by RedhorseWoman 31 Replies latest jw friends
The latest WT Questions from Readers on blood. Fractions of all "primary" components are now allowed?
Is this saying that everything is allowed except when they're combined together? We can eat sugar, flour, eggs, butter, and vanilla...but not the completed cake?
Someone help me out here.
Hi, RHW.
I was confused by this, also. In their own warped way, I think the WTS is trying to slooooowly change their doctrine on blood to the eventual point of it being a total conscience decision. In the meantime, people will suffer and die because of their ignorance toward their own religions ambiguous rules.
Yes, Red, I think that's the idea now. You have the pieces but you can't have the whole. You can take components from other people's blood but you cannot give any of your own for them to use. ...and all of that from the simple phrase 'abstain from blood' ???
This is soooo sad for our bro's and sis' who have lost loved ones due to their stand against blood. They must feel quite cheated by the Society's changes to this issue.
How do you explain to someone who has lost their child like this, that "oops" we had it wrong.
RHW,
THe Watchtower stand against blood transfusions is getting more complicated as the years go by. I believe that the Society is slowly changing their stand against blood and allowing more and more componants that are made of blood itself to be transfused into the JW. It is the ignorance of the Society and the JW alike that this policy remains.
The way I have seen it for a few years now, according to the WT Society, blood is sacred because THE LIFE IS IN THE BLOOD.
MARCH 1,1989 WT PAGE 30 SAYS: "GODS DETERMINATION IS THAT BLOOD REPRESENTS LIFE AND THUS IS SACRED.
According to the WT, BLOOD IS SACRED BECAUSE OF THE LIFE IN IT. It is not the blood which is sacred, it is the life.
I see it like this.
Without the life, the material substance blood, is nothing, it means nothing.It is only the "symbol" of life. If you think about it deeply, the WT Society blood policy destroys the life, which is SACRED, to spare the blood, which means nothing without the life. They destroy the real thing to protect the symbol. Life is sacred in its own right. Blood is not. Blood is meaningless without the life.
I would have a hard time adhearing to this policy if my kids needed blood.
Very interesting points, SC. I had never looked at it quite this way.
I know firsthand of the pain that the no-blood policy can cause. My dad was taking a blood thinner for his heart problems. My mom had gone into the hospital for a minor procedure, but my dad always worried himself sick whenever my mom was laid up.
Needless to say, he got so tense that a fissure broke open in his colon. Now, Dad was also a stoic. He said nothing to anyone about the fact that this fissure was bleeding almost constantly.
After my mom got home several days later, she discovered what had happened. By the time Dad got to the hospital, he had lost a massive amount of blood. Due to the blood thinner he was taking, they could not get his blood to clot.
We were faced with a major decision. With a transfusion, it was 100% certain that Dad would recover totally. Without a transfusion, it was 100% certain that he would bleed to death.
My mom was totally torn apart by this. I didn't know what to do, but I did know that it was my dad's decision. Mom and I tried to urge him not to take blood, but I'll be perfectly honest....part of me wished fervently that he would take it.
Dad did make the decision to take the transfusion, and he recovered quickly and totally.
The reason he did so brings up another issue altogether, but it was something that shook my belief structure just a little more. Dad had a near-death experience. He told me later that it was because of that that he decided to take the transfusion.
He said he was traveling down a dark tunnel towards a wonderful, bright light. He felt eager to reach it. As he neared the light, however, he felt a presence at his side and a "hand" on his shoulder. This presence turned him around and told him that it was not yet time for Dad to leave, but that Dad had additional things that needed to be completed.
It was the revelation that he needed to complete additional things for his children that caused my father to regain consciousness and ask for the blood transfusion.
The only difference, I guess, is that you might have to add chocolate for a different flavor - and that might get you disfellowshipped. We must follow the ingredient list - just don't eat the whole darned thing.
I have never quite gotten a grip on the concept of near death experiences. However, I have never been near death - so like others in my shoes - our opinion doesn't mean much. Only the person who experiences such things is the authority. I'm glad you got to keep your dad with you.
The blood issue is progressing to the point of what Jesus said of the pharisees - "they strain at the nat, but swallow the whole thing" or something like that. There's a lot of straining going on, in my opinion.
I really wonder WHY the changes.
Is it really a matter of the light getting brighter,
or is it just that the legal system is getting stronger and goes after any issue that causes people to lose their lives?
Can you imagine the law suit against the society if Armageddon doesn't arrive as they promise?
It would be HUGE!!!
I address this to all readers, but particularly to Scorpion. Blood is sacred in Jehovah's eyes because blood is the source of life. If you understand the composition of blood and how it functions in our body, how all it's components, individually and collectively, sustains us on a cellular level, then you will appreciate that blood is not something that can be "fractionalized" and Scripturally admissable. The Bible does not "fractionalize" blood...it clearly states to "abstain" from it. If even the smallest fraction of one component of our blood becomes out of balance, we will suffer some effect. Some argue that life is a result or respiration. Granted, we have to breath to live, but it is our oxygenated blood that keeps us alive. Without our blood our cells would die. Although the Society seems to be gradually softening their view with regards to this issue, it does not negate what the Bible, the Word of God, says! I prefer to follow the word of God. In my opinion, this command is not flexible when it is clearly stated. I trust that Jehovah, as our Creator, understands our composition, and He knows and wants what is best for us.
The Bible does not "fractionalize" blood...it clearly states to "abstain" from it.
When was the last time you had a nice glass of cow's Milk?
D8TA
D8TA v2.0
