The medical business should first and foremost be concerned with good health by determining causes and prevention of illnesses. It seems to be primarily concerned with symptoms, treatment of symptoms through medicine and cash flow. Encouraging good health is generally left to others. Let me try to encourage good health by giving you some good insight from the Word of God, the Bible, into the way(s) of God.
There is a common expression that states, 'You are what you eat.'
The word of God tells us not to eat blood.
Genesis 9:4 (NKJV)
But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
There are no scriptures that mention blood transfusions.
Today most Christian denominations allow and even encourage blood transfusions. Some ministers say that blood transfusions are "different" from eating blood. I say that injecting blood is much worse than eating blood. Does not even nature itself teach you that? The effects of drugs is greatly boosted when injected compared to when taken orally. Contrary to what many will think and try to contrive, I'm not saying that we should condone eating blood but rather that we should condemn blood transfusions. I'm speaking on a personal level as a Christian for Christians and would be Christians although the whole human race would greatly benefit also. In my mind this is following the word of God and not the whims of man.
God's dietary laws prohibit the eating of unclean foods. Deuteronomy 14:3 (NKJV) You shall not eat any detestable thing. (See Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14) I view this as God not wanting unclean things to enter the human body. He even goes so far as to tell us to not even touch an unclean animal, Leviticus 11:8 (NKJV) Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. They are unclean to you. Furthermore, Leviticus 7:21 (NKJV) says: Moreover the person who touches any unclean thing, such as human uncleanness, an unclean animal, or any abominable unclean thing, and who eats the flesh of the sacrifice of the peace offering that belongs to the LORD, that person shall be cut off from his people. This is very stern warning from our Creator God who cares for us dearly. The concept of taking unclean blood and pumping it directly into your own blood stream is outrageous when you consider the holy scriptures seriously.
The Pharisees were the priesthood at the time of Christ. Much of the instruction in Leviticus and in Deuteronomy concerned the Levitical priesthood. Jesus told us that our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees. Matthew 5:20 (NKJV) For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. So it is all very relevant to every Christian, to every prospective Christian and therefore to every human being.
When it comes to transfusions, we may not have any scripture on that specific topic but we do have related scripture about what should and should not enter the human body and can understand the gist of it as shown above. Again, although it is not specifically mentioned in the scriptures that deal with many of the rituals and commandments given to the Levitical priesthood surrounding eating and handling of animals, it appears that God was very conscientious of health hazards when He informed us about clean and unclean things. Realizing it has only been a few years since transfusions have been performed with "success" and that serious consequences due to transfusions still frequently occur, it is obvious that such activity is still a very high and obvious risk to one's health. The passage of thousands of years and the advances in medicine and science have not overridden the wisdom of God that transcends time. I repeat, the gist of scripture is apparent. We should be able to understand at least in part, a significant part, that God clearly warns us of great danger surrounding unclean things. I highly suspect that there are many dangerous consequences of disobeying God that most people do not consider at all. It reminds me of a scripture: Hosea 4:6 (NKJV) My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. I don't want anyone to take this lightly on my watch. You may not like what I'm saying and you may not like me but I'm not just thinking of myself. I'm not going to sit on the fence or be lukewarm and ignore God and His Bible and my intelligence and sound mind and not warn as many as I can.
I cannot decide for anyone frankly. Each person has to make all their own decisions. We are all free moral agents. Some insist that blood is properly screened and tested to insure safety today. The fact is though that we know that many have died in the recent past due to blood transfusions. Blood transfusions have caused the transfer of diseases such as venereal diseases, AIDS and drug addiction, just to name a few, and still do. Hepatitis is an example that has been mentioned in the news very recently. My opinion is that there is no way that anyone can determine that the blood for a transfusion is safe with the possible exception of if it is from the victims own blood that was extracted beforehand to later be transfused in case an emergency arose. Even then I am not convinced that would be in accordance with the will of God. I am not convinced that one should "play" with blood and his or her life in that way.
There are many other ways in which blood could be tainted. For example if the donor was a pork eater and you were like Peter who did not believe in eating unclean meat (Acts 10:14 (NKJV) But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” ), I would consider the blood tainted and would consider it hypocritical to transfuse it instead of trusting in God to the end by obeying His food laws and the intent of the laws. Each person has to decide these things for him or herself. Just don't say that I didn't warn you.
There certainly is no scripture to justify blood transfusions of any kind. The only blood that I trust is the blood of Christ but that is a different spiritual concept on a different plane of existence or life. It represents our link to eternal life as it comes from the source of life.
There are many aspects of medicine that I have no trouble with as far as conscience goes but there are areas that trouble me a great deal. Patching up bodies using certain inanimate objects or other parts of the victim's body I am ok with, such as stints and skin grafts. Using organs and biological concoctions from other bodies of people or unclean animals I am not ok with. My reasoning is that we should not allow any part of unclean animals, which includes humans, humans do not have split hooves and do not chew the cud, to enter and reside in our bodies. Furthermore, the scriptures remind us that to God we are unclean and as filthy rags. Isaiah 64:6 (NKJV) But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
As a rule I would say that mankind should avoid adapting ways that God gives very strong warnings and even outright commandments against and to limit our choices to those things that God does not condemn. For example: I would not condemn stem cell research as long as it is confined to or returned to the same body that it was taken from, nor would I condone using blood or body parts from one living creature to another, especially humans and certainly not pigs, as God specifically prohibits the consumption of pigs. Leviticus 11:7 and Deuteronomy 14:8 Do not eat pigs. On top of that there seems to be a lot of corruption surrounding body parts markets.
The second commandment comes to mind for I fear that for many medicine and or doctors has replaced idols. This second commandment also has a pertinent message as well as a warning.
Deuteronomy 5:9–10 (NKJV)
you shall not bow down to them (idols) nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
For the sake of putting things in perspective let's do a little math. I know that some do not like math but I like math. Let's assume that a generation is 25 years, that the population of the world is 8 billion, that we use 4 generations for curses and 1000 generations for blessings.
Years worth of curses = People [8 billion x percentage of population] x 100 years/person [4 generations x 25 years each]
Years worth of mercy = People [8 billion x percentage of population] x 25000 years/person [ 1000 generations x 25 years each]
If 10% of the people hate God then 80 billion years worth of God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, let's call this a curse, is accumulated.
Simultaneously, 90% love God and 180 trillion years worth of mercy is accumulated.
If 99% hate God then 792 billion years of curse.
1% love God then 2 trillion years of mercy.
This, strangely and frighteningly, looks somewhat balanced. Let us not take comfort in complacency.
If 99.99% hate God then 799.92 billion years of curse.
0.01% love God then 20 billion years of mercy,
about 40 times more curses than mercy.
This reminds me of James 1:15 (NKJV) and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
0.01 % of 8 billion is 800 thousand people. Are there 800 thousand Sabbath keepers in the world? Our church has about 12,000 Sabbath keepers. That is about 0.00015% of 8 billion or 300 million years of mercy collectively and conversely 2,666 times more years of curse. It's interesting to note that 8 billion is 12,000 times 666,666.666666.
If God's curse on sinners includes, which it seems to, diseases, homosexuality and war then you can see that when sin is fully grown it brings on death. Bird flu, AIDS, moral laws changing in many states and countries, wars popping up here there and everywhere, these things are escalating rapidly all over the world. We are surely living in the end times.
Bear in mind what the Bible tells us in Matthew 24.
Matthew 24:21–22 (NKJV)
For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.
But for the elects sake those days of destruction and death will be shortened.
As Christians let us not sit on the proverbial fence. Remember the words of our Lord in the book of Revelation.
Revelation 3:15–16 (NKJV)
I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
I suspect that this may well be among the most overlooked verses in the Bible, though there are many. So many believe in the power of intimidation, some by touting medicine, and so few believe in the still quiet voice of God, the source of absolute healing.
It is imperative to our eternal life that we worship no other God but our Creator, the only true God, and not substitute Him for medics vying for our trust, loyalty and moral support, oh yes and money I'm sure. We face life and death decisions in this life, let's not ignore the advice, warnings and commandments of our loving creator God who knows how to give good things to His children.
Isaiah 50:10 (NKJV)
Who among you fears the LORD? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness And has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD And rely upon his God.
Matthew 7:7–13 (NKJV)
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! (He gave us the Bible, a precursor) Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
I have been accused of being responsible for millions of lives because of my views on the topic of blood transfusions. In reality very few people follow the guidelines and commands of God in the Old Testament. The vast majority of these have never had a blood transfusion. Furthermore I suspect that many who have had blood transfusions have gone on to die a short while thereafter. Another factor to consider is the quality of life. I know a man who had a liver transplant, it is the best example that I have, and he told me that had he known how sick he was going to be after the operation he would not have had it. I think that those who have died from blood transfusions would have loved to have been able to say that. So in reality I believe that my expressing my beliefs will have very little effect on the death of people. Furthermore, I believe that obeying God's directives will do more good than harm, all things considered. The truth may well be that fewer people would die if people heeded to God's instructions as God would have mercy on them because of their obedience. I realize that some people don't see it that way.
Here is a final passage as food for thought.
Revelation 22:2 (NKJV)
In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
2017 Jacques Gauvin