Conversion Went Badly

My Aunt's father, a formerly life-long adherent to the Apostolic Church, became a witness last year.

I just learned he went to the last assembly and died.  Tripped and hit his head on an armrest.

I'm waiting for the next round of email that talks about Jehovah protecting his people with guardian angels.  Maybe he missed the memo that this guy was entitled to divine intervention.

Seriously ???

The common phrase among witnesses is that this is an "unforseeable accident" and has nothing to do with Jehovah protecting individual persons.

Of course a phrase in the world for such sad things is he was "at the wrong place, at the wrong time".

Sorry to hear about your loss.  That's a hell of a way to go.

Yes, true story.

I don't mean to make light of the guy's passing on, but it does show a certain irony when others talk about angelic protection.

Thanks, Priest - have to admit, I always found him a little creepy, I wasn't close to him.  The Apostolic side of the family made the JW side of the family look pretty free-wheeling and carefree, by comparison.  But my caution around him was more along the lines of "funny-strange" rather than "funny-ha ha".

 when others talk about angelic protection

I have never seen anything written in the WT that made me think that we they were entitled to divine protection. Tell that to the Aussie congregation that got blown up a while back....

^ Oops!  It is kinda embarrasing...

"Jehovah was loving enough to bring the Truth to him before he died." Typical CYA witness reasoning. W.Once

That's awful, Void.  ....................time and unforeseen occurrence......yadda yadda yadda......

What a freaky accident.

Maybe the trip was god's way of taking him.

He works in mysterious ways you know !

Wow I'm very sorry to hear about that. Not to make light of this in any way, but your reference to irony is right on... if something bad is prevented, it was Jah's protection. If something bad is not prevented, it is "time and unforseen occurrence". Sheesh. I hope you and the rest of his family will be ok...

zoiks

Here's the dub rule of thumb concerning good fortune or bad:

1. If an exdub has an accident and dies, it's Jehovah's retribution for apostasy.

2. If an exdub has a run of good luck, it's because he has embraced Satan's world.

3. If a dub has an accident and dies, he has the "resurrection hope."

4. If a dub has a run of good luck, it's because Jehovah is rewarding his faith.

It's also known as the heads-I-win-tails-you-lose doctrine.

Thanks again, all -

Dinah, yes freaky...

Zoiks, yeah, everyone is handling well...

W.Once, oh, wow, hadn't thought of that nuance, that does give the JW family something to hold on to, I guess!

Sorry to read this news, VE.

Although W. Once's point is valid, the counterpoint is that had he NOT converted and had a fatal accident, the JW relatives would have thought it's good that he died because, unlike VE, your aunt's Father will now be eligible for resurrection. With them its "Head we win tails you lose".

I remember one elder telling me that when we are between prayers at a meeting or bible study, it's like we are in Jehovah's presence. It seems like Jah's household is full of dangers and surprises

Sorry about the sad news, void eater. There's no definitive answer to this one.

While I do not disagree with any of the points made by my fellow posters, I have nonetheless always found a nebulous sort of comfort from the following:

"[...] But undoubtedly the most frequent answer [previous discussion on
Jehovah's past, overt response to his people's prayers] was not so easily
discernible, since it related to giving moral strength and enlightenment,
enabling the person to hold to a righteous course and carry out divinely
assigned work. Particularly for the Christian the answer to prayers involved
matters mainly spiritual, not as spectacular as some powerful acts of God in
earlier times, but equally vital."

Aid to Bible Understanding, THE ANSWERING OF PRAYERS, page 1331.

It's a pleasure to have you back.

All the best to you and yours,

CoCo

Oh Im so sorry to hear of this accident  

Parakeet, love your #2 point! SO accurate!! It's been so drummed into me that even now when I don't seem to have 'luck', I wonder what I've been doing wrong that Jehovah isn't with me. And now more so since I've begun fading.

BluesBrother, is right on. The publications are always careful to avoid claiming that individual Witnesses can expect divine protection from physical harm. Still I have heard such claims being made in private conversations with Witnesses and even implied during a talk at a convention. Somehow, they never seemed to remember the brutal beatings received by their brothers in Georgia at such times.

Parakeet, I heard an elder once say that we thank Jehovah when good things happen to us, but we don't blame him for the bad things. Even then, as a loyal Witness, I found such thinking completely untenable.

Many years ago members of my extended family were travelling to a circuit assembly and were involved in a very serious auto accident, there were serious physical injuries fortunately no one was killed. Was it time and unforeseen occurrence? in that there were serious injuries, or was it 'divine protection' in that no one was killed?

I just learned he went to the last assembly and died.  Tripped and hit his head on an armrest.

Sorry to hear of this. I don't know what he tripped over, but it reminds me of a beef I had when I used to go to the kingdom halls. The men were very careless about the way they kept their briefcases in the aisles at the meetings, and I saw people trip over them a few times. No one hurt, but I could see the potential for a serious injury. I always kept my briefcase under my chair.

W