Why Do Jehovah's Witnesses Reject Blood Transfusions?

[Mjh29]

Todays church has become a sickness . look at what is going on . THEY preach hope light and love
and yet their hope light and love is all WORDLY . Heck , they wont even speak about JESUS .
they put on puppet shows for kids and yet JESUS aint mentioned , the gosple sure aint mentioned .
They speak light hope and love , YET NO JESUS . thus they speak not hope light and love , but DEPRESSION , DARKNESS and HATE .
Death and the second death . WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING FOLKS . STOP heeding these crafty well spoken intellectual things
and start HEEDING JESUS and LEARN those bibles well .

The power of the church is how well learned the laymen make themselves in the things of the Scripture. It is the lawyer and farmer and cashier and brick-layer who are absolutely in love with the word and study it as often as they can- THEY are the true strength to the Church!

Amen!

 

[Mjh29]

Not sacrificing an animal for your sin is no longer a sin. Why, because that law got destroyed and trampled down by the coming of Christ? NO! Of course not! He said he did not come to do that! Matthew 5:17. It's not a sin anymore because the person who has had his sin forgiven and removed through the greater and efficacious Sacrifice of Christ doesn't need to the law of animal sacrifice for sin he no longer has. The believer doesn't destroy and break the law of sacrifice in the OT. He just doesn't need it anymore, and so it is laid aside as obsolete. That law is not broken by faith in Christ. It becomes of no use to the person who has faith in Christ. God looks at us and says, "I see no debt of law remaining regarding sacrifice for sin." Even though we did not offer up an animal! But according to what you're saying above, animal sacrifice for sin is still required and it's a sin if you don't do it.

This sacrificial has not been broken; its debt has been settled! It has been fulfilled!!

'It is finished!'

Well said!!!

 

[Ferris Bueller]

Contrary to your claim, it has nothing to do with idol worship.

I didn't make that claim! Start listening! I never said the original prohibition against blood was about idol worship. I said the prohibition against blood in Acts 15 is about blood used in idol worship! The blood itself is not prohibited (Christ commands us to eat the blood of His Sacrifice in this New Covenant). Partaking of blood as part of the pagan worship rituals of that time is what the council prohibited!

 

[robert derrick]

Todays church has become a sickness . look at what is going on . THEY preach hope light and love
and yet their hope light and love is all WORDLY . Heck , they wont even speak about JESUS .
they put on puppet shows for kids and yet JESUS aint mentioned , the gosple sure aint mentioned .
They speak light hope and love , YET NO JESUS . thus they speak not hope light and love , but DEPRESSION , DARKNESS and HATE .
Death and the second death . WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING FOLKS . STOP heeding these crafty well spoken intellectual things
and start HEEDING JESUS and LEARN those bibles well .

A gospel that does not preach Jesus by name is indeed another gospel.

They can preach, the Lord, the LORD, the Lord God, the Almighty God and Almighty God of Israel, and the great El Shaddai, but if they preach not Jesus by name, they preach another gospel.

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Those not written in the Lamb's book of life will not have Jesus preached to them at the judgment, because they did not preach Jesus in the world.

We either bow and confess Jesus now, or never.

 

[BARNEY BRIGHT]

No, that's not the argument. You're not listening.
You don't have to agree with the argument, but you do have to understand it correctly.

Oh I'm understanding those who reason like you correctly. You can disagree all you want but you are the ones who use grace as an excuse to sin. I understand John 6:53-57 I don't use these scriptures however to justify myself if I don't obey God's written word which includes Acts 15:28,29. How other people choose to live their lives is their choice, I know that. I disagree with how you reason on this. You think the only reason you abstain from blood is because it has to do with idols. The commandment of forbidding to eat blood had nothing to do with idols and it applied to all of Noahs offspring whether you call them circumcised or uncircumcised. Just because the majority of the world ignored this law meaning the gentile nations that existed before Jesus came and died for our sins didn't excuse them. The abstaining of blood when it was given had nothing to do with idols, it had to do with true worship of the true God and that the lives of animals when sacrificed for mankind this blood being shed on the alter of God means this life was sacrificed for mankind and God views life as precious and holy. So out of respect for the fact that life has been put on the alter of the true God you abstain from blood because blood represents life. The animals sacrificed foreshadowed the greater sacrifice Jesus Christ. Human life has been sacrificed for mankind so Jesus blood represents human life and it has been put on the alter of the true God today so we abstain also from human blood because human life which is in the blood of a human has been put on the alter of the true God.

As a believer in God, do you still have to sacrifice an animal for your sins? No, because grace has excused you from having to do that (the requirement for sacrifice for sin has already been graciously fulfilled for you). Grace didn't make it so you can sin by not offering an animal for your sin. Grace made it so that you don't have to, because the necessity for sacrifice for sin has already been done for you, one time for all time. And so it is for other lawful requirements. In the case of blood, grace opened up the way for you to have the life blood of the sacrifice applied to you, not poured out uselessly on the ground.

This knowledge is why we do not feel compelled to abstain from eating the blood of an animal. We understand what abstention from blood was all about. You don't have to agree with that. But you do have to understand our argument and represent it correctly. Just as we have given you the courtesy of properly understanding yours.

This knowledge Christendom abuses which is why so much sexual immorality is among them among many other sins, and those members who practice some form of sexual immorality are still considered fine upstanding christians. Christendom members use grace as an excuse to practice sin and then erroneously reason that's how true christians are.

 

[BARNEY BRIGHT]

I didn't make that claim! Start listening! I never said the original prohibition against blood was about idol worship. I said the prohibition against blood in Acts 15 is about blood used in idol worship! The blood itself is not prohibited (Christ commands us to eat the blood of His Sacrifice in this New Covenant). Partaking of blood as part of the pagan worship rituals of that time is what the council prohibited!

I am listening, I just won't agree with your reasoning. I know what you said, that you said the blood concerning Acts 15:28,29 only had to do with ritual sacrifice concerning idols.
However when concerning Acts 15:28,29 Jesus’ half brother James brought to the council’s attention certain essential things that he deemed important to include in their decision, namely, “to abstain from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood.” Acts 15:19-21. James was referring back to the writings of Moses, which reveal that even before the Law was given, God had disapproved of immoral sex relations(fornication) idolatry and the eating of blood, which would include eating the flesh of strangled animals containing blood. Genesis 9:3,4; 19:1-25; 34:31; 35:2-4.

As I told you, when God forbid humans to eat blood it had nothing to do with idols it had everything to do with true worship of the true God. This is true concerning fornication. Not having anything to do with fornication had nothing to with rituals concerning idols. True servants of the true God even before the law covenant was in force abstained from fornication and blood and had nothing to do with idols. This is still true for servants of the true God. Servants of the true God still have nothing to do with idols even though they're saved by grace, true servants of the true God still still having to do with fornication even though they're saved by grace, true servants of the true God still have nothing to do with taking blood in their bodies in any kind of way, even though they're saved by grace. When it comes to growing spiritually in the kind of love for the true God you are to have you abstain from the things God tells you to abstain from.

 

[BARNEY BRIGHT]

Yes, but if you eat the meat of a strangled animal, or commit fornication, or eat food sacrificed to an idol, or eat blood, in a pagan ritual sacrifice, that is the blood they did not want the gentiles to eat. Grace opened up the way to have the life blood of the Sacrifice applied to the believer, but it did not make it so you can cause division, and cause someone—Jews particularly—to stumble by eating food sacrificed to idols. A common practice of the day.

Jehovah witnesses doesn't have divisions in it's organization, that's Christendom that has so many divisions and denominations in it. We haven't caused those divisions Christendom has, and it's because that Christendom members don't agree as they should and they certainly don't have the love they suppose to have among themselves.

 

[BARNEY BRIGHT]

The bolded is an outright lie, especially because you offered no biblical proof to back it up. Does God's grace allow people to commit idolatry, blasphemy, adultery, murder, and other sins with no consequence? No. Barney Bright did not misrepresent your argument because the bolded betrays the fact that you're selling lawless theology. Grace is not a license to disregard God's commandments or His laws, and Paul was emphatically clear about this:

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" - Rom. 6:1-2

"Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law. - Rom. 3:31

"Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters." - 1 Cor. 7:19

Like other antinomians, you throw the baby out with the bathwater by assuming Christians don't have to abide by the moral principles required in the Law because Christ's sacrifice made the need for animal sacrifices obsolete, and that simply not the case at all. Everything that God said was sin under the former covenant is still sin under the current covenant. That hasn't been replaced or abolished by anything.
This a thousand times wrong, and the Bible shows why:

“But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood." - Gen. 9:4

‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’ “Therefore I said to the children of Israel, ‘No one among you shall eat blood, nor shall any stranger who dwells among you eat blood.’" - Lev. 17:11-12

Contrary to your claim, it has nothing to do with idol worship. Again, this is not a matter of someone misunderstanding your position but a matter of you selling bogus theology as biblical. The edict from Acts 15 concerns laws God already revealed in the OT, because everything the apostles taught and enforced can be traced directly back to the Law. Incidentally enough, it also disproves the widespread fallacy that the Acts 15 edict told people to disregard those laws.

Thank you for what you said. I like Paul understand we are saved by grace but too many in the past and today use grace as an excuse to disregard what God tells us to do and who he wants us to be. We can't practice any kind of sin and then use grace as an excuse.

 

[Ferris Bueller]

You think the only reason you abstain from blood is because it has to do with idols.

For one, I do not abstain from blood. But neither do I eat it. I'm an American of European descent and I know of no recipes for eating blood. I wouldn't even if I did, lol. It's a HUGE non-issue for me personally.

Secondly, the reason given in Acts 15 has to do with idols. The reason God gave in the OT has nothing to do with idol worship as far as I know. God gave the command to set the stage for when his people would eat blood—the blood of Christ—and derive the life blood from it. That is the argument.

You can disagree all you want but you are the ones who use grace as an excuse to sin.

Uh, no.
Grace does not give us license to sin. Grace makes eating blood no longer a sin. Get the argument right. You are free to think it is still a sin, but you are not free to misrepresent what I'm saying.

 

[Ferris Bueller]

...blood being shed on the alter of God means this life was sacrificed for mankind and God views life as precious and holy. So out of respect for the fact that life has been put on the alter of the true God you abstain from blood because blood represents life. The animals sacrificed foreshadowed the greater sacrifice Jesus Christ. Human life has been sacrificed for mankind so Jesus blood represents human life and it has been put on the alter of the true God today so we abstain also from human blood because human life which is in the blood of a human has been put on the alter of the true God.

And yet Christ commands us to eat his blood. So your explanation falls apart.

You keep believing what you want to believe because I wouldn't want you to sin against your conscience. I'm not here to change your mind. But I also want you to understand why believers like me are not bound by your conscience about the matter. We can see the reason why God commanded that the blood not be eaten, and how it leads us to see and appreciate that we are commanded to eat Christ's blood in this New Covenant. Christ Himself plainly and pointedly said the life blood of His blood Sacrifice IS eaten, which completely contradicts the explanation you gave above for not eating blood, and completely contradicts the law of Moses. So I have the liberty that this knowledge gives. You don't, and so you should remain in your abstention from blood, because it really is a sin for you to consume blood, because you think it's a sin. So you are indeed sinning if you consume blood. I'm not because I know that it's not a sin. But as I say, it's a big fat non-issue for me anyway since I don't eat meals of blood anyway. And furthermore, I've already 'eaten' the blood of Christ, so if that's a sin I've already committed it. Guilty as charged.

 

[Ferris Bueller]

This knowledge Christendom abuses which is why so much sexual immorality is among them among many other sins, and those members who practice some form of sexual immorality are still considered fine upstanding christians. Christendom members use grace as an excuse to practice sin and then erroneously reason that's how true christians are.

Not me, bud.
Your whole argument is based on your false premise that we say grace makes it so we can sin the sin of eating blood. But the actual argument is eating blood is no longer a sin (Christ Himself commands us to eat His blood). Therefore, your argument above is false because it's based on a false premise. Sexual immorality is another issue altogether. That is a sin. Anyone who calls themselves a brother or sister who lives in sexual immorality is going to the lake of fire when Christ returns, unless they repent. Your complaint is about fake or fallen Christians, not about true Christians.

 

[BARNEY BRIGHT]

And yet Christ commands us to eat his blood. So your explanation falls apart.

You keep believing what you want to believe because I wouldn't want you to sin against your conscience. I'm not here to change your mind. But I also want you to understand why believers like me are not bound by your conscience about the matter. We can see the reason why God commanded that the blood not be eaten, and how it leads us to see and appreciate that we are commanded to eat Christ's blood in this New Covenant. Christ Himself plainly and pointedly said the life blood of His blood Sacrifice IS eaten, which completely contradicts the explanation you gave above for not eating blood, and completely contradicts the law of Moses. So I have the liberty that this knowledge gives. You don't, and so you should remain in your abstention from blood, because it really is a sin for you to consume blood, because you think it's a sin. So you are indeed sinning if you consume blood. I'm not because I know that it's not a sin. But as I say, it's a big fat non-issue for me anyway since I don't eat meals of blood anyway. And furthermore, I've already 'eaten' the blood of Christ, so if that's a sin I've already committed it. Guilty as charged.

h
Those Jews back then thought Jesus was being literal he was being literal

 

[Ferris Bueller]

true servants of the true God still have nothing to do with taking blood in their bodies in any kind of way, even though they're saved by grace.

"...unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you." John 6:53

The life blood of Jesus goes into the believer. You say that is forbidden "in any kind of way". You say that is a sin. Jesus obviously does not agree with you. I'm going with Jesus on this one. You just keep believing what you believe.

 

[Ferris Bueller]

Those Jews back then thought Jesus was being literal he was being literal

↓↓↓

...true servants of the true God still have nothing to do with taking blood in their bodies in any kind of way

And I tell you that the true servants of God have everything to do with taking the life blood of the Sacrifice into their bodies. It is the false servants of God that haven't eaten the blood of the Sacrifice in this New Covenant.

 

[Ferris Bueller]

...too many in the past and today use grace as an excuse to disregard what God tells us to do and who he wants us to be. We can't practice any kind of sin and then use grace as an excuse.

"...if one of the common people sins unintentionally and does what is prohibited by any of the LORD’s commandments, he incurs guilt. 28When he becomes aware of the sin he has committed, he must bring an unblemished female goat as his offering for that sin." Levitucus 4:27-28​

Do we not have to do this anymore because grace is our excuse to not do it, or do we not have to do this anymore because grace makes not doing this no longer a sin?

 

[Ferris Bueller]

We can't practice any kind of sin and then use grace as an excuse.

I agree completely. What you can't see is some things simply aren't sin anymore. We do see that. But to you it looks like we're sinning.

 

[BARNEY BRIGHT]

And yet Christ commands us to eat his blood. So your explanation falls apart.

You keep believing what you want to believe because I wouldn't want you to sin against your conscience. I'm not here to change your mind. But I also want you to understand why believers like me are not bound by your conscience about the matter. We can see the reason why God commanded that the blood not be eaten, and how it leads us to see and appreciate that we are commanded to eat Christ's blood in this New Covenant. Christ Himself plainly and pointedly said the life blood of His blood Sacrifice IS eaten, which completely contradicts the explanation you gave above for not eating blood, and completely contradicts the law of Moses. So I have the liberty that this knowledge gives. You don't, and so you should remain in your abstention from blood, because it really is a sin for you to consume blood, because you think it's a sin. So you are indeed sinning if you consume blood. I'm not because I know that it's not a sin. But as I say, it's a big fat non-issue for me anyway since I don't eat meals of blood anyway. And furthermore, I've already 'eaten' the blood of Christ, so if that's a sin I've already committed it. Guilty as charged.

My explanation doesn't fall apart, I know Jesus wasn't being literal like those Jews did who left and never came back to listen to him again. I know Jesus wasn't teaching cannibalism.
The only problem here is like I said, you teach that it's ok to not abstain from all forms of sexual immorality. Why do I say that? Because you say it's not necessary that we abstain from blood, and things strangled, and from meats offered to idols or false gods. The problem with you saying that is, this scripture at Acts 15:28, 29 is telling us that just as it's necessary that we abstain from all forms of sexual immorality, which is what the word fornication means, so it's just as necessary to abstain from blood, from things strangled, and from meats offered to idols. If you say concerning this scripture, we don't have to abstain from blood, from things strangled and meats offer to idols but then say we do have to abstain from all forms of sexual immorality, then you're taking that scripture out of context, actually you're twisting that scripture to make it mean what you want it to mean. This is not what that scripture is actually saying because as I said this scripture is saying that just as it's necessary to abstain from all forms of sexual immorality the context of this scripture is saying it's just as necessary that you abstain from blood, things strangled, and from meats offered to idols.

 

[BARNEY BRIGHT]

"...if one of the common people sins unintentionally and does what is prohibited by any of the LORD’s commandments, he incurs guilt. 28When he becomes aware of the sin he has committed, he must bring an unblemished female goat as his offering for that sin." Levitucus 4:27-28​

Do we not have to do this anymore because grace is our excuse to not do it, or do we not have to do this anymore because grace makes not doing this no longer a sin?

I understand that we are saved by grace, but grace doesn't excuse you when you sin. I understand that there are sins that we may be doing that we are not aware of and every day we should ask God to forgive our trespasses. However most people already know it's wrong to steal, murder, cheat on your husband or wife, etc. So when a person/persons who says he/she is a Christian and has an affair they already know they're practicing sin. They can act like they're ignorant of wrong doing but they know it's wrong for them to have an affair. Grace doesn't excuse what they're doing. Now if such people finally come to their senses and are truly sorry for what they have done and ask forgiveness and end the affair then God will forgive them that's true, but you still don't use grace as an excuse that having the affair was ok.

 

[BARNEY BRIGHT]

I agree completely. What you can't see is some things simply aren't sin anymore. We do see that. But to you it looks like we're sinning.

If you don't obey Acts 15:28, 29 which tells us it's necessary that we abstain from all forms of sexual immorality and you reason that you don't have to abstain from blood, from things strangled or meats sacrificed to idols then you are saying that it's not necessary to abstain from all forms of sexual immorality too. The context of this scripture is that all these things are necessary to abstain from, not the ones you pick and choose we must abstain from.

 

[BARNEY BRIGHT]

No, of course not. But grace does allow us to stop worshiping according to the old covenant. For example, the people of God no longer need the old covenant sacrifices for sin now that Christ satisfied those requirements one time for all time with the Sacrifice of Himself. This is a perfect example of the fact that you can't be guilty of not doing something in the law that you no longer need to do.

But in Acts 15:28, 29 we're not talking about the law covenant, we're taking about things that true servants of the true God had nothing to do with even before the law covenant was instituted. True servants of the true God had nothing to do with idols or anything associate with idols, including the meat sacrifice to idols, true servants of the true God had nothing to do with Adultery or any other form of sexual immorality, which is what the word fornication means, true servants of the true God had nothing to do with eating blood which including having nothing to do with an animal that had been strangled because the blood was still in the animal even though the animal was dead. The scripture at Acts 15:28,29 show us these things that the true servants of the true God had to abstain from before the law covenant was instituted still are necessary to abstain from today. So just as it's necessary for a true servant of the true God to abstain from all forms of sexual immorality such as adultery, beastiality, homosexuality, etc. It's just as necessary to abstain from blood, from things strangled, and from meats sacrificed to idols.