[quote]mse2us wrote:
[quote]BackInAction wrote:
I have two questions about Jehovah’s Witnesses beliefs:
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Why don’t JWs want blood transfusions? I understand they cite scripture, but I still don’t understand why it’s such a big deal. One of my friends growing up needed a bone marrow transplant. Without it, she would have died (she had Leukima). Would you truly reject such a treatment?
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What’s so important about October 1914? I keep seeing references to this date, but am not sure what exactly transpired on that year according to JWs beliefs.[/quote]
Great questions! I’ll answer the first on in this post and I’m still debating whether I’ll answer the second one.
From the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible God’s law regarding taking in blood into the body is clear. God says do not eat it and then later on he says to abstain from blood. God constitutes how blood should be used which is for the atonement of sin and when it is used in the wrong way it devalues the redeeming qualities of blood. That’s why the blood of animals played a heavy role in the sacrificing of animals which the Israelites were required to do to have their sins forgiven. The need to sacrifice animals was done away with after Jesus’ sacrifice. His blood was greater than any animals or humans blood.
This command was given to Noah, to the Israelites under the Mosaic Law and to the Christians. I’ll just list the scripture given to the Christians: Act 15:28:
“28 For the holy spirit and we ourselves have favored adding no further burden to you, except these necessary things, 29 to keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication. If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, YOU will prosper. Good health to YOU!”
That verse shows the seriousness of abstaining from blood because it list it with idol worship and fornication. This has been observed since the apostolic times. For example, The Ecclesiastical History, by Eusebius, V, I,Ã? 26 states: In 177Ã? C.E., in Lyons (now in France), when religious enemies falsely accused Christians of eating children, a woman named Biblis said: “How would such men eat children, when they are not allowed to eat the blood even of irrational animals?”
Christians back then and we now understand the meaning of blood so we respect the commandment to abstain from it.
Now this is what separates us from other Christian religions.
We would rather die than break God’s commandments. There is a scripture at Revelation 2:10 that states this:
“Do not be afraid of the things you are about to suffer. Look! The Devil will keep on throwing some of YOU into prison that YOU may be fully put to the test, and that YOU may have tribulation ten days. Prove yourself faithful even to death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
The sentence I but in bold is the main focus so remaining faithful to God’s commandments even if it means that we lose our lives is of utmost importance to us. We are confident that God will resurrect us after armegeddon.
Also, we see examples in the Bible when servants of God chose death rather than break God’s law. The three Hebrews who were in Babylonian captivity in the book of Daniel is one such example. The king said whoever didn’t bow down to the image he made was going to be thrown into a firey furnace. When they didn’t bow down the first time he even gave them a second chance to bow down and boasted about their God not being able to save them. They then replied back to the king that if their God will rescue them then he will but if not they still weren’t going to bow down to the image. Long story short they were thrown into the furnace and God rescued them. All they had to do was bow down but they chose death instead of breaking God’s law. (Daniel 3:12-30)
Another example is Daniel himself. Again, the king of Babylon made a law that no one could pray to their God for 30 days or else be thrown into the lions pit. Daniel was used to praying in view of many people so when this law was put into affect Daniel did not pray in seclusion. He prayed in the same manner for anyone to see. He was then thrown into the lions pit(Daniel 6) So he too chose death rather than break God’s law.
In both of the above examples God protected them and they survived the punishment but we see that later during the persecution of the Christians under emporer Nero that God did not always save his servants from death when they chose to remain faithful instead of breaking his laws. Emporer Nero required his people to worship him and one of the ways to do this was by having them take incense and throw it into a fire and say “Hail Caesar.” If one didn’t do this they faced the gladiators arena which meant certain death. Faithful christians of that time chose to die rather than simply throw incense into the fire and say hail Caesar and many did die.
Because of all that I mentioned above if we are in a situation where we are injured and we need blood we as a religion are encouraged to abstain from taking blood because of the reasons I listed above. This isn’t something we blindly follow. We all clearly understand the scriptures in the Bible, why blood is important to God and we see the examples in the Bible were faithful servants chose death instead of breaking God’s commands. Now if a Jehovah’s Witness is in a situation where he or a loved one needs a blood transfusion to survive then this becomes the ultimate test of faith and often times it is not an easy decision. At that moment the issue is between them and God. I can’t say that every Jehovah’s Witness that has ever been in that situation remains faithful but the abstaining from blood is heavily stressed in our religion so that when one is faced with this ultimate test they are more likely to pass it and abstain from blood. Because if it is not made clear why we should abstain and how important it is to abstain from blood, then when a Jehovah’s Witnesses is in a situation where they are facing this ultimate test they will most likely break God’s command and have the blood transfusion to save his life. So it is made crystal clear as to why we should abstain from blood and we even carry a Durable Power of Attorney card in our wallet so that in the case we are unconscious it is clear of our stance.
Again, this is one of the things that separates us from other religions. The Bible states that God is only going to have one group of people be his chosen people. We see this with the Israelites who were the only group at that time that were acceptable to God. And we also see that when the Christian congregation was formed they became God’s people and he rejected the Israelites worship. The Bible makes clear that one belief or faith is going to be accepted by God at Ephesians 4:5,6(NIV) which states:
“There is one body and one Spiritâ??just as you were called to one hope when you were calledâ?? 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;”
BIA, all of the religions of the world with different faiths are offering their worship to God. Who’s worship do you think he will accept? The worship of those who are willing to follow all of the commands in the Bible, fully understand the commands and are willing to prove faithful even to the point of death in any situation instead of breaking Gods command? Or a group that picks and chooses what commands to follow?
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First off, thank you for taking the time to put this answer together. You obviously put effort into it and I want to say thank you!
In regards to the scripture you cited (in regards to the blood), do you believe they were planning this for blood transfusions or were they talking about drinking and using blood for other (non-medical) reasons? Even at the last supper, Jesus said “take this and drink it, this is my blood which I give up for you” (paraphrased). Doesn’t this suggest that since he is sacrificing himself, it would be okay for others to do the same? (such as a father donating blood to his son)?
And as to your question…
“Who’s worship do you think he will accept? The worship of those who are willing to follow all of the commands in the Bible, fully understand the commands and are willing to prove faithful even to the point of death in any situation instead of breaking Gods command? Or a group that picks and chooses what commands to follow”
I honestly do not know the answer to that. But ultimately, if God sent someone to hell for for giving a transfusion to a family member, friend, or someone else in need, I honestly don’t think I would respect or worship that God. If I didn’t give the transfusion, I would be responsible for the suffering and death of that person by not helping them. I would rather save that person and take the chance of ending up in hell, if it exists. But this is just my opinion.