Advertising—Christianity’s Powerful Weapon
FOLLOWING the death of Jesus Christ, the first Christians were scattered and persecuted. Explains Professor K. S. Latourette in his History of Christianity: “Because they refused to participate in pagan ceremonies the Christians were dubbed atheists. Through their abstention from . . . the pagan festivals, the public amusements which to Christians were shot through and through with pagan beliefs, practices, and immoralities—they were derided as haters of the human race.”
That Christianity should have survived and expanded around the then known world in the face of such opposition is quite extraordinary. How was it possible? Part of the secret rested on preaching or publicity!
Describing Jesus’ work as a persuasive preacher and teacher, Professor C. J. Cadoux writes in The Early Church and the World: “The work of persuasion had to be carried on by means both of words and of deeds. There was bound, therefore, to be much publicity in his life and teaching. . . . A good deal of his early teaching—as well as that of his disciples—was delivered in public.” Commenting further on the activity of the disciples after Jesus’ death, Cadoux continues: “Publicity is courted. The witnesses deliver their testimony with outspoken frankness.”
What kind of people are we talking about? Explains Edmond de Pressensé in The Early Years of Christianity: “The teaching . . . was an unstudied speech, springing from the heart. The Apostles were not the only speakers; the other Christians spoke as freely as they of the wonderful works of God.” Christians were their own publicity agents, all of them eagerly sharing their faith with others in their public preaching and teaching work.
Edward Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, points out that “the public highways, which had been constructed for the use of the [Roman] legions, opened an easy passage for the Christian missionaries from Damascus to Corinth, and from Italy to the extremity of Spain or Britain.” Gibbon adds: “There is the strongest reason to believe that before the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine the faith of Christ had been preached in every province, and in all the great cities of the empire.”
To propagate their faith, the Christians exploited every means available. As Bible translator Edgar Goodspeed reveals in his book Christianity Goes to Press: “They were to an unusual extent a book-buying and book-reading people. They were also a translating and publishing people. . . . [In 140 C.E.] Christian publishers . . . resorted to the leaf-book form, the codex, and found it so practical . . . and convenient that it became their characteristic book form.”
20th-Century Advertising
Today, Jehovah’s Witnesses are just as zealous and active as their first-century counterparts were in publicizing the Christian faith throughout the world—and in using modern technology. Consider the following 20th-century highlights:
● 1914. “Photo-Drama of Creation.” This drama consisted of picture slides and moving pictures synchronized with phonograph records of talks and music. The project was one of the pioneers in the field of sound motion pictures.
● 1920. “Millions Now Living Will Never Die.” Over a two-year period, billboards and newspapers, along with an extensive personal advertising campaign worldwide, heralded this popular lecture and subsequent booklet.
● 1922. “Advertise the King and Kingdom.” This was the challenging theme of the Cedar Point, Ohio, convention. The exhortation to “advertise, advertise, advertise, the King and his Kingdom” set the pace for Jehovah’s Witnesses as personal publicity agents from that time on.
● 1924. WBBR, Watch Tower Society’s radio station. Built to take advantage of early radio transmission. By 1933, the peak year, a network of 408 stations was being used by Jehovah’s Witnesses to advertise the Bible’s message on six continents.
● 1934. Portable phonographs and 78-rpm records. For ten years Jehovah’s Witnesses used this then up-to-date method of communication, manufacturing some 20,000 phonographs to meet the demand.
A Mighty Final Witness!
As World War II drew to its close in 1945, Jehovah’s Witnesses were poised to enter the field of preaching to an unprecedented extent. Jesus said that with faith his followers would “do works greater” than those he had performed. This would be in the extent of their preaching. How true this prophecy has proved to be!—John 14:12.
In the year 1987, some three million four hundred thousand Witnesses in 210 countries spent over 700 million hours preaching and teaching. “Whatever part of the world you live in, it is difficult not to meet Jehovah’s Witnesses,” notes Church of England cleric Jack Roundhill, adding: “They carry out their witness in market-places and from public platforms and wherever they can find an audience. But the characteristic method of the Witnesses is to take their message right into the house of anyone who will let them in. Often they get no further than the doorstep, and if so, they will use the doorstep as their pulpit.”
Advertising by word of mouth pays a rich dividend, with over 230,000 new Witnesses being baptized during the course of the year. For the annual Memorial celebration of the death of Jesus Christ, they attracted nearly nine million people to their Kingdom Halls.
From their many printing plants around the world, millions of books, booklets, and tracts pour forth in a steadily increasing stream, in over 200 languages. The Watchtower and Awake! are the most widely circulated religious magazines in the world today, having a combined circulation of 46 million copies a month. But they have never contained commercial advertising. And one of the Witnesses’ hardbound books, The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life, has a circulation of over 106 million in 116 languages! The circulation of others of their Bible-based books numbers into the tens of millions each.
Yes, Jehovah’s Witnesses are well prepared to advertise the King and his Kingdom, the righteous government soon to take over man’s affairs. With such motivation, their enthusiastic advertising is indeed a powerful Christian weapon!
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Phonographs were used for preaching
In its day, the Photo-Drama advertising drew large audiences
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Witnesses now preach in over 200 lands
In some 54,000 congregations, Witnesses publicize God’s Kingdom
Worldwide, hundreds of millions of Bible publications, in some 200 languages, come off presses like this one