Does anyone out there know of any JWs that have talked about what their personal relationship with Jehovah was like? For example, hearing his voice, a certain feeling? an intellectual understanding? an assurance of life in the New World? I am curious about this – especially since now from a post here it is clear that they teach Jehovah is a person! I never experienced any of this when I was a JW.
Please tell me: what is a relationship with the "person" Jehovah like?
by Maryo 36 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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tepidpoultry
Some of us liken this relationship to a child who has an imaginary playmate
:0)
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Maryo
It is very interesting to me that JWs do not claim to know where the throne of Jehovah is, where "he" lives! that is, since they no longer teach that Jehovah lives in the Pleiades (which was thought to be the center of the universe during the time of that teaching). I am evidently pretty "dense" because during all my years as a JW I did not really get the WTS emphasized the personhood of Jehovah. perhaps this was because the personhood of the sovereign of the universe seems so intuitively wrong to me. I thought Jehovah was more like a force of some kind.
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tepidpoultry
Biblical JW Theism starts with the 4 Cardinal Qualities,
You might be more interested in Pantheism (Spinoza)
and an non Aristotelian god
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OUTLAW
Please tell me: what is a relationship with the "person" Jehovah like?
It`s like eating peanut butter with your fingers and you need a glass of milk to wash it down..
So you grab the milk bottle to fill your glass, now it`s got peanut butter on it..
You drink the milk, now your milk glass has peanut butter on it..
.....
There's friggin peanut butter everywhere!.....So..
You have to Clean the Entire Kitchen and Take a Shower!..
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stan livedeath
many years ago on UK television---was a series of adverts for a bank--in which a customers bank manager lived in their wardrobe.
the way some dubs use to talk----mostly batty women i must say---its as if their jehovah lived in their wardrobe.
crazy just doesnt quite hit the spot.
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tepidpoultry
Outlaw: lmao
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Muddy Waters
Hahaha, what a great question! Yes, I remember hearing about "the Person of Jehovah" as well as the great Jehovah being a "manly person of war.." !! -- LOL
And my "relationship" with this "person"...? Well, thinking back to my totally intense, hoodwinked, full-of-the-koolaid JW self once upon a time, I suppose you could liken it to an adult having a really good friendship or relationship with Santa Clause.
Like, he was "always there" (in my imagination), looming above... Looking down to make sure I was being Good and not Bad...
Worse, I imagined I could FEEL his presence, this mighty, silent, powerful God, the Grand Creator, surrounded by all his angels (and Jesus too, somewhere in the shadows, waiting patiently for his turn) and I imagined that every time I did a bad thing or made a mistake, that Jehovah would sadly turn his face away from me....
But when I did good things (determined by WT just exactly what those "good things" entailed), I imagined the great Jah smiling down at me, his angles happy too, all was like a big happy bubble...
I remember feeling so damn smug some days, when I was doing "all the right things" and thus making Jehovah "happy" .... and every now and again feeling troubled at my smugness, wondering why I felt like that pompous man described in the bible who prayed that he was so thankful not to be like those terrible sinners all around him.
Dare I even say that I sometimes had "demon" trouble and would pray out loud to Jehovah and my goodness, the demons would flee away ... Oh boy.
I think I either had a really active imagination, or stress-induced night terrors, or I actually did lose my mind while being a totally indoctrinated dubbie.
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tiki
Yeah....I always kinda wondered about that......but I just don't get the peanut butter milk connection.
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Maryo
I find it especially "odd" that Jehovah's Witnesses think the person Jehovah – the sovereign of the universe – feels human emotions like sadness. We do not want to make Jehovah "sad" seems ultra ridiculous to me. [BTW, I do not remember in my day of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s that Jehovah was referred to as being "sad" when people misbehaved in the manner they now do on JW broadcasting.] you would think that the sovereign of the universe would be somehow above that. you can see why am no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses! I just could not get it; it could not be helped!