by JH 44 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Why is it that a JW is considered "Spiritually Sick" by the elders and the members of the congregation, if he suddenly decides to stop going to meetings and doesn't see eye to eye with the Organization anymore?
I see people who belong to other faiths, and are very active and seem spiritually healthy, even though they don't believe in what JW's teach.
I've been told by elders, that I was "spiritually sick".
How do they know what's going on in my heart?
No, you are not "spiritually sick" because you stop attending JW meetings. The only place you can be spiritually strong is outside the meetings by allowing the Holy Spirit to direct you in Bible study.
It goes like this, JH:
The leaders of the WTS have no idea how to have a genuinely spiritual relationship with their Lord. Why, they don't even know him!
Because of this, they've substituted a man-made organisation in God's place. They refer to their publishing and administrative organisation as "Jehovah's organisation" and the R&F generally have come to view "the Organisation" as being in God's place. Hence, they have a relationship, but not a spiritual one, with an organisation. They have to give their allegiance and loyalty to it. It resembles the way in which communistic regimes ruled by demanding allegiance, not to a philosophy, but to their "organisation".
Therefore, when someone stops going "to the meetings" the only interpretation open to a dub is to view that person as being "spiritually weak".
All of this is, of course, arrant nonsense. The reality is quite the opposite and so we have known of many who have stopped attending meetings because they have become, not spiritually weak, but spiritually strong. They have learned that spirituality is a personal thing, an individual thing, nothing to do with membership of a corporation.
The poor things!
Ozzie
An elder came over last night, and invited me to the memorial. I said that I would go.
Then he warned me that brother X was recently disfellowshipped, and even though he goes to every meeting, that I SHOULD NOT talk to him when I'll see him at the hall.
Gee....I'm inactive since a decade, and people can talk to me, and a poor brother who always goes to his meetings is DF'd and returns and goes to every meeting, and he is to be shunned???
Gee...who are the ones that are spiritually sick?
Then, I asked the elder how the older ones are doing physcially in the congregation, and he answered that it's the not the physically ill that worries him, but the spiritually ill....meaning me.
I get a visit once a year, just before the memorial. I don't see any elder losing sleep because of me.
I can't speak for anyone else, but in my case leaving was a sign of spiritual strength, to use their term. I got to the point of realizing that the org was only dragging me down with its rules and regs and not offering any real spiritual food. Let's face it: when they refer to serving God they are really referring to serving the org.
At the time I was praying to Jehovah through Jesus and asking for wisdom and humility to see what was real, no matter how painful that truth was. Lo and behold, all the deceit and lovelessness of the publications became crystal clear, and I lost all faith in the JW cult. They are way off base in using the term "spiritual" to define someone who devotes a lot of energy to the org. In fact, the people who devote the most to the cult are the emptiest, the ones who are duped into thinking the GB are God's channel. One good definition of "spiritually sick" would be thinking one has to attend JW meetings to please God. Believing that God is out there tallying our works and clicking his tongue at the atheists is a sickness in itself, regardless of one's denomination.
The analogy they use is that of not eating literal food...if a person quits eating he/she gets sick and eventually dies.
No meetings...no spiritual food.
In my thinking, spiritual food is found in the Bible which is not just found at the KH.
The food served at the KH is poisoned with the opinions of the WTS. Not eating it will actually make you heallthier.
Blondie
I think I have a clearer meaning what being spirtual really is. I feel like my personal relationship with God is the same as always. Now that I am moving away from the organization I am free to feel and express my spiritually being---------freely and openly.
I am not in a suffocating box, now my bounderies are exploring new lines.
I like to think of how witnesses look for marriage mates. Looking for another JW.....one who is strong spiritually, good job, good looking. Many of the marriages cannot withstand a disfellowshipping as many were in love with the standing in the congo spiritually. You have to love the person for who they are deep inside.
If the organization crumbles.........any religion crumbles........my relationship with God will still be intact.
purps
ps........If only I could express myself clearly as so many others do so well. I am not good at getting what is in my head to paper, so I think I sound crazy......hmmmmm maybe I am crazy!
G'day Purps:
You're doing just fine! the strength of your argument is in your experience.
Cheers from downunder,
Ozzie
Hey right, I'm starving for negativity!
Golf
My relationship with Jesus became stronger when I rejected the false teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Reading and thoroughly researching the scriptures, especially after I realised that the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses are determined to hinder their followers from knowing God, has enabled that relationship to grow as I walk each day with Him. Looking back on the years I spent as a slave to the WTBTS, I am thankful that I am no longer in chains to an organisation that does not know God and never will know Him because of their denial of His Son. Hopefully, many more active JW's will sever all ties with this apostate religion and turn to Jesus Christ as their mediator and saviour instead of remaining in the spiritual darkness that is ruining their opportunity for everlasting life as they follow the everchanging doctrines and policies of a group of spiritual drunkards.
