[J0] Why should I Join the LWs ?
[J1] How to Join us
[J1.1] What do LWs do ?
[J2] Sins & Scriptures: How to leave us!
[J3] The only Disfellowshipping Sins
[J4] The Promoter of a Sect
[J5] Three strikes and you’re out!
[J6] Sins leading to Accusations
[J6.1] The Extra Requirements for Ministerial Servants and Elders 
[J6.2] Sins to be policed by one's own conscience
[J7]  The Blood issue resolved at last!
[J7.0] Taking a blood transfusion in self defence!
[J7.1] Blood Components
[J8] Age limits on baptisms
[J9] Transplants
[J10] Fornication and Adultery
[J10.1] How precisely does one join one's flesh with a woman
[J11] Prostitution and the Definition of Loose Conduct
[J12] Shunning is Hateful & Satanic
[J13] Abortion
[J14] Our Name: The Lords' Witnesses
[J15] Hair and Prayer
[J16] Spirit Media
[J17] What protocol, if any, do I have to follow at LW meetings if in fact I am not an LW?
[J18] Should I beat my kids?
[J19] Bigamy and Latter Day Saints
[J20] Advice for JWs who are thinking of becoming LWs
[J21] Disclaimer for unoffical LW publications
[J22] Advertise publicly but teach privately
[J23] Certificate of Divorce
[J24] How to treat Disfellowshipped people
[J25] Is Lesbianism a sin?
[J25.1] What Homosexual activity leads to disfellowshipping?
[J26] Births, Deaths, Marriages, Funerals
[J27] How do I get out of the LWs

You do not have to join us to join in. We are happy to entertain anyone on a purely academic or research basis as well as those who come out of faith. You are welcome. The mechanism for joining the Lords' witnesses as a church is baptism. This is a forgiveness of sins by God through Jesus. There are various levels of forgiveness of sin that God is offering at this time see [12], [13], [204].

And with many other words he bore thorough witness and kept exhorting them, saying: Get saved from this crooked generation. Therefore those who embraced his word heartily were baptized, and on that day about three thousand souls were added (Acts 2:40,41).

And he said to him: Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise (Luke 23:43).

And he brought them outside and said: Sirs, what must I do to get saved?
They said: Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will get saved, you and your household.
And they spoke the word of Jehovah to him together with all those in his house.
And he took them along in that hour of the night and bathed their stripes; and, one and all, he and his were baptized without delay (Acts 16:30-33).

If you wish to join us, we will respect your wish and baptise you ‘without delay’, ‘on that day’. There is no ‘spiritual suitability evaluation’ by men required. You do not have to prove yourself to a committee who sit down, have a cup of tea, get out their clip boards and sanctimoniously interrogate you so as to restrict the divine beauty of the holy spirit into the confines of some half baked prejudiced man made feasibility study and ask you questions of the type: How do you see your role in the church? 

However there are 6 docrinal points that we insist you must accept before you join us. These are our 'minimum belief set'. The MBS is deduced from Peter's speech to the 3,000 baptised in Acts 2...

[1] Jesus, the Nazarene was sent by God and performed the works portents and signs catalogued in the 4 canonical gospels. 

[2] He was killed on a stake and was resurrected by God

[3] The old testament prophets bear witness to a messiah appointed to the Jews who was Jesus Christ.

[4] The resurrected Christ is the heavenly head of the Christian church.

[5] You must repent of your past sins prior to baptism, and you must continue to repent of your sins after baptism. At baptism this is a private matter, after baptism you should openly confess your sins to your brother, but neither of these are policed by humans. 

[6] You must confess that Jesus came in the flesh in the first century both as a human and then afterwards through his wife the first new covenant saints, after he made that covenant. You must also confess that Jesus will come again in the flesh to collect the church at the end.

(We presently believe that he comes in the flesh of his wife in the form of the descended first new covenant saints, this being his manifestation at the end of the second presence. If not then you are an antichrist, which is a bad idea - accepting this particular interpretationis not necessary)

If you cease to believe any of the things above you should see the elders and if this matter cannot be resolved you should resign from the church. If you publicly espouse a position against any of these beliefs you are de facto acting as an apostate and will get a warning for apostasy. 

We also strongly advise that you read the disfellowshipping/excommunicating criteria for the congregation first. If not, then you may be leaving us almost as quickly as you joined! Please make sure that you understand the cost to your lifestyle that you will be asked to pay before asking us to baptise you. You decide when or if you are ready to be baptised, we follow your wishes.

Here is a list of Judicial scriptures for the congregation. The parts from the Law of Moses demonstrate God's Justice, which has not changed. He did not learn any more about his justice from the activities of the Christ. But as a result of the sacrifice of Jesus, who was Michael, the penalties of the Law no longer apply literally and the Law of Moses itself was ended. But Paul says about the law after it has ended:

1 For since the Law has a shadow of the good things to come, but not the very substance of the things... (Hebrews 10:1)
2 Therefore by works of law no flesh will be declared righteous before him, for by law is the accurate knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20).

Not by Law was the accurate knowledge of sin, but by law is the accurate knowledge of sin. So the Law of Moses is very relevant in determining judicial matters and laws within a congregation of Christians today. In general if the Law of Moses prescribed putting to death, then the Christian congregation would disfellowship (ex-communicate) instead. After 7 months the disfellowshipped one could come back if he/she says that they are repentant and there is no obvious evidence to the contrary. 

You cannot be repentant without precisely admitting all of your sin! Confession precedes repentance!

This stated repentance must be judged by the people who disfellowshipped the person in the first place if at all possible and the repentant one is judged as unrepentant if he tries to avoid this. Obviously the ones who judged the disfellowshipping sin are in the best position to judge repentance. For example if a brother whole stole £10 and then stole £20 and then stole £30 and so was thrown out at the 3rd offence, says he is repentant after 7 months but has made no attempt to pay back any of the people from whom he stole, he is unrepentant. Only the elders who disfellowshipped him would know the details of his sin first hand. 

The Law of Moses had the definition of sin, it had penalties for sin and it had various required works. Jesus' death ended the required works and ended the penalties under the law, but did not change the definition of sin.

The 10 commandments

3 You must not have any other gods against my face.
4 You must not make for yourself a carved image or a form like anything that is in the heavens above or that is on the earth underneath or that is in the waters under the earth. 5 You must not bow down to them nor be induced to serve them, because I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive devotion, bringing punishment for the error of fathers upon sons, upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation, in the case of those who hate me. 6 but exercising loving-kindness toward the thousandth generation in the case of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 You must not take up the name of Jehovah your God in a worthless way, for Jehovah will not leave the one unpunished who takes up his name in a worthless way.
8 Remembering the sabbath day to hold it sacred, 9 you are to render service and you must do all your work six days.10 But the seventh day is a sabbath to Jehovah your God. You must not do any work, you nor your son nor your daughter, your slave man nor your slave girl nor your domestic animal nor your alien resident who is inside your gates. 11 For in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and he proceeded to rest on the seventh day. That is why Jehovah blessed the sabbath day and proceeded to make it sacred
12 Honor your father and your mother in order that your days may prove long upon the ground that Jehovah your God is giving you.
13 You must not murder.
14 You must not commit adultery.
15 You must not steal.
16 You must not testify falsely as a witness against your fellowman.
17 You must not desire your fellowman's house. You must not desire your fellowman's wife, nor his slave man nor his slave girl nor his bull nor his ass nor anything that belongs to your fellowman (Exodus 20:12-17).

Further commandments from Exodus

12 One who strikes a man so that he actually dies is to be put to death without fail.
13 But where one does not lie in wait and the [true] God lets it occur at his hand, then I must fix for you a place where he can flee.
14 And in case a man becomes heated against his fellow to the point of killing him with craftiness, you are to take him even from being at my altar to die.
15 And one who strikes his father and his mother is to be put to death without fail.
16 And one who kidnaps a man and who actually sells him or in whose hand he has been found is to be put to death without fail.
17 And one who calls down evil upon his father and his mother is to be put to death without fail (Exodus 21:12-17).

28 You must not call down evil upon God nor curse a chieftain among your people [no penalty prescribed] (Exodus 22:28).

Calling down evil on your mother and father, does not mean saying: My Dad is a bastard. In scriptural terms a curse is not a swear word, it is the opposite of a blessing. So that: 

May my mother rot in hell

is calling down evil on her. But 'My mother is a bitch' is not. We are not ourselves going to attempt to police: Using God's name in a worthless way. We leave that to the conscience of the Christian brother or sister. 

Further laws from Moses and the New Testament

Again we should make it clear that we are not under the law of Moses in the sense that the penalties of that law no longer apply. But God's definition of sin has not changed since 1513Sivan3 BC. So these laws still give an accurate knowledge of sin even today.

The nakedness of a woman and her daughter you must not lay bare. The daughter of her son and the daughter of her daughter you must not take in order to lay her nakedness bare. They are cases of blood relationship. It is loose conduct (Leviticus 18:17).

And you should speak to the sons of Israel, saying: In case any man calls down evil upon his God, he must then answer for his sin.
So the abuser of Jehovah's name should be put to death without fail. The entire assembly should without fail pelt him with stones. The alien resident the same as the native should be put to death for his abusing the Name (Leviticus 24:15,16).

For example out of the heart come wicked reasonings: Murders, adulteries, fornications, thieveries, false testimonies, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man, but to take a meal with unwashed hands does not defile a man (Matthew 15:19).

Moreover if your brother commits a sin, go lay bare his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take along with you one or two more, in order that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every matter may be established. If he does not listen to them, speak to the congregation. If he does not listen even to the congregation, let him be to you just as a man of the nations or a tax collector (Matthew 18:15-17). Unrepentant sinner.

'Speak to the congregation' means speak to the judicial committee of the elders pf the congregation.

For from inside, out of the heart of men, injurious reasonings issue forth: fornications, thieveries, murders, adulteries, covetings, acts of wickedness, deceit, loose conduct, an envious eye, blasphemy, haughtiness, unreasonableness. All these wicked things issue forth and defile a man (Mark 7:21).

To keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication (Acts 15:29).

As for the believers among the nations, we have sent out, rendering our decision that they should keep themselves from what is sacrificed to idols as well as from blood and what is strangled and from fornication (Acts 21:25).

And just as they did not approve of holding God in accurate knowledge, God gave them up to a disapproved mental state, to do the things not fitting, filled as they were with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, badness, being full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malicious disposition, being whisperers backbiters, haters of God, insolent, haughty, self-assuming, inventors of injurious things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, false to agreements, having no natural affection, merciless. Although these know full well the righteous decrees of God, that those practising such things are deserving of death, they not only keep on doing them, but also consent with those practising them (Romans 1:28-32).

As in the daytime, let us walk decently, not in revelries and drunken bouts, not in illicit intercourse and loose conduct, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not be planning ahead for the desires of the flesh (Romans 13:13,14).

17 Now I exhort you, brothers, to keep your eye on those who cause divisions and occasions for stumbling contrary to the teaching that you have learned, and avoid them.
18 For men of that sort are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, but of their own bellies; and by smooth talk and complimentary speech they seduce the hearts of guileless ones (Romans 16:17,18).

Quit mixing in company with anyone called a brother that is a fornicator or a covetous person or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even eating with such a man (1 Corinthians 5:11).

Do not be misled, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men kept for unnatural purposes, nor men who lie with men, nor thieves nor covetous persons, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit God's kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9).

For I am afraid that somehow, when I arrive, I may find you not as I could wish and I may prove to be to you not as you could wish, but, instead, there should somehow be strife, jealousy, cases of anger contentions, backbitings, whisperings, cases of being puffed up, disorders. Perhaps, when I come again, my God might humiliate me among you, and I might mourn over many of those who formerly sinned but have not repented of their uncleanness and fornication and loose conduct that they have practised. This is the third time I am coming to you: At the mouth of two witnesses or of three every matter must be established; I have said previously and as if present the second time and yet absent now, I say in advance to those who have sinned before and to all the rest that if I ever come again I will not spare (2 Corinthians 12:20 - 13:2).

Now the works of the flesh are manifest and they are: fornication, uncleanness, loose conduct, idolatry, practice of spiritism, enmities, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, contentions, divisions, sects, envies, drunken bouts, revelries and things like these. As to these things I am forewarning you, the same way as I did forewarn you, that those who practice the above things (KI) will not inherit God's kingdom (Galatians 5:19-21).

Let fornication and uncleanness of every sort and covetousness not even be mentioned among you, just as it befits holy people, neither shameful conduct nor foolish talking nor obscene jesting, things which are not becoming, but rather the giving of thanks. For know this, recognising it for yourselves, that no fornicator or unclean person or covetous person - which means an idolater - has any inheritance in the kingdom of the Christ and of God (Ephesians 5:3-5).

8 But now really put them all away from you, wrath, anger, badness, abusive speech, and obscene talk out of your mouth.
9 Do not be lying to one another. Strip off the old personality with its practices (Colossians 3:8,9).

Now we know that the law is fine provided one handles it lawfully in the knowledge of this fact, that law is promulgated not for the righteous man, but for (the benefit of) persons lawless and unruly, sinners lacking loving kindness, and profane, murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, manslayers, fornicators, men who lie with males, kidnappers (catchers of men by the foot - deliberate stumblers?) liars, false swearers, and whatever other thing is in opposition to the healthful teaching, according to the glorious good news of the happy God, with which I was entrusted (1 Timothy 1:8-11).

Hymenaeus and Alexander belong to these, and I have handed them over to Satan, that they may be taught by discipline not to blaspheme (1 Timothy 1:20).

For this reason I left you in Crete, that you might correct the things that were defective and make appointments of older men in city after city as I gave you orders; if there is any man free from accusation as God's steward, not self-willed, not prone to wrath not a drunken brawler not a smiter not one making dishonest gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness, sound in mind, righteous, loyal, self-controlled, lodging firmly to the faithful word as respects his art of teaching, that he may be able both to exhort by the teaching that is healthful and to reprove those who contradict (Titus 1:5-9).

As for the man that promotes a sect, reject him after a first and a second admonition, knowing that such a man has been turned out of the way and is sinning he being self-condemned (Titus 3:10).

For the time that has passed by is sufficient for you to have worked out the will of the nations when you proceeded in deeds of loose conduct, lusts, excesses with wine, revelries, drinking matches, and illegal idolatries. Because you do not continue running with them in this course to the same low sink of debauchery, they are puzzled and go on speaking abusively of you. But these people will render an account to the one ready to judge both those living and those dead (1 Peter 4:3,4).

However, there also came to be false prophets among the people, as there will be false prophets among you (this is a prophecy!). These very ones will disown even the owner that bought them, bringing speedy destruction upon themselves. Furthermore, many will follow their acts of loose conduct, and on account of these, the way of the truth will be spoken of abusively. Also with covetousness they will exploit you with counterfeit words. But the judgement from of old is not moving slowly, and the destruction of them is not slumbering (2 Peter 2:1-3).

But as for the cowards and those without faith and those who are disgusting in their filth and murderers and fornicators and those practising spiritism and idolaters and all the liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur. This means the second death (Revelation 21:8).

Outside are the dogs and those who practice spiritism and the fornicators and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone liking and carrying on a lie (Revelation 22:15).

8 Certainly if anyone does not provide for those who are his own, and especially for those who are members of his household, he has disowned the faith and is worse than a person without faith (1 Timothy 5).

Here is the above and more sorted by sin:

We cannot judge haughtiness, jealousy, covetousness, strife, count fits of anger etc. We can't read hearts. We can allow time for heart condition to develop into obvious sin or hopefully subside into righteousness.

For sins that the elders cannot judge, the individual corrects and judges himself, knowing that the true God sees all things.

Disfellowshipping is for 7 months minimum then the brother can be readmitted if he is repentant. He is repentant if he says that he is and there is no evidence to the contrary. If he can make good his error and he hasn’t then he is not repentant. As regards the 7 months we have:

Even if he sins 7 times a day against you and he comes back 7 times saying:
I repent; you must forgive him (Luke 17:4).

Then Peter came up and said to him: Lord how many times is my brother to sin against me and am I to forgive him? Up to 7 times?
Jesus said to him: I say to you not up to 7 times but up to 77 times (Matthew 18:21,22).

We have too the law of Moses for the person unclean in the flesh with Leprosy. The penalty was 7 days outside camp.

4 But if the blotch is white in the skin of his flesh and its appearance is not deeper than the skin and its hair has not turned white, the priest must then quarantine the plague 7 days.
5 And the priest must look at him on the seventh day, and if in the way it looks the plague has stopped, the plague has not spread in the skin, the priest must also quarantine him another 7 days (Leviticus 13).

The greater meaning of the account of Miriam in Numbers 12 is not to do with disfellowshipping of individuals, it is to do with a 7 year malediction on FDS1 and on FDS3 - U252. It is possible that a word symbolic meaning of Leviticus 13, relates to those who have defiled their flesh morally, and committed a 'fleshly act', made themselves unclean in the flesh due to their sin, and their period of disfellowshipping, we do not as yet know. How ever the law of vengeance was a 7 year excommunication for murder, this being the greater law of Genesis 4 - see [133]. So presently we apply a 7 months excommuncation since we do not have 7 years left. We have too the Gentile Times, Alienation Times, Exedenic Times, all maledictions of 7 times in length. And we have the concept of the Sabbath, the release after 7 times. We take 7 times as 7 months because FDS4 times are normally in months. These set the basis for our 7 month rule. 

Under man's law ignorance of the law is no excuse. But under God's law things are different for outside the congregation men are judged on their conscience:

This is in fact how God's people will eventually be judged, one should only be disfellowshipped for performing a work of the flesh, one should not be disfellowshipped for not praying enough or not doing enough field service or not showing enough love etc. But to keep from doing fleshly works one has to keep eating from the tree of life, which is absorbing food from our high priest, Jesus Christ, through the bible.

The sins which carry immediate disfellowshipping are sins incurring death (under law). These sins against God are:

• Murder
• Deliberate manslayer (to be judged in harmony with bible)
• Adultery
• Fornication of a type incurring death under law (incest, bestiality)
• Brother committing loose conduct by fornicating with two blood related parties (mother & daughter etc.)
• Men who lie with men
• Men kept for unnatural purposes
• Idolatry
• Blasphemy
• Kidnapper
• Unrepentant sinner
• Spiritism
• Abuse of blood (living blood cells) other than for the purpose of saving life
• Calling a curse on both true Mother and true Father in the same day.
• Striking true Mother and true Father in the same day.
• Knowingly and maliciously making a false accusation officially that would if true have resulted in the disfellowshipping of another.

All of the above carried the death penalty under the law of Moses or are condemned in the new testament - the guy who picked up sticks on the Sabbath was unrepentant we suppose. Under the law, fornication did not mean death, it meant you had to marry the girl if she was free (not owned by a master or a husband) and if the father consented. Unintentional manslayers did not of necessity die. The high priest, Jesus, of the city of refuge for all of the sons of Adam, which is the planet earth under Satan's system, has died, so the unintentional manslayer is released.

[6] You must confess that Jesus came in the flesh in the first century both as a human and then afterwards through his wife the first new covenant saints, after he made that covenant. You must also confess that Jesus will come again in the flesh to collect the church at the end.

(We presently believe that he comes in the flesh of his wife in the form of the descended first new covenant saints, this being his manifestation at the end of the second presence. If not then you are an antichrist, which is a bad idea - accepting this particular interpretationis not necessary)

It is obvious that a promoter of a sect is extreme leaven, therefore any other sort of leaven will be treated no more harshly than him, i.e. get two admonitions first, the yellow and the orange card! The third fleshly act, sin, results in disfellowshipping.

As for a man that promotes a sect, reject him after a first and a second admonition (Titus 3:10).

This is the third time I am coming to you. At the mouth of two witnesses or of three every matter must be established.
I have said previously and, as if present the second time and yet absent now, I say in advance to those who have sinned before and to all the rest, that if ever I come again I will not spare (2 Corinthians 13:1,2).

For instance one who turns up drunk at meetings regularly, or the one who strips naked in the congregation, or one who fornicates with the elder's daughter is to be treated no more harshly than the raving apostate. The above must carry a charge because they are definitely leaven. As regards all the other sins, not mentioned above in [J3] & [J4], they can be forgiven by the one sinned against or by the elders so long as they do not constitute leaven, i.e. a danger to the congregation, established uncleanness.

Every warning, every accusation, only lasts until the Jubilee. Jubilees are every 50 months, we are under a monthly sabbath law. The law started in 1999Shebat when the LWs first started feeding through the web. The first Sabbath month was 2000Ab, which we missed along with several others. The first jubilee month was 2003Adar, which we did not miss. The last Sabbath is 2008Nisan when this system ends and the last Jubilee is 2008Iyyar when Jesus appears.. 

Since an overseer should not be a drunken brawler, it is apparent that there were such in the congregation, which means that they were either on an admonition/accusation or had been forgiven, or were known as such but had not been accused.

1 Timothy 3, 1 Timothy 5, Titus 1 all show that men in the congregation can be under an accusation, or under a charge of something which is an accusation. The context seems to indicate that this is a proven accusation.

Do not admit an accusation against an older man except only on the evidence of two or three witnesses. Reprove before all onlookers persons who practice sin, that the rest also may have fear (1 Timothy 5:19,20).

For this reason I left you in Crete, that you might correct the things that were defective and might make appointments of older men in city after city, as I gave you orders. If there is any man free from accusation, a husband of one wife, having believing children that were not under a charge of debauchery nor unruly. For an overseer must be free from accusation (Titus 1:5-7).

So children were members of the congregation. And there were men in the congregation who had more than one wife. So having two wives would not stop a man getting baptised (but it would stop him doing much else one would imagine!)

Certainly elders must be publicly reproved, obviously they are not disfellowshipped in the case of 1 Timothy 5:19, because this would be a public reproof. Also presumably ordinary members of the congregation would publicly reproved if they came under accusation, to warn the congregation of the danger they posed. In any event brothers should openly confess their sin!

Therefore openly confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may get healed. A righteous man's supplication, when it is at work, has much force (James 5:16).

Sins which definitely carry an admonition:

The thief in the congregation should make compensation to the victim, whether in the congregation or not, according to the law of Moses (which is twice as much as he stole if he still has the item, and 4 times as much if it was a small item which he sold on, and 5 times as much if it was a large item which he sold on - the elders can decide whether in their opinion it was small or large). If he does this then there is no penalty from the congregation. He has literally paid for his sin. If he does not then he gets an admonition.

Failing to provide for your own family in circmstances where you have the (legal and financial and logistical) means so to do brings an accusation...

8 Certainly if anyone does not provide for those who are his own, and especially for those who are members of his household, he has disowned the faith and is worse than a person without faith (1 Timothy 5).

All the following sins:

May or may not lead to an admonition depending on whether the elders judge that they are leaven, definite uncleanness, to the congregation. The unintentional manslayer is forgiven. Fornication is a sin against God's law on marriage but it is not a sin against God. Adultery is a sin against God because one is putting asunder what God has yoked together (assuming that the marriage was not a contrivance or the result of blackmail or undue influence etc.) Paul shows that adultery carries immediate disfellowshipping (1 Corinthians 5). False testifying carries the penalty for testifier that would have been laid upon the man falsely accused, had the accusation been made to stick. This can of course be disfellowshipping. If only the laws of this system worked like this! People would think twice before making up stories. 

If a man carries a charge and commits a further sin of any type for which he is further charged during the life of the first charge then he carries two charges until the next jubilee, and if he commits a further sin for which he should be charged in this period, then he has 3 witnesses against him that he is unclean and he is thrown out for 7 months. 

Obviously an elder has to step down if a charge is proved against him, this is one import of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Also Peter denied Jesus three times which would have meant disfellowshipping one supposes, had Jesus not made supplication on his behalf to the God of undeserved kindness. 

So if someone commits a sin which does not incur death (under the law of Moses) and he does this twice, thus denying Jesus twice, seeing as he is baptised into his name, then we cannot chuck him out, because Peter did this three times. However if he does it three times, then he is chucked out and he, like Peter, will have to rely on Jesus' supplications, and if he says that he is repentant then he will be accepted back after 7 months, in the absence of evidence that he is unrepentant. And Jesus himself said to Peter do you love me three times, but Peter only got very upset at the third instance. So if Jesus has to ask this question of any member of his congregation three times, then that man will get very upset because he will be disfellowshipped. That is the sort of death with which he will glorify God, being taken somewhere that he doesn't want to go, namely the world. But hopefully he will repent after 7 months. Furthermore if Jesus is to be able to ask this question three times, then the sinner must be allowed two warnings, in order that he is still in the congregation when the third question is asked.

Suicide is self murder. It is self disfellowshipping. If you defile your physical temple, your body, with drug addiction you are an idolater. If you destroy your body you have plainly committed a life abusing sin. You have stolen something that belongs to God. 

4 Look! All the souls to me they belong. As the soul of the father so likewise the soul of the son to me they belong. The soul that is sinning, it itself will die (Ezekiel 18).

So legally anyone who committed suicide should be disfellowshipped. But of course he has actually disfellowshipped himself. So an attempted suicide as an attempt at a life abusing sin. So it is a fleshly act which requires an official warning. However people who attempt suicide need as lot of help and will not benefit from being thrown out of the church. So whilst they may have given up on their soul the church will not give up on them. We will not disfellowship anyone for any number of attempted suicide bids. They will be constructively fixed with diminished responsibility for this sin. Make no mistake, if you succeed in killing yourself you lose your water baptism.

[J6.1] The Extra Requirements for Ministerial Servants and Elders

2 The overseer should therefore be irreprehensible, a husband of one wife, moderate in habits, sound in mind, orderly,
hospitable, qualified to teach,
3 not a drunken brawler, not a smiter, but reasonable, not belligerent, not a lover of money,
4 a man presiding over his own household in a fine manner, having children in subjection with all seriousness;
5 (if indeed any man does not know how to preside over his own household, how will he take care of God's congregation?)
6 not a newly converted man, for fear that he might get puffed up [with pride] and fall into the judgment passed upon the Devil.
7 Moreover, he should also have a fine testimony from people on the outside, in order that he might not fall into reproach and a snare of the Devil (1 Timothy 3:2-7).

8 Ministerial servants should likewise be serious, not double-tongued, not giving themselves to a lot of wine, not greedy of dishonest gain,
9 holding the sacred secret of the faith with a clean conscience.
10 Also, let these be tested as to fitness first, then let them serve as ministers, as they are free from accusation.
11 Women should likewise be serious, not slanderous, moderate in habits, faithful in all things.
12 Let ministerial servants be husbands of one wife, presiding in a fine manner over children and their own households (1 Timothy 3:8-12).

5 For this reason I left you in Crete, that you might correct the things that were defective and might make appointments of older men in city after city, as I gave you orders;
6 if there is any man free from accusation, a husband of one wife, having believing children that were not under a charge of debauchery nor unruly.
7 For an overseer must be free from accusation as God's steward, not self-willed, not prone to wrath, not a drunken brawler, not a smiter, not greedy of dishonest gain,
8 but hospitable, a lover of goodness, sound in mind, righteous, loyal, self-controlled,
9 holding firmly to the faithful word as respects his [art of] teaching, that he may be able both to exhort by the teaching that is healthful and to reprove those who contradict (Titus 1:5-9).

[J6.2] Sins to be policed by one's own conscience

Obscene talk
Multiplying wives (where it is legal in the country concerned)
Fits of Rage
Revilers
General dishonesty
Causing divisions and stumbling others
Covetousness (desiring something that belongs to another).

One should not drink an animal’s blood and one should not take a blood transfusion, the Watchtower Society have realised this correctly, from Acts 15: 

Abstain from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood (Acts 15:20).

To keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication (Acts 15:29).

As for any man of the sons of Israel, or some alien resident, who is residing as an alien in your midst, who in hunting catches a wild beast or a fowl that may be eaten, he must in that case pour its blood out and cover it with dust. For the soul of every sort of flesh is its blood by the soul in it. Consequently I said to the sons of Israel: You must not eat the blood of any sort of flesh, because the soul of every sort of flesh is its blood. Anyone eating it will be cut off (Leviticus 17:13).

The unclean one and the clean one may eat it, like the gazelle and like the stag. Only the blood you must not eat. On the earth you should pour it out as water (Deuteronomy 12:15,16).

These two scriptures say that in the event that you wish to kill an animal to eat it, then you must pour out its blood, and in the event that you pour out its blood, you must pour it out on the earth, and cover it with dust.

The Watchtower Society had deduced at one time from this (it may have changed its position today) that in the event that one takes blood out of a man, one should then pour it out on the earth and not put it back into the same man, in the form of a blood transfusion, at a later time. But these scriptures would only apply if one was going to eat the flesh of that man. They would only apply to cannibals! Since Christians are not cannibals, they do not apply.

So one can certainly store and transfuse one’s own blood. The home of one’s blood is quite obviously in one’s body, it is not unnatural to put it back there after it has been removed.

Secondly God’s laws only apply to members of the congregation. Children under the age of 20 cannot be sanctified into the 3AC to be tested as regards their fitness as kings, or water baptised into the 2AC to be tested as regards their fitness as priests. One could not be registered into the army of Israel until one was 20 years old:

Take the sum of the whole assembly of the sons of Israel from twenty years of age and upward, according to the house of their fathers, all those going out to the army in Israel (Numbers 26:2).

But they can be admitted into the congregation through the bath of the flesh, through the laying on of hands and prayer in the case of FDS4:

And he put his hands upon them and went from there (Matthew 19:13-15).

Such Children are in fact baptised into the 1AC, not the 2AC or 3AC. We originally thought that this meant that they were not under congregation law. But plainly every city has one wall, and every church has one law for all. The lower age limit for water baptism is set by the bible at 5 years old see [J8]. So little children who are baptised into the 1AC are under congregation law, but we must apply it bearing their diminished responsibility in mind.

But there may be another option now, namely that if there is time, their blood can be stored before the operation and transfused back after it. Furthermore, it is not inconceivable that a blood bank could be established for the Lord’s witnesses, where all witnesses blood is stored and frozen, in case of an emergency. This would solve the problem to some extent, with good communication and fast motorbikes! Some of the very orthodox Jews do this we think. This might be a worthwhile project? There is also the possibility of synthetic red cells, which are permissable, since they are not 'alive'.

The best example from God of why we should not take a blood transfusion even from our own relatives is the placenta in the mother. This organ exists in order that the nutrients may be extracted from the mother by osmosis, whilst the mother's blood is kept entirely separate from the blood of the foetus. The placenta protects the baby from the mother's blood, and prohibits a transfusion. Body part transplants are quite obviously the same as fornication being an illegal joining of two fleshes who are not married, unless the organ is from your spouse - see [J9]. But a blood transfusion is a joining not of two fleshes but of two bloods, which contain living cells, and is therefore a form of fornication. It is also an abuse of life since to God, and to us:

For the soul of every sort of flesh is its blood by the soul in it. Consequently I said to the sons of Israel: You must not eat the blood of any sort of flesh, because the soul of every sort of flesh is its blood (Leviticus 17:14). 

So if joining flesh is fornication then joining blood is adultery.

Synthetic blood is used by the US military in emergency situations. This is acceptable as the blood is not living in any way. It is a dead chemical compound. Furthermore Red Blood Cells themselves are basically dead. They are e-nucleated during before they are released into the blood stream and have no mitocondria so they have no synthesising capability. They become a bag of haemoglobin. So a red cell only transfusion would also be permissable. For more on this see below.

Artificial Blood

Recent developments in the UK have lead to a situation where the government is reported to be contemplating banning anyone who has ever had a blood transfusion from giving blood! It is possible that the risk of catching BSE from a blood transfusion has been very much underestimated, the reports say. This is obviously an admission that a blood transfusion is not a great idea. The inference is that those who have received a transfusion are damaged goods. 

But recently there have been great strides in artificial hemoglobin products and synthetic oxygen transport products, such as polyfluorocarbons (PFCs). Here is a list of some commercial artificial blood products:

Here is the commercial sell for PFC as opposed to blood transfusions:

PFCs have the capability to be as good as or better than red cells at oxygen transport to cells. Oxycyte claims to do a 70 times better job than God in this regard and why not? This technology is represented to be only a few months away from FDA approval. Oxycyte has just finished Phase 1 clinical trials - see www.bioexchange.com. Some of the progress made in this new field must be due to the position of the JWs. So here, for a change, the LWs salute the JWs for their uncompromising stance on blood in general (although the details were wrong, the idea was right). As of March 25th 2004, MP4, a new synthetic red cell substitute has passed its phase II clinical trials. So artificial blood is nearly here!

When someone attacks you, trying to kill you, they lose their right to their life, their blood. You gain the right to use their life, their blood, only to save your own. You can choose to kill them and spill their blood in self defence with impunity. If your life is in danger then you can make any use of their blood, their life, that in your judgment protects or saves your life, your blood. So you can make any life protecting use of an attacker's blood without his consent, since his attack on your life, your blood, is an implied consent. The legal effect of the attack is merely to grant a consent to the victim to use the attacker's blood in a life protecting way. Therefore you can make any life protecting use of a non attacker's blood with his consent. Therefore you can take a blood transfusion from a consenting person in order to protect your life.

Putting this in a more simple way. God's law on blood exists to protect the sanctity of physical life which is represented by the blood and is owned by God. Therefore a use of blood which saves a life, does not break the law which forbid's abuse of blood. It is actually the purpose of blood to protect life!!!

This is not true of God's law on idolatry. If a false worshipper tells you he will shoot you unless you do an act of false worship, the thing to do is to refuse, and if necessary, kill him, run or get shot.

Here is the relevant part of 1Samuel14:

The JWs as of November 2004 still ban major blood components, which they deem to be red cells, white cells, plasma and platelets, but permit fractions of those components. In particular they used to ban factor 8 for hemophiliacs (but no longer do as it is a fraction of a component). Now it is obvious that all blood components cannot be banned because water is a component of blood. So which components of blood are the sacred part? Well the answer is found in Leviticus 17:14 above or in Genesis:

Only flesh with its soul - its blood - you must not eat (Genesis 9:4).

Blood represents or is the soul, the life of the flesh. It feeds the flesh. So it is the components of blood which represent life which must be avoided. These are the living components of blood quite obviously, the blood cells. So blood cells should be avoided, if they are alive. By this we mean, platelets, leucocytes (white blood cells) etc. but not erythrocytes (red blood cells), because erythrocytes are dead by the following scriptural yardstick:

The word of God is alive and exerts power (Hebrews 4:12).

The Word of God is alive in the sense that is has different meanings at different times, in other words it is not static in meaning. It has the ability to change its character. Something which is alive is not passive, it is active with the ability to change itself. Red cells, having no nucleus, cannot change their constitution, so they are dead, in the sense of Hebrews 4:12. Blood plasma which is devoid of all living cells can be transfused without violating God's laws, because it is none of it alive.

So returning to the Haemophiliac, we see that factor 8, being a dead chemical compound, can be transfused, ingested or taken intravenously without sin. At this point there may be some readers who burst into tears, and quite rightly so. For there are a number of Jehovah's witnesses who were haemophiliacs, who may have been known to the reader, and who have died unnecessarily as a result of the false and ignorant teachings of the Society on blood we believe. In fact there may even have been some bible students who have died before they were baptised because of their faith and because of the negligence of the Governing body in this respect. Fortunately we have a God who appreciates what these faithful people have done, and if he resurrects anyone, he will resurrect them. But he may well ask back their blood from the governing body of the Witnesses. For these leaders are bloodguilty men in this respect not by intent, but by negligence. It does not take a genius to work out that it is the living components of blood that Acts 15, Leviticus 17 and Genesis 9 refer to. 

In this regard Gordon must say the following: "You know my bible research reminds me of a situation that I often see at work. In my office we have a team of people who have the job of compiling the statistics on how well the business is doing. One of my businesses makes around £15,000 per week ($23,000). On one particular week I was handed figures showing that my business had made £150,000 ($230,000) !!!  For the previous 50 weeks it had always made between £10,000 ($16,000) and £20,000 ($32,000). The whole statistics department just handed me these figures without comment. They didn't even realise that the figures were ludicrous. They didn't even think that if we really had made ten times more money that week than we had in every other preceding week then we would all have been doing ten times more work that week than usual which would have been totally impossible. What this whole department did was write down figures without thinking about them, without understanding them and without caring about what they could possibly mean. It was a vacuous exercise that they were performing. At that moment I knew exactly how God feels about his people who read his book.

They nearly all read it without understanding a word, because they are not prepared to think about what it might mean, just like my statistics department. It is truly maddening! Dear reader: Do not be like my statistics department used to be, please! It's like God told Isaiah to say to his true people, to the true people of God mind you:

Hear again and again, Oh men, but do not understand. And see again and again but do not get any knowledge (Isaiah 6:9)."

So it is ok to take factor 8. It is ok to take blood plasma, so long as it has no living cells in it. And it is OK to take any blood component at all if it is necessary to save your life or to avoid a life threatening situation.

White blood Cell Free blood - a further hope !

The reason that blood transfusions save lives, is that the life is in the blood, in the sense that the red cells carry the oxygen needed for the brain and the rest of the flesh. A common usage of a blood transfusion which can save life is after a car crash where the patient has lost a lot of blood and is still bleeding. Now the advantage of a blood transfusion is that the new red cells keep feeding the patients brain with oxygen and therefore keep him alive until the bleeding can be stopped. The patient is just like a carton of orange with a hole in it. If you cannot plug the hole then you can maintain the level of orange by adding more juice. The disadvantage of this therapy is that the new red cells and all of the other blood cells which are transfused into the bleeding patient are foreign to the patient's body. So the patient's own white cells then start a war with all of the new foreign blood cells. This can cause the patient real problems if his body was say fighting cancer at the time of the transfusion. Also there are the dangers of picking up whatever blood borne diseases the blood donor had, such as Aids, Hepatitis or BSE. These are real dangers today. Actually these risks have become much less significant in the last 10 years with leucodepleted blood and other treatments common in the more developed countries.

We are wondering if it would be possible to kill or remove all of the white blood cells from whole blood. Can one prepare a Red Blood Cell only transfusion? This would not break God's law as we understand it, because the whole transfusion would be a dead chemical soup. This idea was first proposed by Francis Flukka in an email to Gordon Ritchie.

There are new 4th generation filters in development which can reduce the white blood cell count further to 5 x 10³ white blood cells per unit. These are called log6 filters because they reduce the white cell count by a million times which is 10⁶ times and log10⁶ = 6. Such blood would be the safest possible in transfusion terms, and in fact one article in the Lancet (by Janet Fricker March 9, 1996), about biochemically changing red cells from type A or AB to type O, described the 'Holy Grail' of blood transfusion as type O red cell only blood. This blood could be given to anyone with no adverse consequences at all (since HIV and the various herpes virus HSVs and the various Hepatitus viruses and HTLV and Epstein Barr antibodies are transferred via the white cells - so long as they do not somehow get stuck to the red cells). Such a transfusion, if truly dead, i.e. carrying no living viruses, unsurprisingly, would not break God's spiritual laws. In fact the physical is designed to illustrate the spiritual. One wonders what all of the different blood types illustrate. It must be something to do with baptisms and covenants, and blood of mediators. One wonders what blood type Jesus was in this symbolism??

Now a unit of blood with only 5 thousand white cells in it is pretty impressive and is pretty safe. It has only got a handful of WBCs in every cc. But a Christian would be sinning 5 thousand times if he took it in a non life threatening situation physiologically speaking. We need a blood unit which has either no white cells or an immeasurably low count of them. The Lords' Witnesses hope to promote research to create such a transfusion, either by chemical treatment, by even better filters, by freezing or howsoever. Many JWs have died from refusal to accept blood transfusions, and if the truth be known many although less have survived through not accepting blood transfusions due to HIV etc.

This is a complex subject, but God has given us the reasoning power to solve the equation. It would be an honour and a privilege to get this one right for him and for his people and for his ex people who still hold true to the blood prohibition of Acts 15. Anyone reading this who can think of a way to prepare true red cell only transfusions please contact us, you may well save many lives. It occurs to Gordon that blood filtration is designed to yield at least 80% of the original red cells. But if this figure was allowed to be reduced to say 10%, there would be an 8 times reduction in red cells but possibly an 8,000 times reduction in white cells and we might almost be there. And then the blood could be concentrated by a factor of 8 (not to be confused with factor 8!) to return it to 80% of its initial RBC count. This would cost 8 times as much per blood unit however. Multi stage filtering is one possibility. 

Alternatively if one could just kill all the living cells in whole blood and then transfuse it immediately afterwards, this would not break God's law, since no living cells would be transfused. It would pose no danger of infection or of degraded immune response to the patient, since the war against the foreign cells is already won seeing as they are dead before they are transfused. If one could say irradiate the blood just before transfusing it, or chemically treat it, in order to kill the living matter, we would have both solved the problem of Blood Transfusions for sincere Christians and developed a better therapy for the rest of the world, because this treated transfusion would be risk free! There are some chemotherapy treatments that might be able to do this.

If this improved therapy works it would be a therapy developed as a direct result of biblical knowledge. Irradiated blood is currently used in blood transfusion therapy in the cases of cancer patients and blood relatives where TAGVHD transfusion associated graft versus host disease can be a problem in a small number of cases. Actually a lethal problem. Blood is given between 2,500 and 5,000 rads, which prevents the leucocytes (white cells) from dividing and which knocks out some of the platelets but which does not kill/burst the red blood cells. It is not known to have any bad side effects at this time - see 'Guidelines for irradiation of blood and blood components' - New York State Council on human blood and transfusion services - www.wadsworth.org/labcert/blood_tissue/irradiate.htm . We are wondering whether there is a dosage of radiation which will kill the white cells without bursting the red cells.

Finally, of course, it is ok to eat black pudding, haggis, rare steaks, sushi, etc., so long as the blood cells in the rare meat are actually dead. We do not know how long blood cells live after an animal is slaughtered. Some research should be done here. 

We know from the manner in which God treated those under 20 in the wilderness, and from the fact that they could not be registered in Israel and no one under 20 can be sanctified, that is baptised in holy spirit. But what is the lower limit for water baptism? 

13 Then young children were brought to him, for him to put his hands upon them and offer prayer; but the disciples reprimanded them.
14 Jesus, however, said: Let the young children alone, and stop hindering them from coming to me, for the kingdom of the heavens belongs to suchlike ones.
15 And he put his hands upon them and went from there (Matthew 19:13-15).

This is an omission symbolism, the children were brought for Jesus to both put his hands upon and offer prayer, he did only the former.

2 Although indeed Jesus himself did not baptizing but his disciples did (John 4:2).

By the Omission Principle of the code, the greater meaning of this involves actually saying a prayer, which would result in a baptism for these kids.

13 Now people began bringing him young children for him to touch these; but the disciples reprimanded them.
14 At seeing this Jesus was indignant and said to them: Let the young children come to me; do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to suchlike ones.
15 Truly I say to you, Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a young child will by no means enter into it.
16 And he took the children into his arms and began blessing them, laying his hands upon them (Mark 10:13-16).

So now Jesus has said a blessing over them and laid his hands upon them, both of which are done in a baptism - see [204].

Here infants were brought but Jesus responded that not infants but young children should not be stopped from coming to him. So it is clear from all of the above that infants should not be baptised in water but young children should be so baptised. However at what age does an infant become a young child from a biblical point of view?

Firstly we look at the account of Isaac, who after he was weaned was persecuted by Ishmael. Now persecution is one of the trade marks of a Christian, or should I say of a member of the true religion. 

8 Now the child kept growing and came to be weaned; and Abraham then prepared a big feast on the day of Isaac's being weaned.
9 And Sarah kept noticing the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, poking fun (Genesis 21:8,9).

Now we know that Abraham's seed were to be afflicted for 400 years:

13 And he began to say to Abram: You may know for sure that your seed will become an alien resident in a land not theirs, and they will have to serve them, and these will certainly afflict them for 400 years (Genesis 15:13).

This affliction was of course at the hands of the Egyptians, and look! Ishmael is described as 'the son of Hagar the Egyptian' in case we did not know. So the 400 years started this day and ended on 1513Nisan14 at the passover. So this day was 1913Nisan14 which might explain the big feast that Abraham made. Isaac was born when Abraham was 100, so he was born in 1918. So Isaac was 5 years old at the time that he was born weaned and persecuted.

Now we have a look at possibly the most politically incorrect scripture in the entire bible. Of course politicians are dishonest as we all no so being politically correct is being correct by the very definition of a politician!

3 and the estimated value has to be of a male from 20 years old up to 60 years old, the estimated value must then become 50 shekels of silver by the shekel of the holy place.
4 But if it is a female, the estimated value must then become 30 shekels.
5 And if the age is from 5 years old up to 20 years old, the estimated value of the male must then become 20 shekels and for the female 10 shekels.
6 And if the age is from a month old up to 5 years old, the estimated value of the male must then become 5 shekels of silver and for the female the estimated value must be 3 shekels of silver.
7 'Now if the age is from 60 years old upward, if it is a male, the estimated value must then become 15 shekels and for the female 10 shekels (Leviticus 27:3,7)

This can be succinctly summarized in the table below:

Here again the holy spirit is making a distinction at 5 years old. So although we are no longer under law, we know that God's principles do not change so an 'infant' becomes a 'young child' at 5 years old. So a young child of 5 years old (by the NBLC which has been in use since 1992Elul - Gordon thinks) can be baptised, but into which covenant? We used to think that since a child is plainly too young to act as a priest and to baptise others in water, they must be baptised into the 1AC not the 2AC. But