The Watchtower study for August 1, 2004 (w 6/15/04) is an attempt to encourage the use of blood products.
That?s a bold statement, but it is true and this post is written to prove it.
Furthermore, prepare your comments for Sunday?s study now. You will see why.
First, let?s be reminded that there are groups that refuse medical treatment altogether. Jehovah?s Witnesses have been lumped together with these ones on more than one occasion. The Watchtower has, in the past, worked hard to differentiate itself from these other cults by highlighting their ?stand on blood? as unique and the ?efforts? made by Jehovah?s Witnesses to procure ?acceptable? medical treatment that?s ?in-line? with ?Bible principles?. For example, here we have a yearbook giving an account of a defense.
*** yb71 p. 210 Country Reports (Part Two) ***
?As often happens in such circumstances, the teacher, with a wry smile, explained that the Witnesses are a strange group that go around bothering people and refuse all medical treatment, etc. A young sister belonging to this class could keep quiet no longer and asked to be permitted to explain our position on these things.?
The Watchtower wants the world to believe that basically, Jehovah?s Witnesses are not freaks who refuse all medical treatment like ?some cults?, but rather encourages medical treatment, save blood therapies.
This truth is at the heart of the recent blood change. That fact is betrayed in the article to be discussed on Sunday. On page 23, in paragraph 16, we read ?
?Still others may accept injections of a plasma protein to fight disease or to counteract snake venom,..?
Note : To refuse ?whole blood? as is now the catch phrase in the Watchtower?s world, is rather meaningless. One may as well say? ?we reject Martian blood? for they are almost as likely to receive that as they are ?whole blood?. The giving of whole blood is becoming more and more rare due to the fact that a pint of blood can be stretched a lot farther by separating it into components and administering only that part which is needed. With a growing scarcity of willing donors, this practice is increasingly advantageous.
Returning to the above statement, if Jehovah?s Witnesses as an organization were to adopt a policy of ?no fractions allowed?, then simply put they would refuse a large bulk of medical treatment altogether since blood therapies are increasingly becoming prevalent.
They would then be referred to as ?refusing all medical treatment?, even if they still took some, for their refusal of such a wide array of treatments. { i.e.: burns, snake anti-venom, vaccinations, Rh (for Rhesus), factor 8 & 9 (hemophilia), new non-blood substitutes that are still blood based (surgery), and the list goes on}
Educated persons, especially in the medical field, have long realized the duplicitous position taken by the Watchtower. But here?s the hypocrisy. And I am sure it?s going to come out on Sunday.
Sunday comment on page 22 (chart)
Here where it says ?Christian to decide?, we don?t want to confuse this with ?OK for Christians?. After all, the Watchtower has been quite clear on this issue, when the w00 10/15 Questions from readers, just a few months after the article reprinted for us in this magazine, says ?collecting, storing, and transfusing of blood directly contradicts what is said in Leviticus and Deuteronomy?, and we know that only ?worldly blood? is used for these products as no ?true Christian? would donate blood or have his blood stored and none of us would work in a factory where this un-scriptural activity takes place, so why would we accept the products of a clearly un-scriptural process.
Here?s the lark. The Watchtower is trying to ENCOURAGE JWs to use blood products to take off the heat from authorities that is coming its way. Yet, stating what the Watchtower has already CARVED IN STONE regarding the collection and storage of blood completely undoes their efforts to do so and shoves Watchtower dogma right down their throats.
Sorry brothers and sisters, no wiggle room here. You want your Watchtower gods in Brooklyn, you can die for them! Eat it!!
Do we all see the hypocrisy? If the Watchtower teaches, as the below Q from R, quoting the Jewish Soncino Chumash states ??blood must not be stored but rendered unfit?? then from where do Jehovah?s Witness get their blood products? Do you suppose that the governing body inspects the processes? Perhaps Dan Sydlik slips by Baxter Transfusion Therapies on Mondays to make sure JWs blood therapies are kosher? OK for JW blood products would have to be made from blood that was dumped on the ground first, then scooped up and dumped into the centrifuge for separation?? Coffee filter first I hope! http://www.baxtertransfusiontherapies.com/
And it would have to be fresh, for the storage of blood is a no no!
Soon, at Armageddon, all the unrighteous blood donors will be dead, then no more blood products for JWs??
I here reprint the Q from R that is four months newer light than the Q from R discussed in Sundays study.
*** Multiple Articles ***
*** w00 10/15 p. 30 Questions From Readers ***
Questions From Readers
In the light of Bible commands about the proper use of blood, how do Jehovah?s Witnesses view medical procedures using one?s own blood?
Rather than deciding solely on the basis of personal preference or some medical recommendation, each Christian ought to consider seriously what the Bible says. It is a matter between him and Jehovah.
Jehovah, to whom we owe our lives, decreed that blood should not be consumed. (Genesis 9:3, 4) In the Law for ancient Israel, God limited the use of blood because it represents life. He decreed: ?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.? What if a man killed an animal for food? God said: ?He must in that case pour its blood out and cover it with dust.? (Leviticus 17:11, 13) Jehovah repeated this command again and again. (Deuteronomy 12:16, 24; 15:23) The Jewish Soncino Chumash notes: ?The blood must not be stored but rendered unfit for consumption by pouring it on the ground.? No Israelite was to appropriate, store, and use the blood of another creature, whose life belonged to God.
The obligation to keep the Mosaic Law ended when the Messiah died. Yet, God?s view of the sacredness of blood remains. Moved by God?s holy spirit, the apostles directed Christians to ?abstain from blood.? That command was not to be taken lightly. It was as important morally as abstaining from sexual immorality or idolatry. (Acts 15:28, 29; 21:25) When donating and transfusing blood became common in the 20th century, Jehovah?s Witnesses understood that this practice conflicted with God?s Word.
Occasionally, a doctor will urge a patient to deposit his own blood weeks before surgery (preoperative autologous blood donation, or PAD) so that if the need arises, he could transfuse the patient with his own stored blood. However, such collecting, storing, and transfusing of blood directly contradicts what is said in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Blood is not to be stored; it is to be poured out?returned to God, as it were. Granted,