Bridge of Reason

On their   website   the Watch Tower Society write: 'The Bible commands that we not ingest blood. So we should not accept whole blood or its primary components in any form, whether offered as food or as a transfusion.' A key text they use is Acts 15:20 where we find the conclusion of the Jerusalem Council on the issue of circumcision. Commenting on this text,   the Watch Tower writes , ‘God gave Christians the same command that he had given to Noah. History shows that early Christians refused to consume whole blood or even to use it for medical reasons.’ This is a most peculiar observation since the use of blood for medical reasons was something far in the future for the church as for wider society. There is sleight of hand here, suggesting something that isn’t in the text. It would not have crossed their minds to consider such a thing. Yet the Watch Tower misleadingly suggests a positive decision might have been made to avoid using blood, ‘even for medical reasons.’ In...

  ‘ But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers. ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the customs of Moses, you cannot be saved.’’ (Acts 15:1) In Acts 15 we see people who follow Paul around, questioning his message of grace, pressing the case for rules that they alone, of course, would teach and apply. These were likely the Pharisees of verse 5. Setting themselves up as authority figures , they insisted Gentiles needed to become Jews in order to become Christians. Y ou may throw at them as many grace verses as you like, their answer will always be the same familiar, ‘I know what it says, but this is what it means. Believe me, I am an authority on these things. I have been to the top of the mountain and have the anointing ’ Former cultists will find this so familiar, indeed I remember saying this myself. The message of the gospel of grace - saved by grace, through faith in Christ, works following - is so clear in the Bible. Yet there will always be th...