blood

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 9:16 PM
From: "Carlos Burman"

Dear mer,

Thankyou for your new email.

Thankyou also for your consideration in thinking about whether im busy or not.

Well,this week i am quite busy,but generally ,please do not worry..i am happy to help you answer your questions almost anytime.

With regards to your email..please dont worry about which part of the bible your question is from...i do not mind at all where your question comes from...all scriptures are ,of course, valid and part of the bible canon.

So in the future,continue asking any questions you have in your mind.

Also ,just one other thing...the reason why the Israelites were not permitted to eat of any pork or swine, was because Jehovah forbade it..it was Jehovahs law....the bible does not say anywhere that the reason why pork was not permitted was because of contamination...

However,now adays it seems that the law that was given to Israel has been shown to have been beneficial through science research,particularly micro science.

With regards to your new question about blood,the same applies. even if God does not give us a reason for not taking in blood into our bodies,the fact that he has asked us not to,we obey.

However,the bible DOES give sound evidence as to why God asks humans not to take in blood into thier bodies,the consequences and with modern science we get to see the benefits to our bodies because of obeying these laws and principles.

This excerpt im sending below is from a book published by Jehovahs witnesses and the book is entitled "REVELATION-its grand climax is at hand!"...it will explain better than i can the answer to the interpretation of Revelation 16:6 and surrounding verses for context sake.



Giving Them Blood to Drink



6 The third bowl of God’s anger, like the third trumpet blast, has an effect on freshwater sources. “And the third one poured out his bowl into the rivers and the fountains of the waters. And they became blood. And I heard the angel over the waters say: ‘You, the One who is and who was, the loyal One, are righteous, because you have rendered these decisions, because they poured out the blood of holy ones and of prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.’ And I heard the altar say: ‘Yes, Jehovah God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judicial decisions.’”—Revelation 16:4-7.

7 These “rivers and the fountains of the waters” picture the so-called fresh sources of guidance and wisdom accepted by this world, such as the political, economic, scientific, educational, social, and religious philosophies that guide human actions and decisions. Rather than look to Jehovah, the Fountain of life, for life-giving truth, men have ‘hewn out for themselves broken cisterns’ and drunk deeply of “the wisdom of this world [that] is foolishness with God.”—Jeremiah 2:13; 1 Corinthians 1:19; 2:6; 3:19; Psalm 36:9.

8 Such tainted “waters” have led men to become bloodguilty, for example, in encouraging them to shed blood on a monumental scale in wars, which in the last century took more than a hundred million lives. Particularly in Christendom, where the two world wars erupted, have men been “in a hurry to shed innocent blood,” and this has included the blood of God’s own witnesses. (Isaiah 59:7; Jeremiah 2:34) Mankind has also incurred bloodguilt by its misuse of huge quantities of blood for transfusions, in violation of Jehovah’s righteous laws. (Genesis 9:3-5; Leviticus 17:14; Acts 15:28, 29) On this account, they have already reaped sorrow by the proliferation, through blood transfusions, of AIDS, hepatitis, and other diseases. Full retribution for all bloodguilt will come shortly when transgressors pay the supreme penalty, being trampled in “the great winepress of the anger of God.”—Revelation 14:19, 20.

9 In Moses’ day, when the Nile River was turned into blood, the Egyptians were able to keep alive by seeking other sources of water. (Exodus 7:24) Today, though, during the spiritual plague, there is nowhere in Satan’s world that people can find life-giving waters. The pouring out of this third bowl involves proclaiming that the world’s “rivers and the fountains of the waters” are as blood, bringing spiritual death to all who imbibe them. Unless people turn to Jehovah, they reap his adverse judgment.—Compare Ezekiel 33:11.

10 “The angel over the waters,” that is, the angel who pours this bowl into the waters, magnifies Jehovah as the Universal Judge, whose righteous decisions are absolute. Therefore, he says of this judgment: “They deserve it.” Doubtless, the angel personally witnessed much of the bloodshed and cruelty fomented over thousands of years by the false teachings and philosophies of this wicked world. Hence, he knows that Jehovah’s judicial decision is right. Even God’s “altar” speaks out. At Revelation 6:9, 10, the souls of those who were martyred are said to be at the base of that altar. So “the altar” adds powerful testimony as to the justice and righteousness of Jehovah’s decisions. Certainly, it is fitting that those who have shed and misused so much blood should themselves be force-fed with blood, in symbol of Jehovah’s sentencing them to death.


If you notice, when it says in Revelation 16:6 for ones to drink blood..he was not talking about literally..blood as the Bible countless of times mentions is not permitted for those who want to please God.

Revelation 1:1 tells us: "A revelation by Jesus Christ,which God gave him, to show his slaves the things that must shortly take place. And he sent forth his angel and presented it in SIGNS through him to his slave John,"

Yes,the book of Revelation his presented in signs and is mostly symbollic...furthermore,the drinkng of blood in a figurative sense as chapter 16:6 shows, is not for any servant of God to drink,but only his enemies.

If it were literal,it would mean that the the rest of the Holy Bible which through condemns the wrong use of blood is wrong or incorrect. But that cannot be the case.

If you saw in a news large newspaper a seeming typing error or misprint that didnt agree with the preceding article,likely you would wonder how it fits in with the rest of the article that seems to disagree with this portion ...however,if you later read the context of the surrounding verses,you might come to see that what was written was actually fine and correct and it was the mistake of the person who read it that made the complication.

Jehovahs witnesses today are not Martyrs...we enjoy life...we want to live and be happy..many of us want children...to travel alittle ,to learn new langauges and cultures and to have many friends.

Jehovahs witnesses value life and that is why we adhere to Bible commands and principles such as not to defile the body found at 2nd corinthians 7:1.

when we smoke,use drugs and drink too much alcohol we defile the flesh and many today die for that cause..many today are willing to die for the sake of simple pleasures that really are fleeting and temporary in this world.

the bible tells us at Acts 15:20 that along side abstaining from Blood, we should also just as much abstain from fornication.

Today in the world, fornication and sex is rampant throughout the world...many who engage in it have unwanted pregnancies,sexually transmitted diseases,a troubled conscience and bring pain to themselves...all because they disobey Gods laws.

Thus ,when God asks us to abstain from blood, its for our good.

Like ,i said Jehovahs witnesses,do not want to die,however,they want to obey God and be faithful and loyal to him.

At Matthew 16:25 Jesus said to his disciples:" For whoever wants to save his soul will lose it;But whoever loses his soul for my sake will find it".

Yes we want to follow Gods ways and follow how Christ walked when on earth...if it means we die,we can look foward to a happy earth in paradise. however, we are not looking to die.

1 Timothy 6:19 shows that in the near future those who obey God today,whatever the cost,even thier life,will be rewarded with the "real life".

It is sad when people die but we enjoy obeying god...even God sacrificed his own son on a torture stake...he felt great pain like any loving father would and even far more pain than we could ever experience.. but yet, he knew that his perfect justice comes before any humans or angels..he never goes against his righteous principles.Deuteronomy 32:4 says of God "all his ways are justice".

Thus, please be assured,that while its true that Jehovahs witnesses seem to be the only organization on earth who actually obey this command about blood and to many people and other religions it might seem odd or strange...it also helps people to identify Gods true servants today on earth..only Gods true servants would be obeying the the bible in this time of the end...a true servant of God obeys him all things,which is a far cry from other religions.

I hope to some extent i answered your question....if not .please let me know what you didnt understand...im happy to help.

The bible takes times and effort in order to fully grasp the meaning but its within every persons grasp...it also takes humility and meekness to understand..we must be so called "babes" (matthew 11:25)....psalms 37:11 tells us that the meek will inherit the earth in the future...only God can tell us true answers through his word the Bible.

until i next hear from you..

takecare

Carlos








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Date: Mon, 11 May 2009 00:26:07 -0700
From:
Subject: Blood
To:


Hello good afternoon Br Carlos..

I think I send one query per week since it takes at least one hour for you to reply. You have lots of responsibility over English congregation now, so please spare me one or two hour for me per week.

I hadn't noticed I was asking particularly about the matters in Torah, because Old Testament has much more volumes than Greek Scriptures I might seem to have asked more about Torah, but I hadn't noticed about it till I was remarked from you. ..OK.. I try to ask more about New Testament from now.

But first sorry my next query relates to both New and Old Testaments. It is about blood transfusion.

Jehovah's Witnesses is well-known for their refusal to participation in World War II first and later they came to be known by refusal to one of modern medical treatments - blood transfusion.

As I confessed many times I have carefully read all Scriptures both New and Old already and I found two parts Jehovah's Witnesses has been relied on for their refusal to blood transfusion. I don' t mention them now because you must know them as well.

One is from Old Testament, which reads we can eat any meat but we need to get rid of blood and in New Testament it reads we get away from blood. No one scriptures say we mustn't inject others blood into our body.

Blood transfusion is a modern medical treatment started from 18th century- if I recall it correctly, so it's out of question we can't find such verses written before the first century.

As I pointed out in my last query that swine was banned from eating because it was contaminated from various germs, so the command was so proper for us to keep.

I don't think no modern humans from early civilisation had had blood for daily dietary. It must have related to very different heretic traditions though it was very sane for us not to have blood in our ordinary life. But how about transfusion? It is a medical procedure necessary for our urgent occasion. Sometimes this act is held out of pure philanthropic viewpoint, let alone it's nothing to do with heretic traditions.

Refusal to blood transfusion often bring about end of life immediately. I know one of my acquaintances who's dead after he refused it.

In this particular issue we can read in Revelation 16:6 that 'drink blood' and of course Jesus compared the red wine to his blood in Eucharist. How do you interpret them?


Best wishes,

mer