by highdose 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
the ones where the witch doctor surcomes to his own spell that he put on the brothers, or when the 5 drs physicaly force the sister to have the blood transplant? etc etc Where the person was praying and ... ding dong! there appear the Jw's....
Can we belive it???
Life is full of coincidence but I think most of those experiences are fabricated or at least greatly embellished. I think you find them in most belief systems as a way to validate their "faith."
edited to say that, yes, I did believe them... but not since having the blinders removed!
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/scandals/185354/1/Menta-Sturgeons-Account
What Emma said.
Sylvia
I never read the yearbook (I never understood what the point of it was supposed to be) but other people I knew did and would talk about the stories that they read, with much awe and admiration. It must have been in the 2005 Yearbook. There was a story that people thought was just wonderful. Oh, the courage, strength and spirituality of this missionary couple. They had a baby and it died. The whole village was so sad for them and wanted to have some sort of ceremony to comfort the greiving couple. But that would have meant false worship of some kind. Therefore, the couple had to pretend that they were not upset that their baby died. They acted happy in order to give a witness to their village.
I thought that was the worst story that I ever heard. God must really be an @$$hole if that is what he expects of his servants, which I don't believe that he does.
I think that the stories are made up, as are the ones in WT lessons about small children in 3rd world countries sending in their food money to the WTS.
Shortly after joining the cult I stopped reading the yearbooks because they were obviously full of shit. The people in the congregation bore no resemblence to those in the yearbooks.
W
Are th yearbooks the same in every country?
I mean, if there is a story about some pioneer in Paris, Farnce will that story show up in the france year book?
I generally do believe the accounts in the yearbook but the reasoning about why things happens often does not make sense.
I think there is a belief that God is much more "hands on" and controlling things than He actually is.
I always think about Solomon's "time and unforeseen occurance" statement that applies both ways, bad AND good.
It's not just the JW's that have these ideas but many other religions also. How often do we hear that "God saved his life" or when some poor person wins the lottery that God had something to do with it.
When a person gets sick or recovers from a disease, I just don't think God had anything to do with it: He didn't purposefully didn't give them the disease or cure them. It was just their own weaknesses or strengths involved (both mental and physical).
It just gets to be too much when someone is quoted as saying, "Jehovah provided me a pioneer partner, or a place to live, or some money for clothes for the assembly, or whatever .......
I'm not saying that there is never divine intervention in certain situations in life. I believe there is. However, I think those situations are the extreme exceptions and not the rule.
Rub a Dub
The literature always puts a God is blessing the WTS spin on it. Never found that to happen in the cong I went to.
Part of what makes me wonder that the organization is evil and not just firm believers in the ivory tower is the stories they tell.
No, the stories in the yearbook are probably embellished or stolen from other religions or made up. I have learned that many stories told at conventions and assemblies by the C.O. or D.O. or Bethel speaker are taken from internet stories and changed to fit the JW's. I have learned that many Questions From Readers are composites of what people were asking, so that really means they are total BS and are just made up to give the writers the opportunity to cover a point they want to cover.
It's dishonest to present stories as fact when they are not.
Like many others here, I had little time for the Yearbook, it had nothing to do with life as I knew it. I found the crowing about everything demoralising rather than encouraging. The family and I always found Assembly experiences to have the same result for us, it was depressing seeing others being lionized.
My limited experience of those Items on the assembly showed that, while they are not "made up" they are certainly dressed up and made the most of. An elder of my acquaintance went up in my estimation when he refused to doctor his minor experience to make it into what the Overseer required.
As for the printed experiences, No I do not believe that they would be invented. I am sure that they do get letters from kids enclosing their 1$ pocket money [If they had a heart they would send it back !] All charities must get them . I accept also that strange things do happen that seem to be attributable to the Holy Spirit, if you want to look at it that way, but more likely just a co incidence. Life is like that.
