by God_Delusion 12 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Excellent, TD ..I was going to quote a passage from a referenced authority, but I think you put it better
Incidentally, on the translated word "Abstain from" :
abstain from
verb refrain from , avoid, decline, give up, stop, refuse, cease, do without, shun, renounce, eschew, leave off, keep from, forgo, withhold from, forbear, desist from, deny yourself, kick (informal) Collins Essential Thesaurus.. Make of it what you will....
---Didn't mean to ignore your original obervation. Sorry. "Abstain" in English does imply action of one's own accord:
To voluntarily keep or prevent oneself from doing or saying something.
God_Delusion, Okay, I'm coming in late... here's a REAL dictionary...
Webster's Ninth "abstain: to refrain deliberately and often with an effort of self-denial from an action or practice"
Anyway, here's the other part of your OP...
"Abstain means that you must run away from", "get as far away from as possible", "have nothing to do with". Those are just a few of the phrases that I remember.
I wouldn't be surprised if you had heard that at the Kingdumb Haul, but technically those phrases refer to "abhor".
(Romans 12:9) 9 Let [YOUR] love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is wicked, cling to what is good.
Webster's Ninth "abhor 1: to regard with extreme repugnance : LOATHE"
For what it's worth, my issue with the JW NWT interpretation of "abstain from blood" is the word "blood":
(Acts 15:29) 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!”
Okay, if that's supposed to mean abstain from blood transfusions... from a living donor, what do these verses mean?
(Matthew 27:24-26) 24 Seeing that it did no good but, rather, an uproar was arising, Pilate took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying: “I am innocent of the blood of this [man]. YOU yourselves must see to it.” 25 At that all the people said in answer: “His blood come upon us and upon our children.” 26 Then he released Bar?ab′bas to them, but he had Jesus whipped and handed him over to be impaled.
(Joshua 2:19) 19 And it must occur that anyone who goes out of the doors of your house into the open, his blood will be upon his own head, and we shall be free from guilt; and everyone who continues with you in the house, his blood will be on our heads if a hand should come upon him.
(Acts 20:26) 26 Hence I call YOU to witness this very day that I am clean from the blood of all men,
Those verses aren't refering to Pilate or the people or Paul or the Israelites drinking the blood of living or dead humans.
While Acts 15:29 can refer to the Mosaic Law prohibition on eating blood, it's my opinion that "abstain from blood" primarily means "abstain from incurring bloodguilt".
B the X
