Jehovah’s Witnesses To Apparently Cease Publication of Their Annual Yearbook … We All Know Why

Source: https://jwvictims.org/2017/10/07/jehovahs-witnesses-to-cease-publication-of-their-annual-yearbook/

It was apparently announced today, during the annual meeting of J W, that the publication of their Yearbook would soon cease.* This is quite a switch from when I was an active Witness, as the Yearbook was something many Witnesses looked forward to eagerly. This book gives a rundown of stats and figures of Witnesses worldwide, along with experiences from around the world.
[img]https://questionsforjehovahswitnesses.files./2017/10/iqk7rs.jpg[/img]

Of course, it’s anyone’s guess as to the real reason why this book is apparently no longer going to be published, but I’d like to offer my theories.

Memorial Partakers

One statistic included in the Yearbook is the number of “Memorial partakers.” For those unfamiliar, J W teach that only 144,000 persons will go to heaven when they die, with the rest of approved J W living forever in a paradise on earth. (See this website for more information about that teaching.)

The Witnesses observe the passing of the bread and the wine only once per year, which they call the “Memorial of Christ’s death,” or just the “Memorial.” According to their teaching, only those who belong in that small group of 144,000 (“the anointed,” or “the remnant”) should partake of that bread and wine.

Since, according to J W, the number of persons who are to go to heaven is finite or fixed, it would seem logical that the number of those partakers would decrease every year, as those in that group would eventually pass away. J W themselves embraced this thinking:

“Over the past seven years, from 1974 to 1980 inclusive, [J W] have made steady progress. Their growth is healthy. Only as to Memorial partakers has there been a gradual decline, which is in accord with Scriptural expectations.”
~Yearbook of J W, 1981, p.31

However, there have apparently been over 186,000 partakers from the years 2000 to 2016 alone (see this website). Because of this outright conflict with their own teaching, J W have said that some who would partake may have a “mental or emotional imbalance”¹ or that they “mistakenly think that they are anointed.”²

Having to come out publicly and say that persons in your own religion are either A) proving your own teaching to be faulty, or B) mentally and emotionally imbalanced and don’t know their own hope for the future, is a futile endeavor, and it doesn’t make the religion look good. However, by discontinuing the Yearbook, no one except those at the headquarters of the religion will know how many persons actually partake of the bread and wine, and J W will no longer need to cover their own tracks and refute the actions of their own members.

Growth Rate

Publishing your religion’s growth rate can be a good thing, if your religion is continually growing; this cannot be said for J W, as what little growth they experience seems paltry when compared to the number of hours that are reportedly spent preaching and trying to make new converts. I outlined this information in the post, “J W Spent 2 Billion Hours Preaching in 2015, to Make 119,000 New Converts?”

Of course, my methods of figuring their “growth” may be incorrect, but anyone who runs down their facts and figures, using any accounting method, is probably not going to be overly impressed, especially given the number of hours put into preaching. Pictures I’ve seen inside Kingdom Halls as of late show half-empty auditoriums, and the Pew Research Institute reported that J W have the lowest retention rate of any religion, with some 63% of those raised as J W eventually leaving the faith. (See “Jehovah’s Witnesses: A Case Study in Viral Marketing.”)

By discontinuing the Yearbook, J W no longer need to face scrutiny over their apparently stagnating ranks. They can tell their members that “Jehovah is speeding up the work,” and that they’re experiencing phenomenal growth, and whatever else they want their members to believe, and their congregants will be none the wiser.

Lies

The Yearbook of J W will always include experiences from around the world, but I personally have found some of those experiences to be a bit dubious, at best. In the column, “Did the 2016 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses Lie In Their Very First Experience?” I note how their first experience in that Yearbook mentioned a couple who “removed their tattoos,” before ever meeting J W, and with no mention of the pain and expense of such a process.

While I can’t come right out and state for certain that this experience was a lie, the mention of multiple tattoo removal in such a flippant, casual way called into question the truthfulness of the experience; in turn, this calls into question the genuineness of all the experiences in the Yearbooks, at least those that cannot be backed up with photos, exact locations, and the like. Again, by not publishing a Yearbook, the Witnesses no longer face such scrutiny over these experiences.

As said, no one but the governing body of J W, and whoever else makes such decisions at their headquarters, knows for certain the thought process behind discontinuing this Yearbook, if this is actually their plans. However, when one particular publication proves your teachings, growth rate, and experiences to be dubious and downright questionable, you are faced with two options; fix your teachings and truthfulness, or just discontinue that publication … and here we are.

¹”A number of factors — including past religious beliefs or even mental or emotional imbalance — might cause some to assume mistakenly that they have the heavenly calling.” Watchtower 2011 Aug 15 p.22

²”In recent years, we have seen an increase in the number of those partaking at the Memorial of Christ’s death. … The number of partakers includes those who mistakenly think that they are anointed. … Others may have mental or emotional problems that lead them to believe that they will rule with Christ in heaven. Therefore, the number of partakers does not accurately indicate the number of anointed ones left on earth.” Watchtower 2016 Jan study ed pp.25-26

You can read also:

Discussion on Increasing Memorial Partakers

Hope if you are given an organization to run, you can run it better than these people you are attacking back and front.

CME01:
Hope if you are given an organization to run, you can run it better than these people you are attacking back and front.

The churches you attack back and forth, daily, weekly, yearly, in your meetings, books and assemblies, call them Babylon the great, christendom or what have you. If you are given one to run, can you run it better?

Height of hypocrisy

rottennaija:


The churches you attack back and forth, daily, weekly, yearly, in your meetings, books and assemblies, call them Babylon the great, christendom or what have you. If you are given one to run, can you run it better?

Height of hypocrisy

Irrespective of how flawed you think they are. They try to do the right thing, and most times that's what counts

Shoved your hatred up your ass and get a life

CME01:



Irrespective of how flawed you think they are. They try to do the right thing, and most times that's what counts

Shoved your hatred up your ass and get a life

Same with the church goer.

rottennaija:


Same with the church goer.

You have a sadness in your heart son. You will never be happy until you let it go.

Everybody is entitled to what they want to believe in. If u no longer believe in what you've been taught, grow some balls and walk away in the opposite direction and stop roaming around ranting like a nagging wife, looking for fault lines

CME01:


You have a sadness in your heart son. You will never be happy until you let it go.

Everybody is entitled to what they want to believe in. If u no longer believe in what you've been taught, grow some balls and walk away in the opposite direction and stop roaming around ranting like a nagging wife, looking for fault lines

hey free the guy as what he is doing may free a sheepie still in jw. That organisation is being run by a group of mafia don

lastmessenger:
hey free the guy as what he is doing may free a sheepie still in jw. That organisation is being run by a group of mafia don

Every organization is run by a "group of mafia don" ; the government, financial sector managers, corporate society.
Fill in where you fit in. You find happiness where you find happiness.

CME01:


You have a sadness in your heart son. You will never be happy until you let it go.

Everybody is entitled to what they want to believe in. If u no longer believe in what you've been taught, grow some balls and walk away in the opposite direction and stop roaming around ranting like a nagging wife, looking for fault lines

What else do you expect from a jw in the internet? Nothing more than insult. I have seen so many similar I'm not surprised.

I hope you can realize that it's not the nice smiles or the tie when have when you knock on doors. The true measure is how you can handle criticism, something jws cannot do when their believe are criticized.

At least non Jw readers can see who jws really are. Keep the insult coming. You are knly exposing yourself more.

This op is an apostate

rottennaija:


What else do you expect from a jw in the internet? Nothing more than insult. I have seen so many similar I'm not surprised.

I hope you can realize that it's not the nice smiles or the tie when have when you knock on doors. The true measure is how you can handle criticism, something jws cannot do when their believe are criticized.

At least non Jw readers can see who jws really are. Keep the insult coming. You are knly exposing yourself more.

Lol... Always playing the victim. Weak man

anonymuz:
This op is an apostate

Please educate us in nairaland, what is an apostate?

CME01:


Lol... Always playing the victim. Weak man

You see, this is not about playing a victim. Most people consider jws to be well mannered and nice. That only happens when their knock on doors with smiles and tie.

But in truth, they can be the meanest people. Especially when their believes are questioned. They will insult you, claim you lack humility, claim the demons are using you and whatever comes from their mind.

But the main question are left unanswered, and sometimes even avoided.

That is the spirit you displayed. You never responded to the article posted by the op. You simply started with "your organization is being attacked".

When I reminded you that you have no problem attacking other religious organizations daily, weekly, monthly year, it became personal for you.

Because you see no hypocrisy in attacking other religions groups but your own. You turned your attack of 'gog of magog' on me. You even used nasty words like "Shoved your hatred up your ass and get a life" .

Well, I didnt actually expect something better from you. You know why? Because "every good tree produces good fruit, but a rotten tree produces bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a rotten tree cannot produce good fruit." - Mt 7:17,18

rottennaija:


You see, this is not about playing a victim. Most people consider jws to be well mannered and nice. That only happens when their knock on doors with smiles and tie.

But in truth, they can be the meanest people. Especially when their believes are questioned. They will insult you, claim you lack humility, claim the demons are using you and whatever comes from their mind.

But the main question are left unanswered, and sometimes even avoided.

That is the spirit you displayed. You never responded to the article posted by the op. You simply started with "your organization is being attacked".

When I reminded you that you have no problem attacking other religious organizations daily, weekly, monthly year, it became personal for you.

Because you see no hypocrisy in attacking other religions groups but your own. You turned your attack of 'gog of magog' on me. You even used nasty words like "Shoved your hatred up your ass and get a life" .

Well, I didnt actually expect something better from you. You know why? Because "every good tree produces good fruit, but a rotten tree produces bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a rotten tree cannot produce good fruit." - Mt 7:17,18

Nothing is personal. I'm just telling you to stop lurking around what you don't want to eat.
I'm not one to sugarcoat shit

If there is any person taking things personal, its you. You've taken the opposition as your new religion.

CME01:


Every organization is run by a "group of mafia don" ; the government, financial sector managers, corporate society.
Fill in where you fit in. You find happiness where you find happiness.

yea is a free world.we all have freedom of expression.no one should deny us that and I think thats what the op is exercising

CME01:


Nothing is personal. I'm just telling you to stop lurking around what you don't want to eat.
I'm not one to sugarcoat shit

If there is any person taking things personal, its you. You've taken the opposition as your new religion.

I didn't know you can actually season your utterances. It's an improvement.

CME01:


Nothing is personal. I'm just telling you to stop lurking around what you don't want to eat.
I'm not one to sugarcoat shit

If there is any person taking things personal, its you. You've taken the opposition as your new religion.

I actually have an interest in this aspect of your conversation. Let me ask you.


On the issue of lurking around.

What happens when you know others are eating poison? If you have the means of warning them of the poison, wouldn't you warn them? And if it takes lurking around to warn them of the poison, isn't that a noble course? Even if it means saving one life, isn't it worth it?

Isn't it also true that even those eating poison may hate you for warning them that they are eating poison? Isn't it also the case that those preparing the poison will try as much as they can to demonize anyone that will warn the followings of eating poison? Wasn't that one of the reasons religious governing body of Jesus days hated Jesus to the point of killing him?

I saw the poison, I stopped eating it. Now, I have the moral burden to warned others. You can choose to take the warning and investigate if it really is poison. You can chose to ignore it. Those are the choices before you, but it doesn't free me from the moral responsibility of giving the warning.

rottennaija:

I didn't know you can actually season your utterances. It's an improvement.

I just tuned it down to your emotional level. No need to make you cry...

ChristianFreedo:


I actually have an interest in this aspect of your conversation. Let me ask you.


On the issue of lurking around.

What happens when you know others are eating poison? If you have the means of warning them of the poison, wouldn't you warn them? And if it takes lurking around to warn them of the poison, isn't that a noble course? Even if it means saving one life, isn't it worth it?

Isn't it also true that even those eating poison may hate you for warning them that they are eating poison? Isn't it also the case that those preparing the poison will try as much as they can to demonize anyone that will warn the followings of eating poison? Wasn't that one of the reasons religious governing body of Jesus days hated Jesus to the point of killing him?

I saw the poison, I stopped eating it. Now, I have the moral burden to warned others. You can choose to take the warning and investigate if it really is poison. You can chose to ignore it. Those are the choices before you, but it doesn't free me from the moral responsibility of giving the warning.

What ever makes you sleep at night.

JW this JW that. Remove bitterness and move on. You are not the only former JW. This constant grumbling seems like someone who is angry simply because he was chased out. Be a man. Move on like

milkymesh:
JW this JW that. Remove bitterness and move on. You are not the only former JW. This constant grumbling seems like someone who is angry simply because he was chased out. Be a man. Move on like

Just what i am trying to tell them. Move on already.

milkymesh:
JW this JW that. Remove bitterness and move on. You are not the only former JW. This constant grumbling seems like someone who is angry simply because he was chased out. Be a man. Move on like

You should realize that I was not chased out. I still attend meetings and sometimes answers questions that is worth answering. I give reports too.

Falsehood must be exposed. If it gives you heart breaks, so be it. But falsehood must be exposed for what it is. And there is no moving on, this falsehood must be exposed untill all parts of a false religion is held accountable for their falsehood

ChristianFreedo:



You should realize that I was not chased out. I still attend meetings and sometimes answers questions that is worth answering. I give reports too.

Falsehood must be exposed. If it gives you heart breaks, so be it. But falsehood must be exposed for what it is. And there is no moving on, this falsehood must be exposed untill all parts of a false religion is held accountable for their falsehood

so you still attend gathering of people who tell lie. you are not sincere. you should Jehovah witnesses and let everyone knows your stand. you are just pretending. how would you feel if your child pretend to love you but secretly planning for your down fall?

joyandfaith:


so you still attend gathering of people who tell lie. you are not sincere. you should Jehovah witnesses and let everyone knows your stand. you are just pretending. how would you feel if your child pretend to love you but secretly planning for your down fall?

That's why we have what we call secret disciples. Jesus had one, Nicodemus. Do you understand the concept? It's nothing strange there.

Actions like mine wouldn't have been necessarily if they organization had allow us leave in peace. Whenever anyone has a legitimate question or doubts about their doctrine, our intentions are questions, and doubts are punished. They organizations portray us in the worst possible terms, punishes us, castigate us and treat us like demons.

Friends we have shun us, our families are broken apart for questioning the organization or even leaving. The organization simply leaves us no honorable way of leaving them with us suffering the paying dearly for it.

Actions like this are necessary.

ChristianFreedo:


That's why we have what we call secret disciples. Jesus had one, Nicodemus. Do you understand the concept? It's nothing strange there.

Actions like mine wouldn't have been necessarily if they organization had allow us leave in peace. Whenever anyone has a legitimate question or doubts about their doctrine, our intentions are questions, and doubts are punished. They organizations portray us in the worst possible terms, punishes us, castigate us and treat us like demons.

Friends we have shun us, our families are broken apart for questioning the organization or even leaving. The organization simply leaves us no honorable way of leaving them with us suffering the paying dearly for it.

Actions like this are necessary.

were you not aware about this before your baptism? you can always make new friends if you leave. I have seen people who have left even established their own churches. if you are convinced leave honourably. double life in any form is not good.

CME01:


Just what i am trying to tell them. Move on already.

Meanwhile, what do you think about the kingdom halls being sold by the organization? Is it part of the wondrous expansion taking place?

About 10 new ones are up for sales in Canada. Below are the pictures. I mean this one isn't part of the apostate lies, is it?

joyandfaith:

were you not aware about this before your baptism? you can always make new friends if you leave. I have seen people who have left even established their own churches. if you are convinced leave honourably. double life in any form is not good.

I can make new friends. But can I also make new family? My mother? Father? Brothers? I don't think.

To your question, I was not told neither did I know. I baptized at 14 years. At that I age, I could not make any real life choice in life. Neither did I know I was to find out that those doctrines were false

So, keep that in mind. Whoever you are studying with hoping to convert to a jw, be sure to inform the person that any day he/she makes that decision. There is no going back, even if he see that the doctrines are wrong, that there is no honorable way of leaving, Irrespective of whether he sins or not.

Just inform them that. In very clear terms.

rottennaija:


Meanwhile, what do you think about the kingdom halls being sold by the organization? Is it part of the wondrous expansion taking place?

About 10 new ones are up for sales in Canada. Below are the pictures. I mean this one isn't part of the apostate lies, is it?

Lol. Dude get a hobby.

ChristianFreedo:


I can make new friends. But can I also make new family? My mother? Father? Brothers? I don't think.

To your question, I was not told neither did I know. I baptized at 14 years. At that I age, I could not make any real life choice in life. Neither did I know I was to find out that those doctrines were false

So, keep that in mind. Whoever you are studying with hoping to convert to a jw, be sure to inform the person that any day he/she makes that decision. There is no going back, even if he see that the doctrines are wrong, that there is no honorable way of leaving, Irrespective of whether he sins or not.

Just inform them that. In very clear terms.

How old are you?

CME01:


Lol. Dude get a hobby.

LOL, seams you don't like what you are seeing. Don't worry, I'm gainfully employed. This is a hobby for me

CME01:


How old are you?

What purpose will that serve?