Congregation Book Study, Week of March 6-12, 2023, Jehovah's View of Blood, Lesson 39 and Note 3. Answers.

Study of the Book of the congregation, 6-12-March-2023, Lesson 39 and Note 3. Answers.

Congregation Bible study (30 min.): lff lesson 39 and note 3.

Jehovah's View of Blood

1. How does Jehovah view blood?

Blood is sacred in the sight of God, since it represents life, so if we want to please Jehovah, we must have the same point of view that God has regarding this matter and respect his rules.

The text of Leviticus 17:14 is very clear regarding Jehovah's point of view on blood, since there he mentions that blood is life or in it is life. That is why Jehovah told the Israelites not to eat the blood of any kind of meat and the reason is that the life of all kinds of meat is its blood, and at that time people who did it were put to death, and Today Jehovah has not changed his way of thinking about this mandate, it is the same.

2. Does God forbid any use of blood?

Yes, since ancient times Jehovah forbade his servants to eat blood and much later when the Christian Congregation was formed he told them to abstain from blood, which implies not consuming, for example, meat that has not been bled or any food that has been added blood or use it for medical purposes.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

It is made very clear in Acts 15:28 and 29 that we abstain from blood and that includes not eating or drinking blood or accepting transfusions of whole blood or all four main components.

Yes, although Jehovah gave this mandate to his people explicitly, he also said Leviticus in 17:10, that no foreigner should eat meat, meaning that this mandate is really for all mankind.

Well here the study can also say well here it says not to eat blood, but inject it doesn't say anything, well we could reason with the person that if a doctor told him not to drink alcohol he would not inject it, then the same With blood, if one takes it, one injects it, it's the same.

The text of facts also talks about strangled animals and that is because our animals have not been bled, so we cannot eat these animals that perhaps have also been killed by a shot, their blood has been taken or it also includes food from which blood has been added, such as sausages or black puddings that have blood added to them.

It is important to be informed to make a good decision, for example, plasma treatment is not red, it is like yellowish white, someone can tell you but this is not blood, if you are not well informed then you can make a bad decision, so it is good to be informed .

Galatians mentions that each one is going to carry their own load of responsibility, so we don't accept fractions of these four components if we are going to see what happens, but there is something interesting in the note when it says that for some doctors the four main components are fractions, so you have to be very careful. 

LET'S DEEPER INTO THE SUBJECT

Let's see what to take into account when choosing a medical treatment.

3. Make decisions that please Jehovah

VIDEO: Making Good Blood Use Decisions (5:47)

Asking us for wisdom (James 1:5).

Ignoring the principle of blood is a serious fault, that is why we must always be sure what decision to make and Jehovah wants us to make a good decision, that is why he encourages us to ask for his help through prayer.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

We can make the student see how important it is to pray to Jehovah and ask him for wisdom in order to understand and understand well what the use of blood means and how Jehovah wants us to use blood.

In Proverbs 13:16. If here the text is talking about the prudent person acting with knowledge but the fool displays his foolishness, then you have to seek knowledge to be able to make some decisions and here based on the biblical principles that are related to how to do it better then pray to Jehovah and observe what the biblical principle says then act in accordance with that.

Find out about the options that we have in the place where we live, for example here in the country, since we could have almost all of them, but if we go on vacation or live in a place where medical attention is precarious, many of these options will not exist. so if we find ourselves in that situation what are we going to do what are we going to decide what we have decided at that point, then we could also think about this.

Yes, as we were able to observe in the video, the three brothers also investigated, under prayer, what things they would not accept in any way, and of course we are not going to accept the main components of the blood, but we have to be very clear about that.

The text of Acts 24:16. We see that the decisions we make can harm or benefit us and that has to do with this text where it says that we must always strive to keep a clear conscience before God and before men, so before deciding something we have to meditate Investigate the information to make the right choice. In the video the sister also mentioned a treatment that she said she already knew but in any case she made sure that she understood how that treatment worked and then she said I know that the decision I made pleased Jehovah, so if we have that security after having analyzed well investigated then we can have a clear conscience.

Well, and not only to find out about the treatments at the general practitioner, because today in dental medicine, various treatments are also used with a part of the blood, which is plasma, and it is not mentioned many times, but you must always be careful.

IMAGE

Well, the first image shows that he is praying to Jehovah to give him the wisdom to understand this issue because it is complicated for him to make good decisions, but then he also acts, he is informed in the second image, he is informed, studies, meditates to make good decisions, and then there is the last one. that he is in front of the doctor and that way he can then logically defend what he wants and the reason why he chooses these treatments.

Look up related Bible principles and see how to apply them (Proverbs 13:16).

Blood transfusions are a development of recent years. So they never occurred in Biblical times. Yet Jehovah said that the life of the flesh is in the blood. so the blood cannot be eaten. Blood is to be spilled, not stored.

Learn about the options available where you live.

There are basic procedures to operate without blood. For example, to minimize blood loss, conserve red blood cells, stimulate blood production and recover lost blood, the most used are hemodilution and blood recovery.

Identify which options you would not accept in any way.

Jehovah's Witnesses reject all transfusions of whole blood or any of its four main components. For example red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and plasma.

Make sure your decision leaves you with a clear conscience (Acts 24:16).

A clear conscience will ensure that we continue to keep our loyalty to Jehovah intact and not be discouraged in our service by some mistake made.

Keep in mind that no one—not even your husband, wife, elder, or Bible teacher—should tell you what choice you should make in matters of conscience (Romans 14:12).

This is very important, since each one will be judged by our actions, and that responsibility cannot be taken by our parents, elders of the congregation or a close relative, but by ourselves.

Put in writing what you have decided.

We must take into account that an unforeseen event can happen to anyone at the least indicated time, so we must prepare ourselves in advance, since at some point we may not have the opportunity to express our desire that we want a bloodless treatment and for this we must fill out a DPA card.

4. Jehovah's Witnesses seek quality medical care

VIDEO: Entreview to Professor Massimo Franchi (1:36)

Read Titus 3:2 and discuss the following:

Why should we cooperate with medical professionals and speak to them calmly and respectfully?

Because what Jehovah expects of his servants according to the text read is that we be peaceful and non-conflicting people. In addition, doctors are people who try very hard to keep us alive and deserve our respect when we talk to them about our position.

ADDITIONAL COMMENT

Tito is telling us precisely that we have to behave like this apart because the education that each one of us receives in our house also helps us not to speak disrespectfully to anyone and especially the doctors, as the doctor in the video said, that also helps them to be more receptive to using another type of surgery that does not use blood, then if we give a bad witness with our conduct, it is possible that they will have a certain rejection to be able to operate or help us to operate without blood.

 5. Blood fractions

When making your decision, ask yourself:

How would you explain to the doctor why I reject or accept certain blood fractions?

Well, I would have to be well prepared to be able to explain to the doctor in this case why we do not accept a certain treatment and why we accept some fraction of the blood, even why we use our own blood when there are medical purposes, so what one has to do is to be well prepared for the subject to be able to speak with confidence.

ADDITIONAL COMMENT

It is very important to talk to the doctor when we are prescribed some medications that have to do with this because if we later put on our card that we do not accept any blood fraction either, then the doctor will get confused and if he cannot talk to us, he will to say well, he cannot receive this medicine because he has clearly stated that he does not want it, but perhaps he has been taking it for several years, so the doctor thinks they are not so informed, and thus we give a slightly skewed light to our beliefs , then it is good to find out what type of fractions I am taking in my medications. 

WHAT SOME ASK: "If blood can save lives, what's wrong with blood transfusions?"

What do you think?

As already mentioned in the text, blood is sacred. So even though Jehovah loves life, he forbade any form of use of blood, and this includes blood transfusions.

And as we saw in the video, no one can say that if one gets blood then they will be saved, not even the doctors can, but if they say so, then what interests us is what God's law says for us, that is the important thing what Jehovah thinks of the blood. 

SUMMARY

Jehovah wants us to avoid any inappropriate use of blood.

review

Why does Jehovah consider blood sacred?

The example of alcohol was already discussed before if a doctor says you have to abstain from alcohol, because if you don't get sick then he won't inject it, the same happens with blood.

Good because as we see in Leviticus 17:14 it says that life of all kinds is in the blood. So that is why as Jehovah sees life as sacred in the same way blood is Sacred. 

Why do we know that God's command to abstain from blood includes transfusions?

Well, an experience was mentioned there that if a doctor told us to abstain from alcohol, we would not only understand that it is only drinking it, but also injecting, then the same is true regarding the use of blood, we neither eat it nor inject ourselves, since Jehovah when saying that we refrain from it was referring to any use of blood.

ADDITIONAL COMMENT

The example of alcohol was already discussed before if a doctor says you have to abstain from alcohol, because if you don't get sick then he won't inject it, the same happens with blood. 

What can help you make good decisions about the medical use of blood?

In the first place, what is going to help us make good decisions is asking Jehovah for help, also finding out and studying as much as we can so that the subject is clear to us, and finally we can ask our more experienced brothers for help.

ADDITIONAL COMMENT

Yes, here we can explain to the student that they have to be well informed, based on biblical principles and above all, pray to Jehovah and seek help from experienced people who will explain why the objective here is to make good decisions and that decision has a lot to do with how they see it. Jehovah.