Past Watchtower Society Comments On Vaccines

by BluesBrother 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  BluesBrother

  Today there is a lot of hope placed in a vaccines to immunise against Covid 19 , and relief that they are soon to be available. That will be shared by the eight million or so JWs in this world.

  They should be thankful that the WTS has moved away from its teaching ,that lasted for decades , proclaiming that vaccination was wrong, and a tool of Satan. ....e.g.

  Golden Age 1921 October 12 p.17
  "Vaccination never prevented anything and never will, and is the most barbarous practice...We are in the last days; and the devil is slowly losing his hold, making a strenuous effort meanwhile to do all the damage he can, and to his credit can such evils be placed...Use your rights as American citizens to forever abolish the devilish practice of vaccinations."
  
  Golden Age 1931 February 4 p.293
  "Vaccination is a direct violation of the everlasting covenant that God made with Noah after the flood."

  And an illustration in Golden Age May 1939

  
  

  I am advised that it was not until the 1950s that the policy was changed and “new light “ allowed them to make their own personal decision. I have not seen any negative comments in my experience.

  So, their are millions of Witnesses who should be glad that the belief changed. After all it is not just the Covid vaccine. All the childhood jabs we had for protection against such things as diphtheria, polio, MMR etc. Foreign travel would not be available to them without the required inoculations against tropical diseases..

  You know, I would bet the vast majority of them are blissfully unaware of this strange doctrine in their past......

  [Edit to credit JWFacts.com for the quotes]
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  Funky

  Too much time has passed by now, but when I was a younger man, you'd still occasionally run into a Rutherford-era old-timer JW who was still absolutely dead-set against vaccinations (and aluminum cookware and the pretty much the entire medical profession in general) and who would let you know in no uncertain terms that you ought to agree with him.
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  WTWizard

  It should be a personal choice--not enforced by the government or the washtowel (nor prohibited). You feel that the vaccine will do you more good than harm after doing objective research, then go ahead and take it. (And if some competitor makes a better vaccine that does more good than harm, take that instead.) If you feel the shot does more harm than good, then don't waste your time or gamble your health on it.

  My "vaccine": Taking 800 mg quercetin (a bioflavonoid) along with 50 mg zinc as gluconate, plus 5000 units vitamin D during fall and winter (when the sun is weakest) is the first part. Then being somewhat sloppy at protecting myself from this virus while taking the supplements is the "vaccine". I get exposed to it, while the supplements prevent serious problems. The risks are negligible--the biggest is choking on one of the pills (quite tiny), and the benefits are that my immune system gets a boost.
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  IWant2Leave

  New light came about in the 1950's because the top brass couldn't travel out of the country without vaccinations. Air travel was really taking off! Suddenly the heavens opened and its ok!
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  JWTom

  You know, I would bet the vast majority of them are blissfully unaware of this strange doctrine in their past......

  Most JWs have little knowledge about the crazy past of WTBTS, little understanding of the orgs. position on blood/blood fractions and no understanding of the detailed doctrinal beliefs (things like Joels prophecy).
  
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  TD

  To be fair though, the discovery of vaccines predates the discovery of viruses.

  People knew that they worked, but they did not know why.

  This led to "vaccines" being concocted from the blood, and pus of the infected.

  This was tried during the influenza of 1918 and it's documented in books on the subject. As you can imagine, it did much more harm than good.

  The JW's retained their opposition to vaccines for decades after the efficacy had been proven, but it did have a basis in fact around the turn of the 19th century
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  ScenicViewer

  Small Pox was a major reason to get vaccinated during the time when JWs were rejecting that treatment.

  According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Small Pox is the only human disease to be eradicated from the planet Earth. (I seem to remember reading about one other human disease that is now gone too, but I can't remember what it was.)

  The last case of Small Pox happened in the 1980s thanks to the vaccination against it, and no thanks to the Watchtower Organization of Jehovah's Witnesses.
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  baldeagle

  Flip-Flop Article in the - WT 1952 Dec 15, p. 764 Questions From Readers

  
  Is vaccination a violation of God’s law forbidding the taking of blood into the system?

  The matter of vaccination is one for the individual that has to face it to decide for himself. Each individual has to take the consequences for whatever position and action he takes toward a case of compulsory vaccination, doing so according to his own conscience and his appreciation of what is for good health and the interests of advancing God’s work. And our Society cannot afford to be drawn into the affair legally or take the responsibility for the way the case turns out.

  After consideration of the matter, it does not appear to us to be in violation of the everlasting covenant made with Noah, as set down in Genesis 9:4, nor contrary to God’s related commandment at Leviticus 17:10-14. Most certainly it cannot reasonably or Scripturally be argued and proved that, by being vaccinated, the inoculated person is either eating or drinking blood and consuming it as food or receiving a blood transfusion. Vaccination does not bear any relationship to or any likeness to the intermarriage of angelic “sons of God” with the daughters of men, as described in Genesis 6:1-4. Neither can it be put in the same class as described at Leviticus 18:23, 24, which forbids the mingling of humans with animals. It has nothing to do with sex relations.

  Hence all objection to vaccination on Scriptural grounds seems to be lacking… Medical science, in fact, claims that vaccination actually results in building up the vitality of the blood to resist the disease against which the person is inoculated. But, of course, that is a question for each individual concerned to decide for himself and as he sees it to be Jehovah’s will for him. We merely offer the above information on request, but can assume no responsibility for the decision and course the reader may take.
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  St George of England

  My parents became JW's in the 1940's when I was born. They followed the no vaccination route for me until the mid 1950's when there was a lot of polio around and I was vaccinated then apparently at school along with all the other kids.

  My parents likewise never used aluminium pans and when we received a set for a wedding present we were told by my father never to use them!
  

  George
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  frozen2018

  My "vaccine": Taking 800 mg quercetin (a bioflavonoid) along with 50 mg zinc as gluconate, plus 5000 units vitamin D during fall and winter

  That's almost exactly what I take daily. A few months ago I was having coffee with some old duffers. One of them is a retired General Practitioner. He was upset that the "experts" were not recommending vitamin D and zinc as a preventive. The consensus of our little coffee club was that there is little profit in vitamin D and zinc when compared to "warp speed" vaccines and other things.