course I have as far as the JW/WT religion goes

  1874, 1879 , 1914 ,1925 ,1975 , 2000 , and whatever date is just around the corner .
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  slimboyfat

  Less than it used to be. Watchtowers, Yearbooks, Kingdom Ministries, other publications and talks used to be filled with statistics. Now, hardly any.