More than once I personally had to face the double standards of the Company, when, to put it mildly, deliberately incorrect information about our activities was given to the tax and state authorities. As a recent example, I received specific advice (understood as instructions) from a representative of the Branch Office of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia to provide misinformation to the administration of the city in which I live on the construction of a Kingdom Hall. It is advised to write applications for the allocation of land for the construction of such a hall, although in fact, we have already bought a plot for construction. However, this was in the name of a private entrepreneur, who would build a production facility for himself and then donate it to the local Jehovah's Witnesses. So we will have our own hall. All this is necessary so that the local authorities do not put us in this construction and do not forbid us to do so. I just don't understand why, we are so afraid of this, because we have had good relations with the local administration for a dozen years.

In private conversations, some elders of Jehovah's Witnesses have told me that they do not like this arrangement because they feel that their conscience is judging them. However, everyone silently obeys because the Society has said so, which means that it is necessary to obey unquestioningly.

"Ministry of Truth"

Now I would like to raise the question of the honesty of the Watch Tower Society's entire policy regarding the truth of its teachings. If you happen to come across the following quote: "Books... they were constantly rewritten and reprinted, and they never admitted that any changes had been made in them... It was always about slips of the tongue, mistakes, typos, inaccurate quotations that had to be corrected in the interests of truth" - could you answer who is being referred to here? In our time, many people will say what is said here about Jehovah's Witnesses. This opinion was formed by many because the Watch Tower Society became known throughout the world precisely because of the position described above, when, after another unsuccessful attempt to predict the end of the world, or after a failed "teaching", it literally rewrote and reprinted all the available books, and consigned the old ones to oblivion. All this was done so that the members of the organization who came to it later did not know anything about the miscalculations and mistakes that took place. As a result, "history" was either rewritten or hidden. There are so many facts that it would take more than one article just to list them, and an entire book to tell about them in more detail. Well, the above quote is taken from George Orwell's novel "1984", page 35 (vol. 1 Perm, 1992), which tells about the utopian totalitarian state of Oceania, where history is being rewritten because of the mistakes made by the country's leadership. Then these corrections are forgotten, and the lie becomes the truth. In the novel, the "Historical Department of the Ministry of Truth" is engaged in such activities, and Jehovah's Witnesses have the Writers' Committee of the Governing Body, but the essence does not change, and the analogy becomes even more obvious.

Perhaps this comparison will help some of my brethren to reflect on the constant "light of truth" that often illuminates the firmament of an organization, changing beyond recognition all its teachings, which at the moment of "illumination" become obsolete or absurd. Such, for example, in recent times were the teachings about "this generation," about "the Day of Judgment since 1914," which was called "the present day of Judgment," and a little earlier, "about the end of the world in 1975," and so on and so forth. Hundreds of teachings, prophecies, additions, corrections, and clarifications. The answer is obvious: Jehovah's Witnesses, under the influence of a totalitarian organization, have lost the ability to perceive reality sensibly and objectively and do not see the obvious deception that their leaders are committing in order to maintain their power.

Statistics

Несмотря на очень оптимистические заверения в том, что «численность народа Бога продолжает расти и это доказывает благословения Иеговы», наблюдается  резкое снижение темпов роста численности членов организации за последние годы.

Если посмотреть всемирные отчёты за 2002-2005 годы, можно увидеть следующее. Рост в процентном отношении: 2002 год – 2,8%, 2003 год – 2,2%, 2004 год – 2,0%, 2005 год – 1,3%. Уменьшение темпов роста  в среднем на 0,5% в год по всему миру. Вот как это выражалось в численном эквиваленте. В 2002 году среднее число возвещателей составляло 6 мил. 049 тысяч человек, в 2003 году – 6 мил. 184 тыс.,  в 2004 году – 6 мил. 308 тыс., в 2005 году – 6 мил. 390 тыс. (смотрите таблицу ниже).

Годы Число