Jehovah's Witnesses and blood?

Question

How dose being forbid to eat blood have any thing to do with blood Transfusions as Jehovah's Witnesses say is wrong . TEN

Answer 1

"For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from...blood...." Acts 15:28,29

You cannot wriggle your way out of that scripture. It is from the Greek scriptures (New Law for Christians). The apostle Paul said that basically, all Christians could ignore the Old Law (from the Old Testament) EXCEPT these laws (including not taking in blood). If you were to ignore that command, is there any point in obeying all the other ones?

James 2:10 "If you obey every law except one, you are still guilty of breaking them all"

To be completely honest, I think it would be much easier for Jehovahs Witnesses if the bible didn't say to stay away from blood. But the truth is, the bible DOES teach that blood transfusions are wrong. If God says so, who are we to argue with Him?

1 John 1:10 "If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar"

We know that what He says has a purpose, even if we don't know exactly why. We know that the blood is sacred, and that it represents the life-force, but we don't EXACTLY know why we are to abstain from it.

In Israelite times they were told to abstain from certain things (like dead bodies etc) because it was considered unholy. With today’s science we know that the rules about staying away from dead bodies, and washing your hands etc are because of germs. In bible times God couldn't have explained this, and so He simply said that it was unholy, just to keep the nation clean. The same could be applied to taking blood (being unholy), we just do not know for sure, but we trust God.






got_air - I'm sorry but you do not know what you are talking about. If you accuse JWs of twisting the scriptures, please give evidence. The fact that you said that "the bible says not to eat pork" shows your lack of understanding of it; that command was part of the OLD LAW given to the Israelites. If you even read everyones post you'd see the most quoted scripute by the apostle Paul saying that the holy spirit told him not to further burden the Christians with the OLD LAW.





Most Drs would prefer not to have a blood transfusion for the "Advantages of blood SUBSTITUTES":

Universal Compatibililty:
·Can be transfused to a human of any Blood type without any tests, saving crucial emergency time.

Purity and Non-toxicity:
·Composed of pure compounds, under ideal conditions, that are free of infectious agents and allergens, resulting in a non-toxic and disease-free product.

Storability/Shelf Life:
·Does not deteriorate with storage, and ideally will not need refrigeration, making it ideal for disaster situations and remote areas.

Availabililty:
·Is composed of readily and reliably available materials, ensuring adequate supplies for large-scale and economical manufacturing.

Predictability:
·Made up of ingredients that are completely understood, making it predictable and manipulable



Did you know that because of ones like Jehovahs Witnesses, medical science is advancing further and further as regards blood substitutes? Because of people like JWs, your future grandchildren will have better healthcare when it comes to blood.




Curly Sue - Of course it would be arrogant to claim it's just the JWs who are advancing bloodless surgery; but I meant that they contribute to it. Yes medical science is advancing all the time, but sometimes, without willing volunteers (e.g. JWs) there can be no way of telling / learning. I learned that from a surgeon (independent of JWs), not from JWs themselves.

Answer 2

Alot of people who are not witnesses are the ones twisting the scriptures, the ones who are true witnesses are giving you scriptural evidence in Acts 15:28,29. To abstain from means to stay away from. There are other alternatives than taking blood we as people need to do research on bloodless medicine & to find out things about blood less surgery its out there even the doctors know about it and alot prefer this method. Its also a safer procedure than blood transfusion itself. The blood is over 50% water. whats needed when a person have a major blood loss is fluid volume, quickly Plasma Volume expanders without blood, is whats needed. and have been used on thousands of people with excellent results.
Some hostpital uses blood because its the quick and easy way out. But actually bloodless surgery is even more of a Quality care usage than blood & when it comes to saving my life thats what I or any one else should want, than the dangers of blood; hepatitis, malaria, aids. etc So even if one does have a transfusion still doesnt guarantee life.
God's people in early time refused to sustain their lives with blood not becuse it was unhealthy but because it was unholy & not becuse it was polluted but because it was prescious.
What is a guarantee is Jesus blood. John 11:25.

Answer 3

In a hospital when a patient cannot eat through his mouth,he is fed intravenously.Now,would a person who never put blood into his mouth but who accepted blood by transfusion really be obeying the command to "keep abstaining from........blood"?(Acts 15:29)
To use a comparison,consider a man who is told by the doctor that he must abstain from alcohol.Would he be obedient if he quit drinking alcohol but had it put directly into his veins?
Our Heavenly Father views blood as sacred.It represents life and as such needs to be treated with respect.

Answer 4

Only in the event you have been married to him and he had no longer signed the scientific directive all JWs are meant to bring with them (forbidding entire blood transfusions), might you provide permission (if he used to be subconscious). Any grownup who takes a resolution on such concerns has to have his desires revered by means of the scientific career. It is most effective with regards to minors that others must take selections, and parental refusal may also be over-dominated by means of the Courts. It sounds as though his mom might do the whole lot viable to preclude him getting one, most commonly by means of announcing she knew his desires and that he might no longer desire one. If not anything is recounted in writing by means of him, it'll be a messy clutter. But if he nonetheless desires to refuse blood while he's NOT a practising JW, you'll be able to be definite that the faith has a corporation keep on him. He is fairly more likely to re-become a member of them at a later level in his existence. That might make your function totally elaborate. The first-class factor you might do might be to uncover out the biblical factors as to why God does no longer require martyrs to the blood transfusion 'purpose', and exhibit him from the Bible. After all, the JW stance is only theological and truthfully isn't headquartered on any scientific factors in any respect. Email me in the event you desire main points.

Answer 5

They do accept blood components, they justify this by making such claims as 'plasma is water and salt', right, however, it is a major constituent of blood,. They also are 'allowed' to recieve, haemoglobin, immunoglobulin and clooting factors that have to be extracted from large volumes of blood. They don't give blood because of their beliefs, and yet will happily stand by whilst somebody else gives blood so that they can have the components. Smacks of hypocrisy to me. Oh, and for the person who said that plasma is often all you need, wrong. Plasma cannot carry oxygen, massive blood loss leads to organ failure, including the brain, because of lack of oxygen. And do JW's sincerely believe that research into bloodless treatments would not happen if not for their organisation? As a member of the medical profession, I can tell you categorically that this is rubbish. Research is constantly taking place in many treatment areas, including blood, for the reasons already stated, i.e. storage, cost and health'; in fact more research has probably stemmed out of illnesses such as AIDS than the whims of an insignificant religious cult. Do they really believe that the desires of a small group (nearly 7 million) could have such a profound affect on the medical profession. What complete and utter arrogance.

Answer 6

They view taking a blood transfusion the same as eating blood because the blood is giving you nourishment just the same as if you were eating it.

Answer 7

Actually the book of Acts says to ABSTAIN from blood. It does not mention any one way to abstain from blood.
How does a Christian abstain from blood and yet accept a blood transfusion?

Answer 8

Whether we view it this way or not, it is GOD who treats both life and blood as sacred.

In the Bible, the soul is said to be in the blood because blood is so intimately involved in the life processes. Leviticus 17:11 says: "For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I myself have put it upon the altar for you to make atonement for your souls, because it is the blood that makes atonement by the soul in it." God said: "The soul of every sort of flesh is its blood." (Le 17:14)

Acts 15:28,29 says for us to ABSTAIN FROM...BLOOD and from things strangled and from fornication."

To "abstain" would include not taking blood via tranfusion too! Also it says to "abstain" from fornication. We couldn't eat or transfuse fornication, but rather we keep away from it.

For much more, see:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JWquestions-and_answers/message/976

Answer 9

Jehovah witnesses refuse to get blood transfusion because the blood is considered to be "nourishing" for their body. They even refuse certain vaccinations due to this very reasoning. When that happens, the state usually steps in and takes the children away from the parents long enough to receive the vaccinations...then they return the children. This way, the parents did their duty, and so did the state.

Answer 10

"How dose being forbid to eat blood ..."

*reads again*

Oh, you mean: "How DOES being FORBIDDEN to eat blood..."


Whether you eat it, drink it, snort it, or shoot it in your veins, you're still putting it in your body. The Bible is clear that once it leaves your body, it is not to re-enter.