On PJ's " /Are-we-following-men " thread I asked him if he remembered celebrating B-day or receiving vaccines because he has been a JW for 63 years.
Birthdays were officially banned in Oct 1, 1951's QFR (see below at bottom of initial posting)
So if you were a JW before this took place please share your memories of this bygone era....
Also if you remember getting vaccinated for the first time after the Dec 15, 1952 QFR's and are willing to share your stories of both life during and after the ban I would be deeply grateful! Does anyone on the board have a faked acid vaccination mark or remember hearing stories about them from older JWs?
Thank You .......Yknot!
B-day ban:
w51 10/1 p.607 Questions From Readers
Is it proper to have or attend celebrations of birthday anniversaries?—F.K., Nevada.
Such celebrations have their roots in pagan religions, and not Scriptural grounds. Some Bible commentators suggest that birthday celebrations may have had their origin in the “notion of the immortality of the soul”. Astrologers and stargazers laid great stress on offering sacrifices to the gods each year when the stars and planets were in the same position as when one was born. In Egyptian mythology the “birthdays of the gods” were celebrated on certain days, and in Chinese mythology individuals offered special sacrifices on their birthdays to Shou Hsing, the god of longevity. The ancient Anglo-Saxons celebrated the birthday of the “Lord Moon”, spoken of as meni at Isaiah 65:11 (margin), by making cakes “called Nur-Cakes, or Birthcakes”; and candles also are of pagan origin.—See Hislop’s TwoBabylons, pages 95, 191-196.
After telling us that December 25 was the traditional birthday of Nimrod, and not of Jesus, the new book WhatHasReligionDoneforMankind? states: “The inspired Scriptures do not give the birth date of Jesus, and it does not matter, for neither Jesus nor God his Father nor the inspired apostles instructed us to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. The only birthday celebrations that the Holy Scriptures mention are those of pagans, those of Egypt’s Pharaoh and of Herod Antipas who marked his birthday by having John the Baptist’s head chopped off. (Gen. 40:20; Matt. 14:6; Mark 6:21) Christ’s disciples of the first century shunned birthday celebrations as being pagan, unchristian!”
Doubtless many things practiced by Christians today were also practiced by pagans; but when these practices are steeped in false worship contrary to Bible principle they become objectionable. The celebration of birthday anniversaries centers the mind on the creature and exalts the creature, giving him and his birth undue importance. Romans 1:25 (NW) warns of those who “venerated and rendered sacred service to the creation rather than the One who created”. Birthday celebrations could tend to take on this objectionable quality. If Christians wish to come together occasionally for profitable fellowship and relaxation, they do not have to await a day reminiscent of pagan religion. If they wish to present a brother with a gift, they do not have to await the anniversary of the day of his entry into the world, as though that were such a memorable occasion. If the precise day of Jesus’ birth and its remembrance were of no such noteworthiness, whose are?
Vaccination MOCing:
w52 12/15 p.764 Questions From Readers
Is vaccination a violation of God’s law forbidding the taking of blood into the system? —G.C., North Carolina.
The matter of vaccination is one for the individual that has to face it to decide for himself. Each individual has to take the consequences for whatever position and action he takes toward a case of compulsory vaccination, doing so according to his own conscience and his appreciation of what is for good health and the interests of advancing God’s work. And our Society cannot afford to be drawn into the affair legally or take the responsibility for the way the case turns out.
After consideration of the matter, it does not appear to us to be in violation of the everlasting covenant made with Noah, as set down in Genesis 9:4, nor contrary to God’s related commandment at Leviticus 17:10-14. Most certainly it cannot reasonably or Scripturally be argued and proved that, by being vaccinated, the inoculated person is either eating or drinking blood and consuming it as food or receiving a blood transfusion. Vaccination does not bear any relationship to or any likeness to the intermarriage of angelic “sons of God” with the daughters of men, as described in Genesis 6:1-4. Neither can it be put in the same class as described at Leviticus 18:23, 24, which forbids the mingling of humans with animals. It has nothing to do with sex relations.
Hence all objection to vaccination on Scriptural grounds seems to be lacking. The only proper objection that some persons could raise to it would be on the matter of the health risks involved or of keeping their blood stream clean from diseased matter coming from a foreign source, whether from an animal sore or from a human sore. Medical science, in fact, claims that vaccination actually results in building up the vitality of the blood to resist the disease against which the person is inoculated. But, of course, that is a question for each individual concerned to decide for himself and as he sees it to be Jehovah’s will for him.
We merely offer the above information on request, but can assume no responsibility for the decision and course the reader may take.
