The Watchtower are Right About Blood...

by cofty 556 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  leaving_quietly

  I did read it, and I agree we can concede those four points.
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  Lee Elder

  Blood and the Mosaic Law.
  
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  Island Man

  3. It was a capital offense to use blood for any purpose other than to offer it as a sacrifice on the altar.

  This is actually not entirely correct. You forgot another permissible use of blood outside of the sacrificial process - a use of blood that exposes the JWs' ban on blood transfusions as being illogical. I'm talking about the primary function of blood - the function for which it was created by Jehovah. The prohibition on blood obviously does not apply to our use of our own blood in our veins.

  So there are actually two permissible uses of blood: (1) on the altar (explicitly stated in scripture) and (2) in our veins (not explicitly stated in scripture but obviously implied by the fact that the Law did not instruct or require the Israelites to slit their throats and bleed themselves to death).

  Do not quickly ignore this second, permissible use of blood because it has a direct bearing on the blood transfusion issue!

  Given that using our own blood in our veins does not constitute a violation of the command to abstain from blood; and given further, that the command to abstain from blood says nothing about the source of the blood ("any kind of blood", to wit JWs aren't to be transfused even with their own pre-donated blood); we can logically deduce that using donated blood in our veins would also be permissible.Why?

  Transfused blood is used by the body in the same way and for the same purpose as native blood. Thus we can see logically that the command to abstain from blood - really, abstain from the eating of blood - cannot be applied to transfusions since transfusions involve use blood for a permissible purpose - the same purpose we use our own native blood.

  Eating blood is different by virtue of the fact that it involves equating the soul with food, which has the effect of undermining blood's spiritual value to atone for the life of the sinner on the altar. For "the soul is worth more than food". (Matthew 6:25b)
  
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  TD

  Cofty was speaking within the framework of JW belief. --Not because he believes it, but because this is what JW's accept and it is often more productive in a discussion to concede points that don't contradict the end conclusion of your argument.
  

  
  
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  cofty

  Thank you TD
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  Island Man

  I understand TD. But I'm sure that the JWs will concede that a person's use of his own blood in his veins is also a legitimate use of blood that does not infringe on the command to abstain from blood. And once that is conceded it can then be shown logically that transfusions involve the use of blood in the same way, with the only difference being the source of the blood - which is irrelevant as demonstrated by the fact that JWs make no distinction between transfusing foreign blood and transfusing your own pre-donated blood.
  
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  Vanderhoven7

  Excellent thread
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  cofty

  Thank you Vanderhoven.

  There is a more detailed explanation including the context of Acts 15 at this thread...
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  KiddingMe

  Marking
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  EndofMysteries

  marked