Jehovah´s Witnesses

Cardiac surgery in Jehovah's Witnesses may be challenging during the operation and postoperative period given their refusal of blood products. The aim of this study was to document our center's experience with Jehovah's Witnesses undergoing major cardiac surgery and to compare surgical outcomes with a matched control group. We retrospectively reviewed the demographic, perioperative, and in-hospital postoperative data for 31 Jehovah's Witness patients undergoing surgery from 1991 to 2012 and compared findings with a control group of 62 patients of the same sex and age, who underwent the same type of operations in the same period. Early mortality, major in-hospital morbidity, laboratory findings, and hospital stays were compared between groups. Demographic data were similar between groups, except that more patients in the Jehovah's Witness group had extracardiac arteriopathy compared with controls (p = 0.04). There was no difference in predicted mortality, calculat...

The question of whether clinical ethics consultants may engage in patient advocacy in the course of consultation has not been addressed, but it highlights for the field that consultants' allegiances, and the boundaries of appropriate professional practice, must be better understood. I consider arguments for and against patient advocacy in clinical ethics consultation, which demonstrate that patient advocacy is permissible, but not central to the practice of consultation. I then offer four recommendations for consultants who engage in patient advocacy, and consider the implications of this issue for the field.

The refusal of medical treatment is a recurrent topic in bioethical debates and Jehovah’s Witnesses often constitute an exemplary case in this regard. The refusal of a potentially life-saving blood transfusion is a controversial choice that challenges the basic medical principle of acting in patients’ best interests and often leads physicians to adopt paternalistic attitudes toward patients who refuse transfusion. However, neither existing bioethical nor historical and social sciences scholarship sufficiently addresses experiences of rank-and-file Witnesses in their dealings with the health care system. This article draws on
results of a nine-month (2010, 2011e2012) ethnographic research on the relationship between religious, legal, ethical, and emotional issues emerging from the refusal of blood transfusions by Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany (mainly in Berlin). It shows how bioethical challenges are solved in practice by some German physicians and what they perceive to be the main goal of biomedicine: promoting the health or broadly understood well-being of patients. I argue that two different understandings of the concept of autonomy are at work here: autonomy based on reason and autonomy based on choice. The first is privileged by German physicians in line with a Kantian philosophical tradition and constitutional law; the second, paradoxically, is utilized by Jehovah’s Witnesses in their version of the Anglo-Saxon Millian approach.

Over the past three decades more than 200 children have died in the U.S. of treatable illnesses as a result of their parents relying on spiritual healing rather than conventional medical treatment. Thirty-nine states have laws that protect parents from criminal prosecution when their children die as a result of not receiving medical care. As physicians and citizens, we must choose between protecting the welfare of children and maintaining respect for the rights of parents to practice the religion of their choice and to make important decisions for their children. In order to make and defend such choices, it is essential that we as health care professionals understand the history and background of such practices and the legal aspects of previous cases, as well as formulate an ethical construct by which to begin a dialogue with the religious communities and others who share similar beliefs about spiritual healing. In this paper, we provide a framework for these requirements.

This paper has long been in my mind and on my heart, and I was finally compelled to work on it and bring it to completion.

The length of the work is largely due to the fact that:
1) The Godhood glory of our Lord has been demonstrated book by book throughout the New Testament (and often in connection with Old Testament prophecy). As such, proofs from one NT book are often seen repeated in others.
2) Extensive comparisons with other scriptures have generally been made for each scripture passage cited in proof of the absolute Deity of Christ—with scripture thus buttressing scripture.
3) Each main text cited in proof of the fact that our Saviour is Jehovah-Jesus has almost always been cited in full and unedited (for all to read for themselves without comment) before citing it again with interspersed remarks bearing on its meaning and unavoidable implications.
4) Commentary other than my own remarks has often been added where it was deemed warranted and helpful.
5) Even scriptures were taken up that are, or may be, twisted and misused by wicked, deluded men to our Lord’s dishonor, and shown that they in fact necessarily redound to His blessed everlasting glory.

In keeping with the above, I have also emphasized the abundant scriptural testimony to our Lord’s unoriginated, underived, eternal Divine Sonship.

One of my objectives, which influenced the structure of this work, was to permit no escape-hatch, if you will, to deceivers or poor, lost deniers of our Saviour's absolute Divine glory. And one of my prayers is that the Holy Spirit would use this paper to shed the light of His scriptures with overwhelming force, such that there is no other recourse than to bow to His Word in true worship of our true God and Saviour Jesus Christ, or to otherwise outright reject His Word with no pretense of submitting to it. May it be the former!

Before delving into the main body of this work, I would also encourage readers to take the time to digest the “Introductory Remarks” which follow this Preface, and which set the framework, context and all-importance of “The Triunity of God and the Person and Work of Christ.” The time invested will pay off in great spiritual dividends—including grounding one in the truth and facilitating avoidance of pitfalls and
traps set by the enemy.

I should also note that I have intentionally not provided full citations of other works or commentaries that have been quoted, but almost always only the names of authors (and then simply their initials after the
first time citing from their works in a given section of the paper). I did not want the remarks cited to be about certain "authorities"; but solely about elucidating the truth (while at the same time not taking false "credit" for such wonderful and helpful comments).

May God use this paper to bless those who belong everlastingly to the Son—to cause their hearts to overflow endlessly in love, adoration, worship of Jehovah-Jesus, He who is their Life and Blessed Hope!—and to reveal, unto salvation, the eternal Godhood glory of the Son of His love to those who are perishing.

Medical researchers must continue to develop and test non-blood oxygen-transport products. Resources provided by the Jehovah's Witness Hospital Assistance Line must be consulted. Sickle cell researchers must continue to test non-blood treatment. Information about non-blood treatments must be disbursed. Ways to enhance parental comfort as the laws further and further support children's best interest must be provided. Information regarding cultural diversity must be disseminated. Hospitals and healthcare agencies that have not done so must institute the use of ethics consulting or ethics committees. Nurse ethicists must continue development of the role of educating staff; mediation, arbitration and negotiation; problem solving; obtaining legal opinion; providing patient, family, or staff advocacy; and helping to reduce suffering on the part of the providers. Difficult ethical decisions should continue to be debated. Were the staff X Med Center correct in overriding parental wi...

Author has a goal both to defend Jehovah’s Witnesses against false accusations, and correct erroneous views of Watchtower organization’s members and sympathizers. Among other things he discusses such topics, as motives behind Witnesses’ preaching, their attitude toward blood transfusions, reliability of their publications and belief expressed in the Watchtower magazine that only Jehovah’s Witnesses would be saved.

Interview given over WhatsApp (21/10 and 25/10 2021). This interview is circulated among my students as course material. An Italian translation is scheduled to be published in the Italian magazine L'Atea in 2022. The entire document (PDF) can be circulated freely; however, if you intend to post the text somewhere, I'd be grateful if you could take the time to inform me (mail above). Ideally, however, the text should not be modified in any way including selecting and abbreviating sections.

The article reconstructs and analyses the writings of author, ex-Jehovah's Witness (JW), and YouTuber Darek C. Barefoot. Barefoot wrote his first book in the early 1990s to explain how his attempt at demonstrating and denouncing the existence of satanic images in Jehovah's Witnesses publications led to his disfellowshipment. Later, he published philosophical articles including discussions of Clive Staples Lewis's "argument from reason." Finally, he specialises in an exegetic method called "typologetics" that he popularizes by blogging and vlogging. This study shows how the narrative about satanic images sent, and is still sending, ripples throughout global conversations about Jehovah's Witnesses, also in directions that Barefoot would not have suspected nor welcomed, and how Barefoot's writings, although at first glance heterogeneous, display methodological unity and continuity.

That early Christians and Jews from the same period were not doing what many modern Christians are doing: They were not replacing the name Yahuah every time they saw it in a text or when praying, they were using it. This is consistent with the present because whereas the school that has removed Yahuah (Yahweh's) name from the mouth of the Church and the Jewish people are not the only school out there. There are and always have been religious Jews, and Christians who have retained the use of the name. So today we have the Karaites and the practical kabbalists, Nazarene Jews and some Messianics among the Jews who do use the name, and we have all manner of Christians from Charles Haddon Spurgeon and his readers and others who use a form of the name, usually Jehovah. They could be using the form Yahweh, Y (J)ehovah, Yahuah or Yahwah but they were using a form of the name. In the time of Jesus they were using it in baptisms, temple ceremonies, they recognized it in the sign of the cross, they were using it in oaths (Samaritans) and in reading the scriptures and teaching it and using it to fight the devil.

In 2006 Jehovah’s Witnesses organization published an eschatological tract The End of False Religion Is Near! It contains serious accusations against Christian churches and a prophecy that Babylon the Great of the book of Revelation, as “the worldwide empire of false religion” will be soon destroyed by God. The author in systematic, logical and Biblical way points to untrue character of many statements written in the tract. He gives evidence that presented image of Christianity is too pessimistic, far from the truth and marked by unfair generalizations. He also shows that for the first century readers of the Apocalypse, the idea of Babylon the Great had a very concrete meaning.

La parola greca “Diatessaron” significa “attraverso i quattro” e fin dal II secolo fu utilizzata in relazione ai Vangeli. I quattro Vangeli (la parola “Vangelo” significa “buona notizia”) sono testimonianze complementari che si integrano piacevolmente a vicenda in modo da offrire il quadro completo della vita di Gesù Cristo. Il testo utilizzato è quello dell’edizione riveduta del 2017 della Traduzione del Nuovo Mondo delle Sacre Scritture. Nei brani paralleli non ho scelto un Vangelo anziché un altro, nemmeno nei dialoghi. Maneggiandoli con rispetto e devozione, ho utilizzato tutti i versetti canonici dei quattro Vangeli, oltre ad altri versetti biblici attinenti, posizionando ogni episodio della vita di Gesù in ordine cronologico e fondendo scrupolosamente insieme tutti i particolari di ciascuna narrazione.

This book is the journal of a Charismatic Christian Gentile Noachide journey from the title Lord to the name Yahuwah. His investigation began with a dream that sent him to Israel December 1998. In the dream he was told he would go to a place for seven years. That place was Israel. In Israel he began studying Hebrew and Arabic all with the goal of restoring the name of God to the mouth of the Church and Israel. Through discussions with Rabbis. Hebrew scholars, and Arabic speakers he left behind Gesenius and Albright's form Yahweh (3rd masculine singular imperfect, hifil of a lamed-heh verb, הוה ) and came into agreement with Mowinckel's Yahuwah, which provides and explanation for the early prevalence of the for Yahu in the Elephantine Papyri and as the second part of many theophoric names. Also the form Yah. is given consideration as evidence. The Noachides vision to see the name Yahuwah restored to the mouth of Israel and the Church as part of the restoration of all things has him reading Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and Jerome the translator of the Latin Vulgate, listening to Rabbi David Weinberg of Hebrew Union College Cincinnati Ohio and the inscriptions found from Jewish Settlement in 6th Century BC Babylon, one imparticular נדב יהוה pronounced nadav yahuwah by Rabbi Weinberg in a lecture on The Impact of Assyriology on Biblical Studies on May 4th 2000 at the Institute of Holy Land Studies, Mount Zion Jerusalem. The prophecies of Church Flynn and Sister Nancy Berg of Mount Zion Fellowship Jerusalem all played their part in the Charismtics Noahide coming to certainty about the pronunciation of the name.  In the end through Hebrew and Arabic pronunciation practices the four letters yod heh vav heh or in Arabic yah hah wah hah find their home in the worship of one Charismatic Christian Gentile Noachide who lived in Israel for 12 years. He evivisions the spead of the name to every corner of the earth and examples of Charismatic prophecy are inncluded in the journey.

The late Nelson Herle worked on this for many years including frequently providing updates. I am making this available to anyone who may benefit from it. The edition is 2003 Revised.
(I did not have anything to do with this, except making it available since it cannot be found anywhere else that we are aware of.)

La parola greca “Diatessaron” significa “attraverso i quattro” e fin dal II secolo fu utilizzata in relazione ai Vangeli. Come indica il resto del titolo, “Le varianti testuali dei più antichi manoscritti dei Vangeli”, quest’opera è un commentario che presenta le varianti nel testo degli antichi papiri greci, dei grandi onciali su pergamena e delle più antiche traduzioni dei Vangeli in altre lingue (siriaca, latina e copta) tenendo anche conto del parere dei più grandi luminari in materia, come Bruce M. Metzger, Philip W. Comfort, gli Aland e altri. Con i metodi della critica testuale propone una revisione dell’odierno testo scientifico standard, il Nestle-Aland/UBS, che è alla base di ogni traduzione moderna dei Vangeli.

This interview is circulated among my students as course material. An Italian translation is scheduled to be published in the Italian magazine L'Atea in 2022. The entire document (PDF) can be circulated freely; however, if you intend to post the text somewhere, I'd be grateful if you could take the time to inform me (mail above). Ideally, however, the text should not be modified in any way including selecting and abbreviating sections.

La parola greca “Diatessaron” significa “attraverso i quattro” e fin dal II secolo fu utilizzata in relazione ai Vangeli. Come indica il resto del titolo, “Le varianti testuali dei più antichi manoscritti dei Vangeli”, quest’opera è un commentario che presenta le varianti nel testo degli antichi papiri greci, dei grandi onciali su pergamena e delle più antiche traduzioni dei Vangeli in altre lingue (siriaca, latina e copta) tenendo anche conto del parere dei più grandi luminari in materia, come Bruce M. Metzger, Philip W. Comfort, gli Aland e altri. Con i metodi della critica testuale propone una revisione dell’odierno testo scientifico standard, il Nestle-Aland/UBS, che è alla base di ogni traduzione moderna dei Vangeli.

Possiamo imparare molto dai saggi proverbi della Bibbia e da alcune delle preziose gemme che contengono:
1) “Il meglio” secondo i proverbi della Bibbia.
2) I paragoni nei proverbi della Bibbia.
3) I proverbi della Bibbia: Il valore del parlare poco e del saper astenersene.
4) I proverbi della Bibbia: La descrizione poetica della vecchiaia e una lezione per i giovani.

Per rispondere a questa domanda esaminiamo tre aspetti basati sulle parole di Gesù stesso:
1) Cosa ci insegnano le parole di Gesù al Getsemani?
2) Gesù e Dio sono una sola persona?
3) Cose che Dio conosce e Gesù no, e cose che non competono a Gesù.

La parola greca “Diatessaron” significa “attraverso i quattro” e fin dal II secolo fu utilizzata in relazione ai Vangeli. Come indica il resto del titolo, “Le varianti testuali dei più antichi manoscritti dei Vangeli”, quest’opera è un commentario che presenta le varianti nel testo degli antichi papiri greci, dei grandi onciali su pergamena e delle più antiche traduzioni dei Vangeli in altre lingue (siriaca, latina e copta) tenendo anche conto del parere dei più grandi luminari in materia, come Bruce M. Metzger, Philip W. Comfort, gli Aland e altri. Con i metodi della critica testuale propone una revisione dell’odierno testo scientifico standard, il Nestle-Aland/UBS, che è alla base di ogni traduzione moderna dei Vangeli.

A maioria dos estudos religiosos em Portugal tem centralizado o seu enfoque na Igreja Católica e nas diversas denominações protestantes. Contudo, durante o período ditatorial que envolveu o país de 1926 a 1974, e especialmente desde 1961, as autoridades portuguesas despenderam uma considerável quantidade de recursos e tempo investigando as Testemunhas de Jeová, cujo número de membros era aparentemente insignificante. Este artigo procurará entender as razões desse fenómeno e historiará a implantação desse movimento no território metropolitano e ultramarino, com destaque para Angola e Moçambique. ##### Most of the religious studies in Portugal have dealt mainly with the Catholic Church and several Protestant
denominations. Nevertheless, during the Dictatorship that dominated the country from 1926 to 1974, and especially
since 1961, the Portuguese authorities spent a considerable amount of resources and time researching and persecuting
Jehovah’s Witnesses, a religious denomination with a negligible number of members. This article aims at understanding
the reasons for this phenomenon and will detail the introduction of this denomination in the metropolitan
territory and overseas, especially in Angola and Mozambique.