Why Do Jehovah's Witnesses Reject Blood Transfusions?

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Triumph1300

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Not all JW's refuse blood transfusions.
I know some who would allow transfusions.

(If they do, I am told they will be kicked out of the cult,
which is actually not a bad thing, they might come to their senses).
 

BARNEY BRIGHT

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If that is your conviction on a personal level, I am all for it! but for a sect to declare it is sin, based on such an allegorical opinion is just wrong! Just as wrong as the pharisees were with all there laws surrounding the sabbath.

BTW context still matters and the context was to not eat blood.

Acts 15:29
That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

In the context- James said to not eat meat offered to idols, from eating blood, and from eating things strangled? why strangled? Because they would not have been drained of their blood

and if you bothered to read the end, James said they would not sin, but do well or prosper. It is the Watchtower who made it a sin, not the church of God.

If you think a married person who is a Christian who is having an affair to be just a personal opinion and the scriptures don't speak of it as a gross sin then you go right ahead and think that it's just a personal opinion. That will tell me all I really need to know about how you view God's inspired word.
 

tigger 2

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RN wrote above (#80): "and if you bothered to read the end, James said they would not sin, but do well or prosper. It is the Watchtower who made it a sin, not the church of God."

And if you bothered to read the previous verse, you would see that these are requirements for Christians.

Acts 15:28 "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things:" ASV
 

Ronald Nolette

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If you think a married person who is a Christian who is having an affair to be just a personal opinion and the scriptures don't speak of it as a gross sin then you go right ahead and think that it's just a personal opinion. That will tell me all I really need to know about how you view God's inspired word.


Well we were talkinhg about blood, so what part of the solar system did you pull this rabbit trail from????????????????
 

Ronald Nolette

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RN wrote above (#80): "and if you bothered to read the end, James said they would not sin, but do well or prosper. It is the Watchtower who made it a sin, not the church of God."

And if you bothered to read the previous verse, you would see that these are requirements for Christians.

Acts 15:28 "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things:" ASV


And I believe not eating blood is a requirement that was established by god with Noah for all generations.

Paul said eating meat offered to idols was nothing in corinthians, but do not do so if a weak brother is watching you!

Jesus said that nothing that goes into a man can defile the man, but it goes into the belly and out the back side!

And seemed is a big word- James was saying it was conditional in his opinion and good to Him as a jew (remember the context, this was about Gentiles being considered equal members of what was almost exclusively a Jewish church at this point).

but now you need to show how eating suddenly transformed into receiving a transfusion.
 

BARNEY BRIGHT

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Well we were talkinhg about blood, so what part of the solar system did you pull this rabbit trail from????????????????
We were, or at least I was, showing that Acts 15:28,29 was teaching us that we are to abstain from blood with equal commitment as we would abstain from fornication. The word fornication there translates the greek word porniea the definition of this Greek word is that it includes all forms of sexual immorality which means that just as you would abstain from adultery you would abstain from blood with equal commitment of abstaining from all forms of sexual immorality which would include adultery.
 

robert derrick

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I understand that people will find some excuse that abstaining from all forms of sexual immorality isn't a big deal. So I find it not surprising that they wouldn't abstain from blood either. The things that are strangled that we are to abstain from had to do with meat not bleed when killed. In some countries when an animal such as chicken when killed it isn't drained of it's blood, some people in these countries hang up the chicken on a string with the blood still in the animal. Christians are to restrain from eating such meat that hasn't been drained of it's blood when killed.
Christians are to restrain from eating such meat that hasn't been drained of it's blood when killed

Both old and new covenant believers have been forbidden to eat blood and things strangled.

I understand that people will find some excuse that abstaining from all forms of sexual immorality isn't a big deal.


Do you make ignorant accusations on purpose, or are you simply that confused about the difference between fornicating and eating blood and strangled things?

All ridiculously cultish corruptions of Scripture come from one source only: the pernicious desire to feel special and be able to accuse others of not being so special. It's where all divisions and cliques come from.

And you are a perfect example of it.
 

robert derrick

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And I believe not eating blood is a requirement that was established by god with Noah for all generations.

Paul said eating meat offered to idols was nothing in corinthians, but do not do so if a weak brother is watching you!

Jesus said that nothing that goes into a man can defile the man, but it goes into the belly and out the back side!

And seemed is a big word- James was saying it was conditional in his opinion and good to Him as a jew (remember the context, this was about Gentiles being considered equal members of what was almost exclusively a Jewish church at this point).

but now you need to show how eating suddenly transformed into receiving a transfusion.
but now you need to show how eating suddenly transformed into receiving a transfusion.

The same way someone transformed himself to an apostle, when he figured out such stupidity (2 Cor 11:3). Which wasn't figured out until blood transfusions became possible.

If a soldier refuses a blood-transfusion to live, then the military can have him court-martialed for disobeying a direct order, after the transfusion, because it will occur.

It's the same withy Sabbath commanders: they cannot willingly place themselves in professions, careers, and work where the authority over them can compel such things.

They then go on to make-up equally stupid 'exceptions' to their special little rules. But God's law has no exceptions.
 

robert derrick

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If that is your conviction on a personal level, I am all for it! but for a sect to declare it is sin, based on such an allegorical opinion is just wrong! Just as wrong as the pharisees were with all there laws surrounding the sabbath.

BTW context still matters and the context was to not eat blood.

Acts 15:29
That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

In the context- James said to not eat meat offered to idols, from eating blood, and from eating things strangled? why strangled? Because they would not have been drained of their blood

and if you bothered to read the end, James said they would not sin, but do well or prosper. It is the Watchtower who made it a sin, not the church of God.
If that is your conviction on a personal level, I am all for it! but for a sect to declare it is sin, based on such an allegorical opinion is just wrong!

And is the greatest divider of the body of Christ. We can have all the personal interpretations of Scripture we want, but then to go on and try to preach it as Scripture is the source for all cultish beliefs.
 

robert derrick

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Really? What article is that in the UCMJ?
The one I quoted. Disobeying a direct order.

You think for one second a commander is going to have one of his wounded soldiers refuse to be saved by blood transfusion, especially over some lunatic cult idea?

He will command the soldier to obey, and if not, he will be court-martialed for disobey a direct order, after that commander has the soldier sedated and blood transfused.

In the military, we don't own our bodies. We do what we are commanded to do, whether unto death, or to continue living to fight another day.

That commander will do so, because it he doesn't order the soldier and get it done, then the commander will be brought up on charges by his commander, for allowing a soldier to kill himself.

Soldiers are property owned by the military. A soldier who wounds himself can be court-martialed.

Obviously, you have no clue about the military.
 

BroRando

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The one I quoted. Disobeying a direct order.

You think for one second a commander is going to have one of his wounded soldiers refuse to be saved by blood transfusion, especially over some lunatic cult idea?

He will command the soldier to obey, and if not, he will be court-martialed for disobey a direct order, after that commander has the soldier sedated and blood transfused.

In the military, we don't own our bodies. We do what we are commanded to do, whether unto death, or to continue living to fight another day.

That commander will do so, because it he doesn't order the soldier and get it done, then the commander will be brought up on charges by his commander, for allowing a soldier to kill himself.

Soldiers are property owned by the military. A soldier who wounds himself can be court-martialed.

Obviously, you have no clue about the military.

AND.... that is why you have No Understanding... (Daniel 12:10) A soldier of Christ would obey Holy Spirit, not SPEAK against it calling it a Cult. God’s Kingdom Quietly Removes Its Enemies since 1919....

Teaching of the Holy Spirit:
  • "Abstain . . . from blood. If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, you will prosper. Good health to you!” (Acts 15:28-29)
  • "For example, whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the holy spirit, it will not be forgiven him, no, not in this system of things nor in that to come." (Matthew 12:32)
Those who reject the Good News to the Full have been abandoned. "And this good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:14)

The end of what? Wicked People that are listed in (2 Timothy 3:1-5) Soon, very soon the preaching work of the Good News of God's Kingdom will no longer be preached to the wicked that have been abandoned. The Fulfillment of Matthew 24:14 about to Be Revealed...
 

An Apologetic Sheepdog

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The one I quoted. Disobeying a direct order.

You think for one second a commander is going to have one of his wounded soldiers refuse to be saved by blood transfusion, especially over some lunatic cult idea?

He will command the soldier to obey, and if not, he will be court-martialed for disobey a direct order, after that commander has the soldier sedated and blood transfused.

In the military, we don't own our bodies. We do what we are commanded to do, whether unto death, or to continue living to fight another day.

That commander will do so, because it he doesn't order the soldier and get it done, then the commander will be brought up on charges by his commander, for allowing a soldier to kill himself.

Soldiers are property owned by the military. A soldier who wounds himself can be court-martialed.

Obviously, you have no clue about the military.

No, just 30 years and about a dozen combat ops ( some as a medic way back) I don't "think" it- I have been there and done it.

I have never seen such a post filled with outright absurdities (they don't even qualify as discussion points) as the one you just made. Every single one of them if fundamentally and fatally flawed in every detail. ( except for the soldier wounding himself can be court martialed one)

I want to know both the Articles in the UCMJ as well as the AR's ( or other branch regs) that authorize such "orders".
 

robert derrick

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AND.... that is why you have No Understanding... (Daniel 12:10) A soldier of Christ would obey Holy Spirit, not SPEAK against it calling it a Cult. God’s Kingdom Quietly Removes Its Enemies since 1919....

Teaching of the Holy Spirit:
  • "Abstain . . . from blood. If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, you will prosper. Good health to you!” (Acts 15:28-29)
  • "For example, whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the holy spirit, it will not be forgiven him, no, not in this system of things nor in that to come." (Matthew 12:32)
Those who reject the Good News to the Full have been abandoned. "And this good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:14)

The end of what? Wicked People that are listed in (2 Timothy 3:1-5) Soon, very soon the preaching work of the Good News of God's Kingdom will no longer be preached to the wicked that have been abandoned. The Fulfillment of Matthew 24:14 about to Be Revealed...
Forbidding blood transfusions is a cult belief. Period.

We can't abstain from blood in our bodies, because we are born with it. We can abstain from eating blood, which is what Scripture teaches.

All cult beliefs come from wresting the scriptures from what is written, to something else that is not.

And a full blown cult is when they begin judging others as abandoned from God, who don't believe and obey their cultism.
 

robert derrick

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No, just 30 years and about a dozen combat ops ( some as a medic way back) I don't "think" it- I have been there and done it.

I have never seen such a post filled with outright absurdities (they don't even qualify as discussion points) as the one you just made. Every single one of them if fundamentally and fatally flawed in every detail. ( except for the soldier wounding himself can be court martialed one)

I want to know both the Articles in the UCMJ as well as the AR's ( or other branch regs) that authorize such "orders".
I have never seen such a post filled with outright absurdities (they don't even qualify as discussion points) as the one you just made. Every single one of them if fundamentally and fatally flawed in every detail.

I guess I'll just have to take your word for it, since all you got is words about it.

Every direct order is 'authorized'. And it remains so, until or unless it is countermanded by higher authority.

As a commander, I never met this situation, but I do know I would make it a direct order, and then proceed to have it carried out by the medic with sedation, if necessary, and then I would stand by my order under review.

If you were under my command, and you started giving me a bunch of garbage about 'religious' beliefs on blood transfusion, then I would have you strapped down and transfused. Period.

And if you never thought your body was owned by the military, then you were in a different military than I.

Suicidal efforts are punishable. Refusing life-saving medical procedures is suicidal. And preventing suicide outweighs any right to religious belief. I would also seek psychological discharge for you.

Maybe you should start a thread on Christians in the military, and leave my outright absurdities about blood transfusion to me.

Forbidding blood transfusions are an outright absurdity and is fatally flawed after the suicidal sort.
 

An Apologetic Sheepdog

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If you were under my command, and you started giving me a bunch of garbage about 'religious' beliefs on blood transfusion, then I would have you strapped down and transfused. Period.

I would have you relieved and arrested

As a commander, I never met this situation, but I do know I would make it a direct order, and then proceed to have it carried out by the medic with sedation, if necessary, and then I would stand by my order under review.

What branch, rank and PMOS and what theater/OP(s) if I may?

And if you never thought your body was owned by the military, then you were in a different military than I.

That begs the question, exactly what military were you in? I was US Army.

Every direct order is 'authorized'. And it remains so, until or unless it is countermanded by higher authority.

No, that "direct order" must be LAWFUL in order to be obeyed ( which is why I asked what "law" UCMJ and AR's covered what you were claiming which by the way you have yet to give)

Suicidal efforts are punishable. Refusing life-saving medical procedures is suicidal. And preventing suicide outweighs any right to religious belief. I would also seek psychological discharge for you.

This is ABSURD

Maybe you should start a thread on Christians in the military, and leave my outright absurdities about blood transfusion to me.

You said it and i fully agree on that point.
 

Ronald Nolette

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We were, or at least I was, showing that Acts 15:28,29 was teaching us that we are to abstain from blood with equal commitment as we would abstain from fornication. The word fornication there translates the greek word porniea the definition of this Greek word is that it includes all forms of sexual immorality which means that just as you would abstain from adultery you would abstain from blood with equal commitment of abstaining from all forms of sexual immorality which would include adultery.


Well if that is your personal conviction, that is fine. but to say it is an all encompassing command from god that no human should receive a transfusion- that is ludicrous.

You should also know that many reputable and well established koine greek scholars believe that blood here is actually "blood guilt" or murder. The reason is that things strangled were the only meats which retained blood. and drinking of blood by this time in history was reserved mostly for p[agan priests and prietesses.

Like I said, if you believe you shouldn't transfuse- then don't. but to say anyone who does is committing sin based on vague philosophical connections to refraining from blood as one would refrain from immorality places you as a Pharisee.
 

Ronald Nolette

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but now you need to show how eating suddenly transformed into receiving a transfusion.

The same way someone transformed himself to an apostle, when he figured out such stupidity (2 Cor 11:3). Which wasn't figured out until blood transfusions became possible.

If a soldier refuses a blood-transfusion to live, then the military can have him court-martialed for disobeying a direct order, after the transfusion, because it will occur.

It's the same withy Sabbath commanders: they cannot willingly place themselves in professions, careers, and work where the authority over them can compel such things.

They then go on to make-up equally stupid 'exceptions' to their special little rules. But God's law has no exceptions.

True but they are indoctrinated to not see such overbearing unbiblical restrictions. they are ruled by Pharisee like rulers who make up all sorts of rules. Like th eSabbath. The commandment is simple, but in Jesus day, there were over 600 added commands to the simple sabbath command that bound Jews with heavy heavy burdens.
 

Ronald Nolette

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If that is your conviction on a personal level, I am all for it! but for a sect to declare it is sin, based on such an allegorical opinion is just wrong!

And is the greatest divider of the body of Christ. We can have all the personal interpretations of Scripture we want, but then to go on and try to preach it as Scripture is the source for all cultish beliefs.


No we are not allowed any personal interpretations!

2 Peter 1:20
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

However in teh areas where there is no clear command for or against we are allowed to have a personal conviction based onm prayer and our relationship with god and how weak our faith is as Paul said in romans.
 

robert derrick

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No we are not allowed any personal interpretations!

2 Peter 1:20
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

However in the areas where there is no clear command for or against we are allowed to have a personal conviction based on prayer and our relationship with god and how weak our faith is as Paul said in romans.
You read the Scripture exactly backwards.

I have known cult leaders who would always say exactly what you did, with the idea that there is only one interpretation of Scripture, and their's was always the right one.

The Scripture says no prophecy of Scripture: no preaching or ministering of Scripture is to be of any private interpretation.

There are several private interpretations of Scripture: the scripture says no drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God. Therefore, a private interpretation could be no drinking at all, moderate drinking without drunkenness, or medicinal and health as Paul told Timothy, which was a common practise in foreign lands.

So, the believer by personal faith can do any of the three, but then going on to preach their personal rule as Scripture, as law of Christ, such as 'thou shalt not drink', then thy make themselves false teachers of their own private interpretation: falsely teaching from their own mind, which is what Moses declared he had not done:

And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the LORD hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind.

So, in this case, if someone wants to be insane enough to forbid themselves blood transfusion, then so be it. And only a false minister would then go on to preach it for law of God.

And such ridiculous nonsensical and foolish 'rules' preached for doctrine of christ make a laughingstock of Christian ministry.

God's Word always makes perfect sense, and needs no exceptions to live in a real world.

The law of Christ certainly isn't kept by all people, but neither does it look strangely odd and ridiculous to the average sinner.

So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

Ezra gave the proper normal sense of the scripture. IF someone give something that is nonsense from scripture, then you can be sure it isn't rightly dividing the word of truth.

The God of the Bible is the God of common sense.