Matthew 7:13
Matthew 7:1313Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
is sometimes cited by JW publications to explain why Jehovah's Witnesses remain a small minority compared to the world's population — broad is the road leading to destruction, many are on it, and only the JW path is narrow. The verse is read as an explanation for the Watchtower's relatively low global membership and as encouragement to remain on the distinctive Witness path despite social pressure.
The narrow gate verse is genuine — it warns of two paths, with destruction at the end of the broad one. But notice the Pew Research finding that runs alongside it: the Watchtower's retention rate of 34% is the lowest of any major US religious group surveyed (compared with Mormons at 64%, Catholics at 59%, Evangelical Protestants at 65%, Hindus at 80%). If "narrow gate" language is used to defend the JW exit rate, the same logic would defend any group with similar attrition — but the data shows the JW number is uniquely low, not narrow-but-stable. The "narrow gate" is not a retention metric; it is a description of the costliness of true discipleship. By their fruits — the testable kind including how children raised in the tradition fare as adults — Jesus said you would know them.