I'm new here..... Studying with the Witnesses (page 9)

PenelopePaige

Sizemik- I appreciate you telling me your "being of light" story- Here is mine if you feel like reading about it:

http://www.unexplainedresearch.com/in_the_news/UFO_Mondovi.html

Oops - I accidentally hit Enter before I was done! Anyway- That's what happened to us. It has plagued me for years. It sounds unbelieveable but it really did happen and it was horrifying. I've tried to get answers from Paranormal researchers, my uncle the pastor, and like I said, the JW's have been the only ones to seem to understand and have an answer that makes sense.

Ding

Welcome Penelope!

If you ever do choose to get baptized as a JW, the main thing you will be committing yourself to is this -- that the Watchtower organization speaks for God (even when they are wrong).

This means that it will no longer matter what you think the Bible means.

Through its publications, the Governing Body will tell you what to think and how to behave in EVERY aspect of your life, no matter how personal it may be.

You and your family (if they are also JWs) will be required to report each other's disobedience to the elders so they can sit in judgment on you and keep the organization "clean."

You will be required to follow the dictates of those above you in the organization without voicing disagreement on penalty of being disfellowshipped and shunned by your family and friends.

The Watchtower organization does not believe there is any honorable way to leave their religion.

When they change what they teach as truth, you will be required to change with them and to preach the new message door to door even if it differs substantially from what the Watchtower taught at the time you studied with them and even if you personally do not believe that it is true.

Unlike what you may be familiar with from your Baptist background, in the Watchtower religion you will never be sure of your salvation because Watchtower salvation is dependent on your works (especially door to door preaching) rather than on Christ's finished sacrifice.

You will never be able to do enough. The organization will always expect more.

You will be turning control of your life over -- not to God -- but to a small group of men in New York whose credentials you will be required to accept on faith without proof.

I encourage you to study the New Testament for yourself (without WT or other outside literature) to see if this is anything like the Christian life described and modeled by Jesus or the apostles.

If you would like to discuss any of this or any other thoughts or questions, please feel free to send me a PM any time.

sizemik

The thing about the light phenomenon . . .

What you experienced is a mystery . . . something you are unable to explain. UFO's are Unidentified Flying Objects . . . if they were aliens . . . then they are no longer unidentified . . . they are aliens.

The human tendency is to refuse to live with mystery . . . we seek out the most plausible explanation and that quickly becomes our belief. The longer we accept that belief . . . the more we tend to cleave to it and defend it in our mind . . . because we don't have the discomfort of living with a mystery.

It's healthy to just allow a little room for the mystery . . . skepticism if you like . . . it leaves us receptive to the truth if one day the answer does come along . . . but then again . . . it might not.

The nature and behavior of energy and light projecting phenomena is no where near fully understood . . . there exist things that happen in our world which await a conclusive explanation. We can speculate on the most plausible . . . but we go one step too far when we prematurely adopt a belief as fact IMHO.

As an example . . . check the following website . . . it deals with light phenomena and crop circles around cornfields. Then read the variety of explanations . . . ANY of which is plausible . . . including the one later in the article from the New Scientist publication . . .

http://www.ufoera.com/articles/mystery-circles-form-in-english-cornfields_1190310697.html

InterestedOne

Penelope wrote:

like I said, the JW's have been the only ones to seem to understand and have an answer that makes sense.

Can you articulate what that answer is and see how it stands up to examination by other intelligent people here?

PenelopePaige

Can you articulate what that answer is and see how it stands up to examination by other intelligent people here?

I don't believe that what they said was necesarily more intelligent, it's just that they actually listened and gave a very plausible explanation. My husband and I greatly differ on what we believe the "being of light" was- he believes something good/ I am afraid it was something bad. And the JW's explained that Satan comes as a being of light to trick and deceive, which makes sense to me. My husband is sort of New Age-y and I just instinctively believe that New Age type things are just gimmicks by Satan to deceive us into thinking that we live many lives, that we will never die and that we don't need God. My husband very strongly disagrees with me but that is what I feel and the JW's have given me literature that backs that up. And I suppose the biggest thing, is that when I have told someone what happened to us, I guess the biggest problem has been that there are those that believe it COULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED, because it just doesn't seem like something that could happen realistically but of course, we know it did. And I appreciate the JW's have not made me feel crazy when I've tried to explain it, but have tried to help me figure it out.

InterestedOne

Penelope wrote:

I don't believe that what they said was necesarily more intelligent

I didn't mean to suggest that what they said was more intelligent. Rather, I wanted to get the answer out in the open, and I was using the word "intelligent" to indicate mutual respect, that is to say we are all intelligent people here and capable of examining the answer they have provided you to see if it is reasonable.

And the JW's explained that Satan comes as a being of light to trick and deceive, which makes sense to me.

Is there a reason why you would conclude that the particular being of light you encountered was Satan?

PenelopePaige

Is there a reason why you would conclude that the particular being of light you encountered was Satan?

I suppose I may be leaving out a huge chunk of the story but after this happened, (our encounter) we had a few other strange things that were completely unrelated but always felt, to me anyway, to have stemmed from that initial encounter. For example, sometimes we would be driving at night (desolate roads out in the middle of nowhere) and a dark figure would run in front of our car almost making us wreck. This happened about five or six times, it always emerged from the woods and would run back into the woods on the opposite side of the road. We also moved into a house about a year later that had a ghost- long story but it wasn't just your "explain away" ghost story- we actually had a little boy in our basement who would walk out of the wall and say "Lonely. Stay here." before vanishing. It was really quiet awful. My husband thought that the UFO thing had absolutely nothing to do with the Paranormal stuff but we had never had paranormal stuff before so why would we then? Unless we had encountered somethting evil that was now drawing more evil to us? Well, that was my conclusion anyway.

NewChapter

I thought the scripture about Satan transforming himself into an angel of light was understood as he would mislead---not appear as an actual being of light. An angel is a messenger, so he would be bringing a false message. Have they changed their understanding or are they simply adding to the meaning?

Has this phenomena ever been covered in the scriptures? I don't remember it. I recall one manifestation of Satan as being a snake. Other manifestations were symbolic in Revelation. I guess I'm just confused.

NC

Judge Dread

PP

Thanks for the link to that cool website.

As for your experiences, you will find many here who will ridicule experiences like yours. Maybe not right now, because you are new, but if you stick around, you'll see.

As for your study with the Witnesses, that is up to you.

JDW

I'm new here..... Studying with the Witnesses

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