by Sunnygal41 6 Replies latest watchtower bible
Remember that term that the WTS used in it's pubs? Can anyone (like Blondie) help me out with reference, and explanation of this behavior? In a recent thread, someone made some references to how the demons of Satan cause their adherents to "shudder, twitch" etc..........if I'm not mistaken, isn't that behavior similar to these ones engaged in also who "behaved like prophets"? Any info would be appreciated!
Terri
They also took off their clothes. The new king saul did this after he was anointed w the oil that probably had drugs in it. Israelites couldn't tell the difference between a 'true' prophet and a false one. They just chose the one whose babblings they liked.
SS
Prophets of many near eastern cults behaved like wildmen and lunatics. That was their charm. The chant/music and/or hallucinogenic hysteria was interpreted as contact with the spirit world. Like SS posted there is reason to believe that this was the practice in Israel as well.
In the ancient world everything from paralysis to eplilepsy was understood as being caused by demons. The NT itself ascribes these type of physical ailments to the demons. Funny how medical knowledge has banished these demons to the shadows.
I'm pleased with these answers because it shows that "the chosen race of Israel's God" told his followers that their "true" prophets would exhibit the same symptoms as the surrounding "demonic" nations.............get what I'm getting at? So, how then, can this "true" God claim that he is any different than the demon gods of these nations........if he was the one telling his followers to watch for these signs? This same God who supposedly was Jesus' father? I am asking these questions because of what a "Christian" and a newbie on this board used as evidence of possession of demonic spirits.......I just wanted to see if my memory was accurate..............
Terri
Actually the NWT formula translates two forms of one Hebrew verb (nb'), related to the noun "prophet" (nabi'). This verb could be translated "to prophesy" but originally didn't especially involve talking, lest predicting the future -- rather ecstatic trance-like behaviour: cf. 1 Samuel 10:10ff; 19:20f; interestingly this weird original sense is smoothened into "prophesy in talk or in song" in 1Chronicles 25:1ff; 2 Chron. 20:37.
Also, in the OT there are no "demons", and the "behaving as prophets" is directly related to the divinity (e.g. Baal in Jeremiah 2:8) or his/her "spirit" or "breath" (cf. Joel 3:1). The concept of "false prophet", strictly speaking, is absent too. In 1 Kings 22 Yhwh is viewed as causing genuine prophets to utter a misleading oracle through one of his "spirits".
Peacefulpete said:
In the ancient world everything from paralysis to eplilepsy was understood as being caused by demons. The NT itself ascribes these type of physical ailments to the demons. Funny how medical knowledge has banished these demons to the shadows.
This practice is still going on a lot today, all you have to do is listen to people like Patty Robertson when people write in or call in for medical advice. One time I heard him tell a woman that had Diabeites that it was her lack of faith in Gawd that caused this disorder, and the demons are causing it, if she calls on the name of the savour, Jebus, he will aid her and cure her.
What a dipwad, I hate this guy and his colleuges, who all they do is suck up money from poor people and make it sound like their invisable friend will do something grand for them. My ex-mother-inlaw got wrapped up in some group like this, she was diabetic and they kept telling her that if she had enough faith she would be cured, she must have ridden to the hospital 4 or 5 times in an ambulance for her lack of faith, due to a diabetic coma and such. These idiots would show up at the hospital to give her encourgment, the last time I thought her husband was going to kill em.
People even to this day of modern science and medicine, beleive that the problems we have in our lives such as illness are casued by demons, I really think it's a cop out, an excuse, so they don't have to blame themselves or their own geneitcs. "Oh a typhoon is coming, Gawd must be punishing us for something". I think Patty used that one to threaten Orlando when they had "Gay Day" at Disneyland a few years back.
Seedy
