Faith in angelic help waning? WT March 1 and March 15, 2007

truthseeker

In the March 1st and March 15th issues of the Watchtower, there is a paragraph in the study article about

the help that angels give in the preaching work.

However, I have noticed something not mentioned before - Watchtower uses the phrase "too numerous to be dismissed as coincidence" TWICE.

Quotes are below:

March 1, 2007 - Watchtower

Let Us Exalt Jehovah's Name Together

page 24

para 17 - In addition, Jehovah's angels can maneuver matters so that any who cause others to stumble are removed

from among Jehovah's people. And even though w emay be unaware of it at the time, angels remove obstacles

that could hinder our service to God, and they protect us from things that could endanger our relationship with

Jehovah. Most important, they guide us in the work of declaring "everlasting good news" to all mankind, including

in places where the preaching work is carried out under dangerous circumstances. Proof of angelic help has often

been related in Bible literature published by Jehovah's witnesses. Such experiences are far too numerous to be

dismissed as coincidence.

While the merits of angelic help among the dubs can be disputed, the jist is that some must be doubting that angels

do help the Witnesses.

Here is another use of the above prhase in the March 15, 2007 Watchtower.

Angels - How They Affect Mankind

page 21

para 16 These words clearly show that the great worldwide evangelizing work of Jehovah's Witnesses has angelic

backing and direction. Jehovah is using his angels to direct sincere people to his Witnesses. The angels have

also guided Witnesses to deserving ones. This would explain why it is that on so many occasions - too often to

be called just coincidence - one of Jehovah's Witnesses meets a person at the precise time that he or she is going

through a crisis and needs spiritual help.

The use of this phrase implies that dubs are at least questioning if these so called angelic experiences are really true.

carla

What a load of crap. -

para 17 - In addition, Jehovah's angels can maneuver matters so that any who cause others to stumble are removed

from among Jehovah's people. And even though w emay be unaware of it at the time, angels remove obstacles

that could hinder our service to God, and they protect us from things that could endanger our relationship with

Jehovah. (like spouses and children they mean)

one of Jehovah's Witnesses meets a person at the precise time that he or she is going

through a crisis and needs spiritual help. ---Maybe because they prey upon the vulnerable. When they cruise the obituary colums, try to find newly divorced people, people with mental problems, etc... yeah, I guess the would find many in a crisis. dumbasses.

The wanderer

=============================================

There is a constant reinforcing and drilling
that this is God's organization when a matter
is repeated over and over again.

It helps strengthen the Witnesses when they
see the matter in writing.

Psychological propaganda

Respectfully,

The Wanderer

=============================================

zack

I agree that it is phycological propoganda. I would go a step further and say it is anti-apostate warfare. Just this week a DA letter was

received by our PO by a long time sister. This is obviously the angels hard at work to keep the righteuos from being contaminated

by the ideas and attitudes of the anti-Christ among them. The angels have once again exposed one of Satan's agents!

Also, the desire to keep knocking on doors is waning because of the

obvious futility of it for many people. If ANGELS, however, are manuevering things so that you can seek and find the worthy, then

you have only yourself to blame for not finding them if you stay at home and read the paper on a Saturday morning. See? The angels

are doing their part, get off your lazy rear and do yours!

IsaacJS2

::Sigh:: Typical cult logic. Everything is used to reinforce the faith, whether it should be taken that way or not. They cherry pick from events going on around them and try to make them prove whatever they want. Like when some said that 9-11 only happened because of gay rights and women's lib! Give me a break.

If you keep going out in field service, you will obviously find people at a critical point in their lives whether you have supernatural aid or not sooner or later. You won't know about that guy you only missed by one minute because you had to stop at a red light or whatever--an event which would suggest that the angels are actually working against you. (Must be the demons...darn them!) So, to the average Witness, it seems funny that they should always find needy ones at the proper time. Perhaps too often to be a coincidence...even though they have no way of knowing that it isn't a coincidence every time because they aren't omniscient!

To be fair, many religions and fundamentalists commit this sort of error. But it still stinks for the organization to promote this sort of anti-logic.

The Society used to vacillate over this issue. One minute we're reading personal accounts of angelic protection in the Awake!, then a month or two later we're told not to give too much credence to those kinds of stories in the WT magazine because miracles of this sort don't happen any more. Both articles will give examples of why they are right, even though they contradict themselves. Typical double-speak.

IsaacJ

drew sagan

These are the time of irrational things they implant into your minds that make you suppress doubts. The end result is something like this:

"But how couldn't this be the truth... all those people who have had their prayers answered and had angels guiding. What about that one story I read...."

The point is to keep you focused on the amazing things that have happened to other people since it is unlikely that they have happened to yourself. Then when doubts arise you can add this to the list of things that flood your mind and bring you back to their ideology.

I know this happened to me a few times when I first started to doubt.

tall penguin

In the words of Penn Jillette: "Million to one odds happen eight times a day in New York."

There are coincidences. They happen every day. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

I've read of many other religions who have these same kind of "angelic-directed" experiences with people. They all feel that God directed THEM to people at a crucial point in their lives. It's typical. And maddening.

I just finished a fabulous book entitled "Don't Believe Everything You Think" by Thomas Kida. I think it's a must-read for all ex-jws.

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Believe-Everything-You-Think/dp/1591024080/

It goes into the 6 basic mistakes we make in thinking:

· We prefer stories to statistics.

· We seek to confirm, not to question, our ideas.

· We rarely appreciate the role of chance and coincidence in shaping events.

· We sometimes misperceive the world around us.

· We tend to oversimplify our thinking.

· Our memories are often inaccurate.

tall penguin

VM44

Does the writer even give one example?

Someone should remind the writer that anecdotal stories, no matter how many are presented, are not proof of anything!

--VM44

VM44

These articles present "wishful thinking" as spiritual food.

Could someone scan and post both articles in their entirety? I think they merit detail paragraph by paragraph analysis.

--VM44

VM44

"Such experiences are far too numerous to be dismissed as coincidence."

A simple question: How does the writer know this?

Can he prove this statement?

Has he formulated the appropriate statistical Null-Hypothesis and performed the necessary calculations to back up his claim?

Or is the writer just writing meaningless nonsense that can't be proven one way or another?

I feel like sending a letter to Brooklyn asking these questions.

--VM44

Faith in angelic help waning? WT March 1 and March 15, 2007

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