The Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that blood should not enter into one’s body medically by a blood transfusion. Is this what scriptures say?
No, there is not one scripture that says anything about blood transfusions. The fact is, there was no such thing as blood transfusions in Bible times. I believe Jehovah’s Witnesses use Acts 15:19-20 to support this teaching but as we shall see, it says nothing at all about blood transfusions. Let’s read that passage, “Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and FROM BLOOD.” They take the words “from blood” completely out of context and force it to mean something altogether different from what it is teaching. These words are clear instructions AGAINST EATING OR DRINKING BLOOD, and not blood transfusions. God had prohibited this in Genesis 9:3-4 when he told Noah, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even the green herbs. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.” Later, in Leviticus 17:10, God commanded Israel to refrain from eating blood: “And whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, WHO EATS ANY BLOOD, I will set My face against THAT PERSON WHO EATS BLOOD, and will cut him off from among the people.” Why was God prohibiting the eating of blood? We already saw in Genesis 9:4 why, for it said, “You shall not eat flesh with ITS LIFE, that is, ITS BLOOD.” We see the same thing in Levitus 17:11, “For the LIFE OF THE FLESH IS IN THE BLOOD, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. We are taught in these verses that if one “eats the blood” it would mean “you are taking the life of the one you eat.” We conclude, from what we have seen in the scriptures quoted, there is nothing wrong with either receiving or giving a blood transfusion. Instead of “taking one’s life” a blood transfusion can “save one’s life.” Yet in order to “eat one’s blood” you must “take their life” and this is definitely wrong.
This passage in Leviticus also teaches us something else that is so important. William MacDonald says “the blood was for ATONEMENT, not for NOURISHMENT” and that “the principle behind atonement is LIFE FOR LIFE.” We all deserve to die because of sin for we read in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” The latter half of that verse goes on to say, “But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (KJV). God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, freely gave His life on the cross and shed His blood to pay the penalty for sin. Mr. MacDonald goes on to say, “Forgiveness does not come because the penalty of sin is EXCUSED, but because it is TRANSFERRED to a sacrifice whose lifeblood is poured out.” When Jesus was on the cross, He willingly allowed our sins to be transferred to Himself (Isaiah 53:5-6) so that He could atone for our sins by shedding His precious blood. The Bible says, “without the shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22) yet if one believes on Jesus Christ as their Savior there is remission (forgiveness). Have you accepted, by faith, the Lord Jesus, and the sacrifice He made to atone for your sins? If you have, you can claim this promise in 1 John 1:7, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (DO) (636.5)