Protected during prayers? Really?

by TimeBandit 10 Replies latest jw friends

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  TimeBandit

  Protected during prayers?

  Did any of you ever hear stories or myths about faithful jws that when in prayer had been protected from something bad happening to them?

  Maybe like the story I heard about the two sisters out in service who were about to be attacked by a viscous dog? According to the story they were working in a rural setting. As they were walking onto a property a viscous dog started running toward them with the intent to rip them apart. One of the sisters began praying for Jehovah to help them and suddenly the dog veered off and bit a cow instead? Ever hear that one? Does that give you goose bumps or what? Well I got my own story to share.

  My wife and I along with two JW friends were on our way home from the district convention in June or July of 2010. We were returning Monday morning from Albuquerque, NM . On the way north later that morning we were on a highway that goes around Santa Fe in order to avoid traffic. Everyone in the car except me was asleep or dozing.

  I was getting bored. I decided to pass some time in prayer. I used to pray a lot. I was just driving along kissing Jehovah’s ass when suddenly from the left a car ran a stop sign and plowed right into the driver’s side of my Kia . Everything was in slow motion for me for the next several seconds as I tried to swerve and avoid her.

  I was going 55 miles per hour and she was going full speed too. I heard a loud CRACK and then the vehicle began spinning to the right. My vehicle went airborne and flipped three times in the air. We touched down hard and took out a metal street light pole. That saved us from continuing to flip and roll down the embankment. The spinning stopped and the car crashed to a halt. Now things sped up again and my wife who had this rude awakening was screaming with terror. My friends in the back were also appropriately excited.

  I asked everyone if they were ok and they all seemed ok, just shaken up terribly. Next I directed that we all get out of the car as fast as possible. Who knows, maybe it’s about to blow up…We manage to force open the crumpled passenger doors and try to climb out. Did I mention that we’re all strapped in and upside down?

  Yes, we all survived and are grateful to have our lives. Praying had nothing to do with us walking away from the crash alive. Nope. It was the steel reinforced doors, the extensive airbag system and other safety features that were built into the Kia. Why would Jehovah allow something this bad to happen to a carload of loyal jws? Hey man, I was even praying to Jehober himself when it happened. Why didn’t he protect us?

  Just to let you all know, for every story you ever heard about god miraculously protecting his followers when praying there is a story like mine….

  Chris-
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  PaintedToeNail

  You are so right. I remember an account of a family down south (USA), who were killed on the way home from a circuit assembly. Another, of two very young sisters returning from a quick build in the Allentown area, who were killed in a hit and run. And what about those brothers on the regional building committee in Tennesse a few years ago, when their plane crashed? They were going to check out a building project, and one of the brothers was a pilot, they used his plane. These were all in the news media. All of these people were on 'God's' business, shouldn't they have been protected? Obviously, no one knows if they were praying at the moment, but protection seems to have been warranted, considering they were 'doing what they were supposed' to be doing.
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  finally awake

  On the way home from a Special Assembly Day program in November 2006, a worldly person crossed the center line and plowed head on into a car load of JW's. The brother driving died at the scene, and the 2 sisters who were passengers were terribly injured and very nearly died. Jay Hoover doesn't protect anyone from anything.
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  WTWizard

  Now, how do they know that if they hadn't been distracted by praying to Jehovah, they might have done 60 instead of 55, and arrived at slightly different times and avoided having an accident in the first place? Jehovah, the best way to survive an accident is to not have one. I don't think praying to that Almighty Lowlife Scumbag prevents problems, and causing a problem and then helping someone deal with it is inferior to just not causing the problem.

  At least with Satan, there is the chance that the driver of one of the cars would have sped up (perhaps to 60), or the other driver slowing down to 50 for some inexplicable reason, or both. Satan would more likely have caused the cars to show up at different times, perhaps resulting in a near-miss instead of an accident. Can Jehovah say that?

  And what about all the times when someone prays to Jehovah in behalf of someone, and that someone ends up getting into trouble? Praying in behalf of someone to make the boasting session often results in that person getting laid off (or fired) from work or getting disabled, so they will make the boasting sessions and suffer. And praying to Jehovah results in extra filthy angels showing up. The last thing I want or need is to have extra filthy angels around me, pestering me, manipulating my environment so I cannot achieve what I want (like with the opposite sex), blocking my communication with Satan or one of His Demons, or tampering with whatever energy I put out so the Law of Attraction works for the angels and not for me. Take away all the filthy angels, bind them, make them suffer--I will be better off for it.
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  mynameislame

  I have heard a few. Here's my personal expirence with prayer.

  One evening during a particularly depressing period I was praying for guidance. The very next day a JW elder and his wife showed up at my door. I was DFed and had moved to a new territory where nobody knew me. I lived in a condo which the JWs tend to stay away from in general. So this without a doubt looked like an answer to my prayer. Right away I told them I was DFed and the Elder asked if I wanted to have a bible study with him. I said I didn't think he could do that because I was DFed. Immediately the wife chimed in and said it's OK, my husband is an elder so he knows. Elated that Jehovah had answered my prayer I eagerly accepted and we setup a time for the next week.
  
  Next week comes and right on time my buzzer rings. All excited I answer the door ready for my study. I open the door and without a word the elder hands me one of those little meeting invitations with their meeting schedule and leaves. No explanation, apology or anything.
  
  While this was confusing and hurtful I didn't give up on Jehovah, he must have had a reason for this. So I started attending the meetings at my new congregation. After a while I applied for reinstatement. Of course this very same elder was one of the three elders on the committee.
  
  While I didn't get reinstated (thank God for that) I did get two useful bits of information that started to open my eyes. I forget what he was replying to but my buddy the elder said very emphatically: "It's the truth!, it's the truth!, it's the truth!". I remember thinking who is he trying to convince, it sounds like he is trying to convince himself. The second thing I got out of that meeting was when I asked how god answers our prayers. I was told that he answers them by recalling scriptures to our minds at the right time. The first thought that came to mind is that has to be some sort of BS because just as often I will recall lines from Moby-Dick or an episode of the Simpsons. Later on when thinking more about it, I realized I was recalling quite a few scriptures, it was just that most of them suggested that I should stop wasting any more time on this religion. I wish I could remember some of them now to share with everyone but that time has passed. Sadly this still didn't break my will and I continued to attend the meetings regularly. And for anyone who has never been DFed believe me those meetings are soooo boring when you can't sit and talk to a friend instead of listening.
  
  Later on I was researching the "Creation" book by going to the library and reading the materials referenced in that book. I assumed that couldn't be bad since the GB must have read those books in order to quote from them. Although I don't think I prayed on the matter the more I read the the less impressed I was with the Creation book. As anyone who has read these reference materials already knows at least some of the books are written by crackpots. (If I still had the creation book in my house I might go to the trouble of noting some of them). Now the spiritual part of this situation comes over three Sundays where, due to a mix up and a cancellation, there were three public talks in a row where where the creation book and or evolution was discussed and all I could think about was the research I had done and how all of what they were saying was complete BS. I'm not sure exactly when I stopped going to meetings for good but this was definitely the turning point in my exit from the JWs.
  
  At this point I am not a huge believer in God, I spent way too much time beating myself up trying to please Jehovah through the JWs and I'm not willing to go through that again without some solid evidence. You know, the kind you find out about as you are dropping into the fires of Hell. But looking back over these experiences as well as others that I have not mentioned, if there is a God he (or she) did everything they could to get me out of that religion.
• 

  Chariklo

  mynameislame

  if there is a God he (or she) did everything they could to get me out of that religion

  Here's a question, though. If there is a god, what makes us think his name is Jehovah? In other words, assuming, just for the sake of argument, there is a being called Jehovah, why should he be the one we believe in?

  Because he said so?

  Think about it. I am an immortal being. (Or you are.) My (or your) name is Jumping Jack. I talk, miraculously, to a few people on Planet Earth and tell them that I made everything and that I have the power to hire them or fire them for ever. (They have no proof that what I say is true. ) Then I tell them to tell others what I've said. They do as they're told, and over the years, through a process of Chinese Whispers, they work out a whole series of stories.

  When they invent reading and writing they get to write down some of the stories they've passed down through the generaions. They might embellish them. Humans usually do. Soon, the book of stories gets combined with a history of the people who know the stories. They add a few bits on. Some more people have exciting dreams and tell others about them, and people decide the dreams come from me.

  Before you know it, there's an all- mighty god called Jumping Jack who wrote the (by now) big book of stories himself. Ring the changes and embellish as you will.

  My point is, would Jumping Jack be an Almighty God, and where would be the proof? Just because he said so? Why would Jumping Jack, or Jehovah be that all-powerful Creator....just because he told people to believe in him?

  Might it not be that, if there is a God, his name is not Jehovah at all? Certainly the Jehovah of the JW's doesn't seem much like the God that many other Christians believe in. And why would a proclaimed great and good god exhibit signs of being asemotionally mature as a toddler or a petulant six-year-old who wants to stamp his foot and smash toys that don't work or hurt kids who won't play by his rules and let him win?

  Ganesh, or Thor, or Zeus, or any other god or belief system you care to mention, or none, seems sometimes to me to make a lot more sense.

  So, WTWizard in his comparison of Jehovah with Satan might be closer to the truth than the JW's. Or anyone else. But certainly not those elders and pioneers. And a reasonable god receiiving all the prayers from Time Bandit might have tried harder to stop Time Bandit's car from rolling around.
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  breakfast of champions

  Superstition and magical thinking are essential for the survival of this cult. That is why Sparlock the Plastic Toy IS MAGIC AND MUST BE DESTROYED.

  If Sparlock was just fantasy, the whole illusion starts to crumble.
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  blondie

  The WTS does not officially endorse personal or individual protection for jws.

  *** w08 9/15 p. 9 Jehovah Is “the Provider of Escape” for Us ***

  What About Physical Protection?

  8 As individuals, we know that our immediate physical protection is not guaranteed. We take the position expressed by the three faithful Hebrews who refused to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar’s image of gold. Those God-fearing young men did not presume that Jehovah would miraculously protect them from physical harm. (Read Daniel 3:17, 18.) As matters turned out, Jehovah did deliver them from the flames of the fiery furnace. (Dan. 3:21-27) Even in Bible times, however, miraculous deliverance was the exception rather than the rule. Many faithful servants of Jehovah died at the hands of opposers.—Heb. 11:35-37.

  9 What about today? As “the Provider of escape,” Jehovah certainly can deliver individuals from perilous situations. Can we definitively say whether Jehovah did or did not intervene in specific cases? No. Still, an individual who has escaped a dangerous situation may feel that Jehovah intervened. It would be presumptuous for others to take issue with his feeling. At the same time, we must realistically acknowledge that many faithful Christians have died as a result of persecution, as was the case during the Nazi era. Others have died under tragic circumstances. (Eccl. 9:11) We might ask, ‘Did Jehovah fail to be “the Provider of escape” for faithful ones whose lives were cut short?’ That could hardly be the case.
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  TimeBandit

  Up until the point of my accident I had had several mishaps with prayer where the loving provider of escape did absolutely nothing to help me in a desparate situation. Many little things (and some big things) were adding up to my leaving the jws.
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  Disillusioned Lost-Lamb

  How can someone/thing help or protect you if they don't exist?

  The wash-towels version jaybooger doesn't exist and that’s what's so dangerous; he doesn't have any power, will or protection to give but people are being led to believe he does and are putting their trust/lives in the hands of a publishing corporation’s mythical character.