Bull,
Good to see that you have an open mind. Do have another read. I think you will see how ridiculous the "do not eat" argument is with respect to the WTS blood ban.
Thank you pistoff and peaceful for you excellent comments.
Regards,
Sam
Watchtower says "Don?t Eat Blood"
by Sam Beli 22 Replies latest watchtower medical
-
-
Crooked Lumpy Vessel
I got this excerpt from the web site http://www.xjw.com/blood.html
What you wont read this in any Awake! magazine...
Consider just one example, taken from an article in Discover magazine
of August, 1988. Beginning at age 42, a Witness woman had had
surgical removal of recurring bladder tumors over a period of several
years. This last time she had waited overly long to see her doctor, was
bleeding heavily, and was severely anemic. She insisted that she was
not to receive a transfusion and this refusal was respected.Over a period of a week urologists tried unsuccessfully to stem the
bleeding. Her blood count continued to drop. The doctor writing the
article describes what took place:
The doctor writing the article relates her feelings on arriving at the_Gradually, as her blood count dropped further, Ms. Peyton
became short of breath. The body's organs need a certain amount
of oxygen to function. That oxygen is carried from the lungs
to the periphery by hemoglobin molecules in the red cells. . . . The
medical team gave Ms. Peyton supplemental oxygen through a
mask until she was breathing virtually pure O 2 . The few red cells
she had were fully loaded--but there just weren't enough vehicles
left to transport the fuel her body needed._Her hunger for air increased. Her respiratory rate climbed. She
became more and more groggy, and finally--inevitably--the
muscle fibers of her heart declared their desperate need for oxygen.
She developed crushing, severe chest pain.
patient's room:
_The woman went into cardiac arrest. A team of doctors and nurses_As I walked into the room. . . I was awed by the scene in front
of me. At the center of everyone's attention was a large woman
with an oxygen mask, gasping for air, breathing faster than seemed
humanly possible. At the head of the bed were three friends, fellow
church [witness] members, coaching her. . . . At her side were
several doctors--one monitoring her falling blood pressure, another
coaxing some blood from an artery. The fluid that slowly filled
the syringe had the consistency of Hawaiian Punch; tests on the
same revealed a red cell count of only 9 [normal would have been
40]. Hanging from the bed rail was a bag of cherry-red urine. The
woman was dying. Her cardiogram tracings showed the deep
valleys that signal a heart in pain. Within a matter of hours the
damage they represented would become irreversible.
began cardiopulmonary resuscitation, administered epinephrine and
atropine, then an electrical jolt to the heart. It fluttered into activity,
then stopped again. More CPR, more epinephrine and atropine, another
electrical jolt, more CPR. This went on for one hour until there was no
longer any hope or purpose. The patient was dead beyond recovery.
_The physician describing this did not characterize the woman as simply
a fanatic. She writes:_She was an intelligent woman, I was told, who totally understood
the implications of her decision. But her judgment, it seemed to
me, arose from a blind spot imposed by her faith. l8 -
woody02302
I'm sorry if i sound stupid but i never heard some of these arguments about blood...please help, i'm a newbeie
-
Sam Beli
Hi Woody, and welcome to the board.
Below are two links to discussions on the blood issue:
-
allpoweredup
Good points. Also see http://www.ajwrb.org and 1 Samuel 14:32-35 says men were forgiven for eating unbled meat to save their lives - never punished, just told to build an altar showing sorry it had been necessary. M ost normal identical twins transfuse whole blood to each other through a shared placenta and childrens' whole blood is sometimes found in mothers years after birth-- the approved arrangement by God using nature.
-
TD
Whilst they couldn't possibly have known about our medical advancements etc, the way in which it is written doesn't denote the medium by which blood is ingested, transfused or any other means. It merely says to ABSTAIN!
Another way to look at Acts 15:29 is simply on grammatical grounds. What the JW's have done in the past is ungrammatical.
For example: I can easily state what it means to "abstain from fornication" as a simple finite negative:
"Do not fornicate."
The reason I can do this is because fornication is the name of a finite act and therefore has a verb form, unlike "blood" and "things strangled" and "things sacrificed to idols" which are the names of physical objects.
Can you state what it means to "abstain from blood" as a simple finite negative?
"Do not ________"
No matter how hard you try, you will be forced to insert the name of a finite act in the blank above. The reason for this is simple:
There is no such thing as abstinence from a physical object.
You can only abstain from acts done in connection with objects.
However the only acts you may legitimately insert in this blank are those which are supported by the immediate context. (e.g. "Eating" or possibly "Tasting" --Compare Phillips, Moffat, TEV)
When the JW's play the grammatical dirty trick of invoking the incomplete predicate, "abstain from blood" as an independant construction they have simply taken advantage of the general lack of education among their members.
-
Sam Beli
Exactly, Tom.
Thank you,
Sam
-
UnDisfellowshipped
Check out this Thread for the newest Watchtower Article on blood, and some great comments about the Society's blood policies:
Peaceful Pete said:
Fornication in this context possibly refers to the temple prostitution popular among the Gentile Christians before conversion and would therefore not be a prohibition about simple sexual contact. The Jews never had a prohibition against this.
I beg to differ on your statement.
Matthew 5:32: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
1st Corinthians 5:1: It is reported commonly [that there is] fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.
1st Corinthians 7:2: Nevertheless, [to avoid] fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
1st Corinthians 10:8: Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
Jude 1:7: Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
"Fornication" in the Bible meant ANY sexual act between non-married people.
-
bull01lay
undisfellowshipped put in his quote:
going after strange flesh
Sounds intriguing!! Can anyone elaborate on this???
-
LittleToe
I'd like to read more on that, Pete.
Paul's comments on fornication mention ajoining oneself with a harlot.
Judah willingly took what he THOUGHT was a harlot, without censure.Regarding the blood thing, it's my understanding that it was to save the new gentile converts from stumbling their Jewish brothers.
Whilst I still dont like the idea of a transfusion (who does?) I would willingly have one, of necessity, since surely preservation of live should come higher even on a JW's list of priorities (eg see repercussions on Saul's men, for eating blood - negligable).