Jehovah’s Witnesses: facts you should know.
29 12 2006As citizens on our temporary dwelling on Planet Earth, it is inevitable that we will come into contact with Jehovah’s Witnesses one day. It is even more worrying as health professionals when we do, because the touchy issue of them rejecting life-saving blood transfusions will surely come up as a critical obstacle in our duty as health professionals to “first do no harm”. It is not an easy ethical issue to deal with. As a medical student, i am only starting to learn about these things and i do hope i can help shed light on what Jehovah’s Witnesses actually believe in, and as a Christian, why i do not agree with their erroneous teachings.
I have posted a comment on an article that i was reading from Grand Rounds 3.14.
Urostream’s blogging urologist, KeaGirl, sends in a fascinating post about the Jehovah’s Witness dilemma before elective surgery — it gets more enlightening in the comment section, when a Jehovah’s Witness writes to clarify the specifics of their beliefs.
May God give us the wisdom to discern truth from false teachings that are circulating all over.
Facts you should know about Jehovah’s Witnesses
Introduction: Almost everyone knows of their aggressive door-to-door proselytizing. The organization they represent, known as the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society (WTB&TS), emphasizes end time prophecy and has falsely predicted the end of the world many times. The WTB&TS exercises rigid control over Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) and prohibits their participation in such common activities as taking blood transfusions, celebrating birthdays or holidays (including Christmas, Easter, and Mother’s Day), voting, flag saluting, and military service. Through these restrictions, the WTB&TS builds a wall of isolation between Jehovah’s Witnesses and the rest of society.
Tampering with the Bible: Under the leadership of Nathan H. Knorr (1905-1977) the WT Society put away date setting for a time and switched to a different strategy. Since many of their teachings could be refuted by key verses in the King James Bible, Knorr set out to publish a different Bible for JWs to use. Called the New World Translation (NWT), it blatantly altered many verses to support Watchtower doctrine. The single best example of this is John 1: 1, which in the King James Version clearly declares Jesus’ deity-”the Word was God.” JWs deny the deity of Christ, so the NWT renders this phrase “the Word was a god.” The translation committee responsible for the NWT was kept anonymous, undoubtedly to cover up their complete lack of scholarly qualifications. None of the men who worked on this project had any formal training in the biblical languages, except for Frederick Franz. He was chairman of the committee and had studied Greek for two years at the University of Cincinnati without graduating, and was only self-taught in Hebrew. After Knorr’s death, Franz became the Watchtower Society’s new President.
What the Bible warn us about tampering with the Word of God: The Book of Revelations, Chapter 22, states very clearly that,
6 And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Conclusion: In light of the preceding facts, do we dare trust the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society? It has falsely prophesied the end of the world at least 6 times and uses these predictions to intimidate its followers. This group has repeatedly changed their doctrines and contradicted previously held beliefs, all while claiming that it alone has the truth. Is this consistent with God’s perfection and holiness?
We do not intend to ridicule or belittle individual Jehovah’s Witnesses; they are generally sincere dedicated people. In one sense they are more like lost sheep than ravenous wolves, for they have been deceived by an organization with a history of false prophecies and doctrines. JWs truly believe that if they leave the Watchtower Society they will be destroyed at Armageddon. They need our love and compassion Our desire for them, as for everyone else, is that they come to a true knowledge of what the Bible teaches, and the understanding that Jesus Christ alone can guarantee salvation. Only through a personal relationship with him can we receive forgiveness and eternal life.
Reproduced from BibleBelievers.net -> Facts You Should Know About Jehovah’s Witnesses.
For more reformed Christian resources about Jehovah’s Witnesses, check BibleBelievers.Net out.
Jeffrey, I am surprised. You know so little about bloodless medicine. I think you should do some research on the subject. You will be quite surprised.
all right matt. i have googled bloodless medicine and found some interesting articles on bloodless surgery. but it isnt really bloodless. blood will surely be drawn once the first cut is made. but it seems JWs or people who opt for such options have a way of looking at the available technologies and convince themselves it is “bloodless”
http://www.bloodlessmed.com/Pages/BS_methods.htm
as the above url.
Once again you’ve missed the point because of your frame of mind. JW’s are aware that ‘bloodless’ is merely a term refering to the non use of transfusion. The important issue I was bringing up is that ‘bloodless’ is actually better than transfusion medicine. This only proves that the Bible was the best guide all along. IF you think transfusions are OK because they aren’t mentioned in the Bible then what about having sex outside the marriage arrangement with a condom because condoms aren’t mentioned in the Bible?
As far as the NWT goes you might want to look at this book title:
Truth in Translation - Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament [ISBN 0-7618-2556-8]
thanks
Well, your argument about the Bible being silent on transfusions hence we should be OK with transfusions is kinda skewed.
The example about the condoms doesn’t hold, because the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:18 to “flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.” (King James Bible)
Bloodless surgery is an emerging field that holds promise.
It is also heartening to see that the JW community has laxed on blood transfusions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/790967.stm
One will no longer be banished from the religion.
I cannot say for sure what this means. Are they loosening on something they believed fervently in the past? Are they being less strict on banishing guidelines?
One sincere question. Where exactly in the Bible does it say that blood cannot be accepted? Maybe i am ignorant. That is why i will want to find out. Some may be wondering as well, perhaps in angst after not being able to help their JW patient, literally watching them fade away to death as they hold to their belief. Autonomy wins. Always. Medical paternalism? Not accepted widely.
Also, guidelines in the UK has been drawn with regards to letting JW patients die.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/293424.stm
Another question would be, “What if a JW patient was rolled in as an emergency situation?”
In this case, if the treating doctor does not know the patient is a JW who refuses blood transfusion, and he/she did so to save his/her life, (because in ER you do not need informed consent anymore, from a legal stand point), would the doctor be sued or reprimanded?
My guess would be no. What do you think?