Hey, sorry if you find this a little personal but that's the idea of this section and I'd just move on if you don't like it-
anyway, why do believe the soul is contaminated when you give blood?
When
A) god should be able to purify it, surely?
B) Your blood cells live for up to 4 months maximum, almost the smallest lifespan of a cell in the body so it should be a poor candidate for holding something eternal.
C) Your blood is constantly dealing with wave after wave of viruses and other pathogensin it, so it is pretty much never pure, and even seperates and kills unmatching blood types or organs, so I would've thought being unique an organ would've been the likeliest candidate.
If I have anything a little wrong on your religion then please inform me in your answer and sorry if it's offensively off. The Witnesses misapply several biblical passages in an attempt to support their theory. Immediately after the Flood, God forbade Noah to 鈥渆at鈥?of 鈥渇lesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof鈥?(Genesis 9:4). Later, in connection with certain animal sacrifices, the law of Moses stated: 鈥淵ou shall eat neither fat nor blood鈥?(Leviticus 3:17). Do the Witnesses avoid all 鈥渇at鈥? The Lord declared that he was against the soul 鈥渢hat eats blood,鈥?the reason being, the 鈥渓ife of the flesh is in the blood鈥?(Leviticus 17:10-11). 鈥淏lood鈥?was viewed as the depository of 鈥渓ife.鈥?br>
The purpose of this regulation doubtless was due to the fact that Jehovah had appointed blood as a fitting symbol for the atonement process. As Israel was being trained in the concepts of sin and salvation, the sanctity of blood was employed as a visual aid in their spiritual education.
It should be noted, however, that animal blood was under consideration in these texts, and it was the eating/drinking of that blood that was forbidden. These ancient passages have nothing whatever to do with the modern medical practice of transfusing blood to sustain physical life. There is a vast difference between drinking blood and receiving a blood transfusion.
Similarly in the New Testament, instructions are given which exhort Christians to abstain from blood (Acts 15:20,29). In this instance, the allusion is perhaps to pagan, ritualistic ceremonies in which blood would be drunk. Whatever the background, there is no relationship between those ancient practices and modern, life-saving medical techniques.
God bless! We do not question the bibles teachings.
鈥淭he holy spirit and we ourselves [the governing body of the Christian congregation] have favoured adding no further burden to you, except these necessary things, to keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled [or, killed without draining their blood] and from fornication. If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, you will prosper. Good health to you!"
Acts 15:28,29
This was not a new "Christian" teaching, it was always the way of our Great God. He also included it in the Mosaic Law. x The command at Acts 15 does not just mention abstaining from blood that is eaten, because it commands all Christians (not just Jehovah's Witnesses) to abstain from things strangled (unbled meat), but blood itself is mentioned seperatley.
Of course, the Bible does not command that Christians must abstain from blood if it is injected. No doubt because such a procedure was not in use at the time. It simply says: "Abstain from blood." Would it be reasonable to conclude that God does not want us to eat blood but that it is somehow acceptable to take it into our bodies by another means?
It is true that God commanded Noah not to eat animal blood, but is it reasonable to think that God would allow the consumption of human blood? here is information you can read about it.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2... for Jehovah Witnesses blood transfusions.
it is for your own personal. Each one of us deicde differently. get ready for this... it's in the bible (groan)
there's a bit of dietary advice in Acts (I think) about not eating blood and now they think this means to avoid anything to do with blood products... I don't know how they deal with a nice tender steak but whatever It is a command from the bible.
They follow the command without question.
Acts 15:28,29 Blood doesn't *contaminate* the soul. The soul is *in* the blood.
Leviticus 17:10, 11 - I shall certainly set my face against the soul that is eating the blood, and I shall indeed cut him off from among his people. For the soul of the flesh is in the blood.
Humans *are* souls. There don't *have* souls. Even animals are souls. The soul is not eternal. It is the life that an individual enjoys.
Genesis 1:24
Let the earth put forth living souls according to their kinds, domestic animal and moving animal and wild beast of the earth according to its kind.
Genesis 2:7
The man came to be a living soul.
Ezekiel 18:4
The soul that is sinning鈥攊t itself will die. People often think that Jehovah's Witnesses "withhold" medical treatment or blood from themselves or loved ones or even children to the point of death as some fanatical religions do. While this has been an unfortunate situation that we have been put in where no alternative was available to us, usually not by our doing and sometimes by the very system itself and faith itself was what we are left with as we simply will not violate Jehovah's command to "abstain from Blood" to the point of death rather than loose out on our opportunity on eternal life for ourselves and those who'se province we have been given such as our children and those in our household.
The reality is that we seek alternative and bloodless treatment as many Jehovah's Witnesses are Doctors and Medical professionals as I myself while not a clinical professional worked in a Health care field.
I promise you, no one of us is in a big hurry to prove any points. to be any Martyrs, cause any events or anything to that degree. We only seek alternative treatment that is bloodless and wish that no one got sick to begin with which will happen soon enough.
EDIT: Ask Rev Kip if it's okay for an Opium or Heroin addict to stop shooting up and switch off and start taking oral Oxycontin or Vice Versa....
I don't know who this Reverend is but by the looks of many of his other responses...he should double check the accreditation of his academic institution that he puts so much faith and identity in as he is woefully il-informed with respect to Jehovah's Wtnesses and needs to attend a Kingdom Hall and actually associate with us for a while to receive some accurate information. I would be embarressed, ashamed, to call myself an expert or specialist, whatever..... A "soul" is a life.
"The soul that is sinning - it itself will die."
If an Israelite violated the law by eating or touching an animal, fish, or bird that was considered unclean under the law, they were simply considered unclean themselves until evening. Not so the person who ate blood. They were not merely considered ceremonially unclean until evening鈥攖hey were to be put to death. God outlawed the eating of blood, not because it was unclean in his eyes, as were certain types of animals, but because blood is holy to Jehovah. They do it because they are a fanatical cult, nothing more, nothing less. My ex-girlfriend was a JW and during our relationship I got a peek inside the workings of this "religion", and my word they are one rabid lot. They follow the bible's obscure (hey, lets' face it, it was written in Hebrew, translated into Aramaic, then Latin, then English at a much later date...none of which will transliterate accurately into the next language) instructions not to drink blood, which is a fine principle, but a bit of a stretch from there to blood transfusions. Having seen the JW's close up, and how they totally brainwash their children into believing this garbage, I am certain that they are the most utterly detestable cult operating today. God told all mankind that they must not eat blood. Why? Because blood represents life. (Genesis 9:3-6) God himself explained the principle underlying those sacrifices: "The soul [or, life] of the flesh is in the blood, and I myself have put it upon the altar for you to make atonement for your souls, because it is the blood that makes atonement by the soul in it. That is why I have said to the sons of Israel: 'No soul of you must eat blood.'"鈥擫eviticus 17:11, 12.
When we understand what God says about blood, we come to have the greatest respect for its lifesaving value. The Scriptures describe Christ as the one who 'loves us and who loosed us from our sins by means of his own blood.' (Revelation 1:5; John 3:16)
Patients are protected from many hazards if they request nonblood medical management.
We are not being naive in this matter...
Note, there are alternatives.
The hemoglobin in the red cells carries oxygen needed for good health and life. So if a person has lost a lot of blood, it might seem logical just to replace it. Normally you have about 14 or 15 grams of hemoglobin in every 100 cubic centimeters of blood. (Another measure of the concentration is hematocrit, which is commonly about 45 percent.) The accepted "rule" was to transfuse a patient before surgery if his hemoglobin was below 10 (or 30 percent hematocrit). The Swiss journal Vox Sanguinis (March 1987) reported that "65% of [anesthesiologists] required patients to have a preoperative hemoglobin of 10 gm/dl for elective surgery."
Volume replacement can be accomplished without using whole blood or blood plasma.* Various nonblood fluids are effective volume expanders. The simplest is saline (salt) solution, which is both inexpensive and compatible with our blood. There are also fluids with special properties, such as dextran, Haemaccel, and lactated Ringer's solution. Hetastarch (HES) is a newer volume expander, and "it can be safely recommended for those [burn] patients who object to blood products." (Journal of Burn Care & Rehabilitation, January/February 1989) Such fluids have definite advantages.
You may ask, though, 'Why do nonblood replacement fluids work well, since I need red cells to get oxygen throughout my body?' As mentioned, you have oxygen-carrying reserves. If you lose blood, marvelous compensatory mechanisms start up. Your heart pumps more blood with each beat. Since the lost blood was replaced with a suitable fluid, the now diluted blood flows more easily, even in the small vessels. As a result of chemical changes, more oxygen is released to the tissues. These adaptations are so effective that if only half of your red cells remain, oxygen delivery may be about 75 percent of normal. A patient at rest uses only 25 percent of the oxygen available in his blood. And most general anesthetics reduce the body's need for oxygen. Hi. For me personally, I believe that God exists, and I believe the bible is the word of God. Throughout the bible, God's stance on blood has been a recurring theme.
Genesis 9:3-5
3 Every moving animal that is alive may serve as food for YOU. As in the case of green vegetation, I do give it all to YOU. 4 Only flesh with its soul鈥攊ts blood鈥擸OU must not eat. 5 And, besides that, YOUR blood of YOUR souls shall I ask back. From the hand of every living creature shall I ask it back; and from the hand of man, from the hand of each one who is his brother, shall I ask back the soul of man.
Leviticus 17:10-12
10 鈥溾€楢s for any man of the house of Israel or some alien resident who is residing as an alien in YOUR midst who eats any sort of blood, I shall certainly set my face against the soul that is eating the blood, and I shall indeed cut him off from among his people. 11 For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I myself have put it upon the altar for YOU to make atonement for YOUR souls, because it is the blood that makes atonement by the soul [in it]. 12 That is why I have said to the sons of Israel: 鈥淣o soul of YOU must eat blood and no alien resident who is residing as an alien in YOUR midst should eat blood.鈥?
Leviticus 17:13, 14
鈥溾€楢s for any man of the sons of Israel or some alien resident who is residing as an alien in YOUR midst who in hunting catches a wild beast or a fowl that may be eaten, he must in that case pour its blood out and cover it with dust. 14 For the soul of every sort of flesh is its blood by the soul in it. Consequently I said to the sons of Israel: 鈥淵OU must not eat the blood of any sort of flesh, because the soul of every sort of flesh is its blood. Anyone eating it will be cut off.鈥?br>
Deuteronomy 12:23-25
23 Simply be firmly resolved not to eat the blood, because the blood is the soul and you must not eat the soul with the flesh. 24 You must not eat it. You should pour it out upon the ground as water. 25 You must not eat it, in order that it may go well with you and your sons after you, because you will do what is right in Jehovah鈥檚 eyes.
Ezekiel 33:25
25 鈥淭herefore say to them, 鈥楾his is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: 鈥淲ith the blood YOU keep eating, and YOUR eyes YOU keep lifting to YOUR dungy idols, and blood YOU keep pouring out. So should YOU possess the land?
Acts 21:25
25 As for the believers from among the nations, we have sent out, rendering our decision that they should keep themselves from what is sacrificed to idols as well as from blood and what is strangled and from fornication.鈥?br>
Acts 21:29
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!鈥?/div>
Source(s):
The Holy Scriptures |
