I'm not sure they have the whole developing world at their mercy. I understand they have the very strong competition of evangelicals of all sorts, particularly the pentecostals. Africa is becoming Christian very quickly, but not most of those become Jehovah's witnesses. And, I read somewhere (sorry, I don't remember where) that the Catholic Church grew 700% there. So, though I understand that the developing world is still way more religious and easier prey, they are not the only ones who saw the window of opportunity.
Posts by dgp
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18The Erosion Of Governing Body Faith
by metatron inlet's think about the subtle effects of the watchtower's newfound appeals for money.
traditionally, the society avoids doing anything that might expose the reality of how much of a facade the whole thing is.
they fear incidents that undermine their carefully crafted image of invunerability - and, indeed, the reality is much different.. beyond deceiving the witlesses in general, there is another reason for care because they must deceive themselves.
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58
New light: Generation
by 5thGeneration ingot some info from the annual meeting.. unofficially, the 'generation' is now categorized as 2 groups.
the first is 'the 1914 group' and the second is the younger anointed 'contemporaries' who 'actually work for a period of time with those anointed ones'.. the 'generation' is now 'the lifespan of those who actually saw the beginning of the sign and then the lifespan of those who worked with those who saw the beginning of the sign'.. here we go again....
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dgp
Paul from Cleveland, you said:
Can you imagine trying to explain that to one of your bible studies?
Yep, I can imagine that, and the likely event is this: NO ONE WOULD BUY IT. That is why it won't be explained this way. They won't say "we used to believe this, but, since it didn't happen, now we have twisted it to that".
Some time ago, someone wondered whether the Governing Body members were sincere in their beliefs. I believe this change proves that most likely they are not. SOMEONE up there had the evidence that things were NOT happening the way they were supposed to happen, and someone had to devise an ingenious way out. That someone is a manipulator and a criminal.
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Worldwide Report out - memorial partakers increased 871. Worldwide publishers up 3.2%
by yadda yadda 2 inseems the 2010 yearbook is out now in audio.
it's reported there was an 8.7% increase in memorial partakers to 10,857 in 2009, up from 9,986 in 2008.. worldwide publishers for the 2008/09 service year increased 3.2%, to 7,619,270 publishers.. thanks to information posted by possible-san at the end of this thread:.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/186746/2/the-increasing-number-of-the-anointed-comments-anyone.
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dgp
Gary, you mean that you can't be annointed unless they baptized you? Wouldn't that be akin to tying Jehovah's hands, as he wouldn't be free to anoint whoever he pleased?
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58
New light: Generation
by 5thGeneration ingot some info from the annual meeting.. unofficially, the 'generation' is now categorized as 2 groups.
the first is 'the 1914 group' and the second is the younger anointed 'contemporaries' who 'actually work for a period of time with those anointed ones'.. the 'generation' is now 'the lifespan of those who actually saw the beginning of the sign and then the lifespan of those who worked with those who saw the beginning of the sign'.. here we go again....
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dgp
OK. Let's call the 1914 guys "Generation A(nointed)". Now we have "Generation C(ontemporaries)". I have a problem with the word "contemporary", as it means "happening, existing, living, or coming into being during the same period of time". But, since we're twisting things, let's not focus on that for the moment. Since they are skipping one letter, the next generation will be "Generation E(nslaved)", and they will go on to include even the Pepsi Generation and perhaps Spontaneous Generation, which would give them another 144,000 thousand guys.
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18
The Erosion Of Governing Body Faith
by metatron inlet's think about the subtle effects of the watchtower's newfound appeals for money.
traditionally, the society avoids doing anything that might expose the reality of how much of a facade the whole thing is.
they fear incidents that undermine their carefully crafted image of invunerability - and, indeed, the reality is much different.. beyond deceiving the witlesses in general, there is another reason for care because they must deceive themselves.
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dgp
Metatron, my understanding is that the Soviet Union collapsed because it ran out of money. It was never terribly efficient in the first place, except for making weapons. I remember that, during those years, someone said the Soviet Union was like a FOURTH world country with first-world weapons. Reagan is never given the credit of having forced them to open up their coffers and spend their last dime trying to catch up in the Arms Race. It's sad, I know. The system was absolutely rotten but, guess what? It was kept in place by fear, spying, lack of information about the outside world... sounds familiar?
I don't think the WTBTS is going to disappear anytime soon, either. I do believe I read here that they are saving any way they can. I'm sure they are smart to do that all the time. I think that, if they disappear, this time the reason won't be money. Information will be it.
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Worldwide Report out - memorial partakers increased 871. Worldwide publishers up 3.2%
by yadda yadda 2 inseems the 2010 yearbook is out now in audio.
it's reported there was an 8.7% increase in memorial partakers to 10,857 in 2009, up from 9,986 in 2008.. worldwide publishers for the 2008/09 service year increased 3.2%, to 7,619,270 publishers.. thanks to information posted by possible-san at the end of this thread:.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/186746/2/the-increasing-number-of-the-anointed-comments-anyone.
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dgp
Hey! It just hit me that I want to partake this year! Who ever said you must be a witness for Jehovah to anoint you?
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Free load of Watchtower books (tons!), must pick up
by drew sagan ini've been thinking about getting rid of these books for a long time.
i have bound volumes starting with 1950s up through the early 2000's (not complete, but probably about 35-40 volumes).
i also have about 50-70+ books, including some from the 1950's (let god be true & others).
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dgp
Hubert, Cattails and Drew, thank you for the information
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46
The increasing number of the anointed. Comments, anyone?
by dgp ini'm very much enjoying "the orwellian world of jehovah's witnesses", by heather and gary botting.
now, this excerpt comes very much to the point of this thread, i believe:.
page 145: "still, in 1975 the society clearly feared a continuation of the upward trend in memorial partakers, and in an article entitled "annointing to a heavenly hope - how is it manifest?
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dgp
And, looking at the graph you linked to, the lie becomes all the more transparent. If the trend continues, pretty soon they will have 288,000 partakers in a single year.
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46
The increasing number of the anointed. Comments, anyone?
by dgp ini'm very much enjoying "the orwellian world of jehovah's witnesses", by heather and gary botting.
now, this excerpt comes very much to the point of this thread, i believe:.
page 145: "still, in 1975 the society clearly feared a continuation of the upward trend in memorial partakers, and in an article entitled "annointing to a heavenly hope - how is it manifest?
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dgp
Thank you very much again, Possible. The good thing about this thread is that someone who is not a JW arrived at the same conclusion you did, with somewhat different information. I hope many others will see the same thing.
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I Have a Theory - It Will Make The Society Tons of Cash
by Sam Whiskey ini have long held theory that the society can easily cease it's printing operations and increase it's profit margins.
follow this scenario.... as we all know, the printed word and accompanying illustrations in the wt and awake can be converted to pdf format (pdf is a format that can be locked so that the recipient cannot change the contents) upon the completion of each individual magazine.
it would therefore be very easy for the society to email or to put up on a server the wt and awake for retrieval by the presiding overseer of each congregation.
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dgp
WT Wizard, in fact PDF's are easy to unlock and tamper with. I have two pieces of legitimate software that let me do just that. Of course, you would need the password, but hackers have already found a way to overcome that. UNFORTUNATELY, the WTBTS would also be able to change the PDF's, much more easily than it could make old magazines disappear. Or, it could claim that an old copy of the PDF was doctored by apostates.
You can even underline the PDF's if you want .
On the other hand, giving PDF's away can backfire (and I hope it will). Now you can tell the witness at your door that you have the PDF, and that you will call him (or, more likely, her) if you need help. That is called "INDEPENDENT STUDY", and, as far as I know, the WTBTS hates that.
Developing countries will have trouble with this. On the other hand, offering things as PDF's can backfire in another way. Free people can link to the WTBTS site and lead "Watchtower studies" that way. There's no way for the society to deny that its own site is doctored, is there? The internet is the society's big enemy, because it does away with milieu and information control (thanks, Steven Hassan), and now they are encouraging internet use.