If you claim a divine miracle in your life, you will be disfellowshipped!!!

by free2beme 29 Replies latest jw friends

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  free2beme

  One of the key things I have noticed since leaving the Witnesses and interacting with other faiths, is that they often mention the word "miracle!" In that they will claim that their God had performed some sort of miracle in their life that brought about something amazing. It is not always Christians who say this either, as many of my "Pagan" friends and myself have had spirit driven moments that were something that could not be displaced as "chance." Yet this is odd to me in some ways, as to hear these people mention these events, is foreign to my past. As if this had been said in a congregation, in the form that something was truly divine in nature. It could lead to a disfellowshipping, as that extreme level of spiritual help is often something to be feared.

  Now some might say, I remember people saying things like this. So let me explain an example ...

  I have a Christian friend who claims that an angel appeared to her and explained that she needed to go to her son, and when she did go to her son, she found he was face down in the pool and if she had not been there at that moment to save him, he would have been lost.

  I have Wiccan friends who feel they have been visited by spiritual beings to explain their course in life and changed their life to the better for this. I know of an example where one even felt their dead relative had come into their dreams to explain something they needed to be aware of to avoid a major pitfall in life.

  ... so as you see, this is not the "Jehovah changed my heart at this moment" stuff we might have heard, these are things heard in other religions that to not attend Kingdom Halls. Here is the thing, I experienced some events like these and I personally think their are very real and not demons. If I had experienced these as a Witness and shared them with the congregation, I would have been counseled and if I continued to believe them and express that, I would have been disfellowshipped. It does not matter if you believe these are real or not, what is interesting is that the Christian Bible mentions events like this and yet if it happened in a religion that is suppose to be "God's chosen!" It would be a disfellowshipping matter. Which brings me to something I think a lot of former Witnesses suffer from, and that is a closed mind to the spirit world. As we were taught, anything that you see that is not physical is "evil demons." But maybe, they're miracles* and you might need to pay attention.

  *just want to add that a miracle is not a word that is owned by Christianity
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  FlyingHighNow

  I'm reading a book right now called Small Miracles. Amazin' stuff. Oh yes and book about the near death experiences of children and death visions people have before they die. Angels and dead loved ones tend to appear to people during the days and hours leading up to a death.
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  free2beme

  Sounds interesting. I remember an example of my grandmother asking about some relatives that died ages ago, just before dying, like something jarred her memory at that moment to see or feel a energy she knew.
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  FlyingHighNow

  The book about dying and visions is called Closer to the Light and it's written by a doctor, who researches NDE's, death visions. Your grandmother may have seen those relatives gathering around her, to welcome and help her.
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  wednesday

  Even when I was an active jws, I found it incredibly arrogant that jws thought only the angles or God did helpful things for jws,and if anyone else had an angelic experience, it was obiviously the demons.
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  LDH

  As we were taught, anything that you see that is not physical is "evil demons."

  Well, actually, they give you the List of Acceptable Invisible/Imaginary Things. If your Invisible Thing is not on the list, then it is evil demons.

  Approved:

  Faithful and Discreet Slave

  Governing Body

  Holy Spirit

  And you're right. If anything good happens to a JW, Jehovah did it. If anything good happens toa 'worldly' person, a demon did it.

  Lisa
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  flyphisher

  As we were taught, anything that you see that is not physical is "evil demons."

  Quantum phenomena like EPR cannot be explained sufficiently by present physics. Do they come from demonic sources too? Ask the GB.
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  Mackin

  If you claim a divine miracle in your life, you should be committed. You're nuts!!
  
  Mackin
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  dozy

  I find this area a difficult one and I'm very skeptical. Thousands of people claim to have been abducted by aliens - are the claims believable or not?

  If it the the case that an angel has appeared to a woman telling her that her child is drowning in a pond , why don't they do this in all cases?

  Witnesses often fall into this trap , assuming Jehovah "micro-manages" our lives. A witness I know is trying to move into a particular area and has three times been outbidded on houses - they now feel that Jehovahs isn't "blessing" their move , so they are staying put. I asked them - how far does Jehovah manipulate the housing market? Is he deliberately motivating other individuals to put in inflated offers for properties? Had the witness "tested Jehovah out" by putting an offer for a house that was far in excess of the asking price to see if they were outbidded (answer = no). If he interferes in fairly trivial areas like this , why does he not interfere in far more important areas?

  Incidentally , witnesses are not Dfd for making wild claims of angelic involvement. Most are regarded as the "Cuckold" witnesses discussed in a previous thread.
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  drew sagan

  I suppose the real problem here is that loyal Watchtower followers feel that there is nothing "divine" that happens outside of Gods organziation. If something is claimed to have happened it is either a lie or from the demons.
  Just another example of how they only look to themselves as the answer and torch bearer for God.
  Of course this isn't to say that people who claim divine intervention in their lives are crazy, becuase the usually are.