The only thing I have to add, is something someone posted somewhere else. (too many somes, lol)
Can you abstain from (noun)?
- car
- train
- house
- piano
- donkey
- cereal
- etc.
The prohibition in Acts has an implicit verb, for in what manner were Israelites told to abstain from blood? They were told to abstain from eating blood. Seems pretty simply to me. Of all the things that are a 'conscience matter', how could this one not be, especially considered their absurd fraction policy?
Regardless of 'sin' or no 'sin', which I don't even believe in anyways, its a rule that has been costly. We can never have those lives back. Yet, JWs are among the first human guinea pigs for bloodless transfusions, so should we also be thanking them for advancing this practice? I love contradictions.