One of the most surprising facts about the Watchtower's blood doctrine is that it was not part of the beliefs of the early Bible Students who eventually became known as Jehovah's Witnesses.  Nor was it taught by the earliest presidents of the Watch Tower Society.

For decades after the organization was founded in the late nineteenth century, there was no prohibition against blood transfusions because the subject was never addressed. Jehovah's Witnesses carried no "No Blood" medical directives, there were no Hospital Liaison Committees, no judicial action for accepting blood, and no published articles instructing members to refuse transfusions.

This often comes as a surprise because today's blood policy is presented as though it has always been a defining mark of faithful Christians.

History tells a different story.  The reason is understandable.  Modern blood transfusion medicine was still in its infancy during the early decades of the twentieth century. Although physicians had experimented with transfusions for many years, they became far safer only after the discovery of blood groups by Karl Landsteiner in 1900 and continued to develop throughout the following decades.

Because the procedure itself was relatively new, neither Charles Taze Russell nor Joseph F. Rutherford wrote extensively about blood transfusions.  The issue simply was not part of the theological discussions of their day.  That changed dramatically after the Second World War.  As blood transfusions became increasingly common in hospitals, the Watchtower began asking whether the Bible's commands to "abstain from blood" applied not only to eating blood but also to receiving blood through a medical procedure.

The organization's answer would permanently reshape the lives of millions of Jehovah's Witnesses.

In 1945, the Watchtower published the first major article applying Acts 15 and the Mosaic Law's commands regarding blood to blood transfusions. Although the Bible never discusses transfusion medicine, the organization concluded that receiving blood intravenously violated God's command to abstain from blood.

This was a significant doctrinal development. Notice what had happened.

For nearly seventy years after the Watch Tower Society was founded, faithful associates had never been instructed to refuse blood transfusions.

Then, within a single generation, the organization concluded that accepting blood was a serious violation of God's law.   The blood doctrine was not an original teaching of the Watchtower movement.  It was introduced decades after the organization began and several decades after blood transfusions became a practical medical treatment.

That historical fact becomes important because it reminds us that the doctrine has a beginning, and if a doctrine has a beginning, it is reasonable to ask whether its understanding has also changed over time.

A Timeline of the Watchtower's Changing Blood Policy

DID DANIEL'S 70-WEEK PROPHECY START WITH ARTAXERXES' 20TH-YEAR DECREE IN 455 OR 445 B.C.?

Daniel 9's 70-week prophecy is significant because it not only proclaims when Jesus, the Messiah, would come to earth "to make an end of sin... to bring in everlasting righteousness... to anoint the most holy place" but it also proclaims how long God would continue to work strictly with the literal nation of Israel when it proclaims that “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city” providing us a framework of when God would open up the Gospel to the Gentiles (non-Jews) in offering salvation to anyone who would believe. Daniel 9:24-27 states:

ARE JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES PART OF THE ILLUMINATI?

“Are Jehovah’s witnesses part of the Illuminati? Why do some Watchtower publications have weird drawings in the pictures like the Revelation—It’s Grand Climax At Hand! book page 159 where there is a face in the palm of Jesus? And on page 52 of the Revelation book there is a demon hand on the left side of Jesus? Yes, I do believe in Jehovah as our God, but I’m just really confused. I’ve been raised as a Jehovah Witness, but now I just don’t know what to think about this religion.”

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CHART OF SOME OF THE MAJOR CHANGES IN WATCHTOWER DOCTRINE

“It is a serious matter to represent God and Christ in one way, then find that our understanding of the major teachings and fundamental doctrines of the Scriptures was in error, and then after that, to go back to the very doctrines that, by years of study, we had thoroughly determined to be in error. Christians cannot be vacillating — ‘wishy-washy’ — about such fundamental teachings. What confidence can one put in the sincerity or judgment of such persons?” (The Watchtower, May 15, 1976, p. 298)

.:DID THE WATCHTOWER REALLY SAY THE END WOULD COME IN 1975?

“I’ve been studying with Jehovah’s Witnesses for a year and I am thinking about getting baptized, but I wanted to do some research into the history of the organization before I made my decision. Recently, I ran across statements on the Internet that claim that Jehovah’s Witnesses taught that the world would end in 1975, so I asked my Bible study teacher about that. She flat out denied that the Watchtower ever taught that 1975 would be the end of the world. She said that a few individual Jehovah’s Witnesses thought the end would happen in 1975, but she said that the Watchtower Society never officially gave that date for the end of the world. I am confused! If the Watchtower Society never gave the 1975 date for the end of the world, why does Anne Marie on your website say that they did in their 1966 publication, Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God? Is there anyway I can get the documentation that Anne Marie talks about in her story?”

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WHO ARE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES? - Their History, Beliefs and Practices

1.  History of the Watchtower Organization

• 1852: Founder Charles Taze Russell was born
• 1870’s: Russell studied the doctrines of Second Adventists: George Storrs, Jonas Wendell, George Stetson and Nelson Barbour
• 1879: Russell began publishing Zion’s Watchtower and Herald of Christ’s Presence (Precursor to The Watchtower magazine)
• 1881: Main legal entity founded - Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
• 1909: Headquarters moved to Brooklyn, New York - Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
• 1916: Charles Taze Russell died
• 1917-1942: Second Watchtower President: “Judge” Joseph F. Rutherford
• 1931: The name “Jehovah’s Witnesses” adopted
• 1942-1977: Third Watchtower President: Nathan H. Knorr
• 1978-1992: Fourth Watchtower President: Frederick W. Franz
• 1992-2000: Fifth Watchtower President: Milton George Henschel
• 2000: Change in organizational structure:
  • Three corporations formed: Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Religious Order of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Kingdom Support Services
  • Watchtower “Governing Body” relinquished control of the organization to the Board of Directors, under Don A. Adam
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A BUSY RELIGION

  As of 2010, there are over 7 million active Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide, spending approximately one billion hours each year serving the Watchtower organization. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are active in over 230 countries, and are the fastest growing religion in the former USSR.

Claiming that people must “come to Jehovah’s organization for salvation,” 1. the Watchtower Society places great pressure on Jehovah’s Witnesses to perform according to their guidelines. In addition to attending several meetings each week, Jehovah’s Witnesses are required to spend many hours each month distributing Watchtower articles, conducting Watchtower “Bible studies,” and researching various topics in Watchtower literature for discussion during their meetings. Witnesses are forbidden to serve in the military, salute the flag, say the pledge of allegiance, vote in elections, take blood transfusions, celebrate birthdays and holidays including Thanksgiving, Easter, and Christmas, and are forbidden to read literature critical of the organization. Over the years, Jehovah’s Witnesses have also been discouraged from associating with non-Jehovah’s Witness friends, participating in after school activities such as sports, and furthering their education by going to college.2.

.:THE WATCHTOWER AND THE UNITED NATIONS - The Watchtower Severs Its Ten-Year Association With The United Nations After Public Exposure

For many years, the Watchtower Society has taught that the United Nations is “the present form of the ‘image of the wild beast’” of Revelation. The Society's 1963 publication, “Babylon the Great Has Fallen!” God's Kingdom Rules!, states on pages 593-594:

EVIDENCE THAT THE 1914 A.D. AND 607 B.C. DATES OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES ARE WRONG

WHY 1914 A.D. IS IMPORTANT TO JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

Prior to 1914, Jehovah’s Witnesses proclaimed that the end of this period would culminate in the destruction of all earthly governments in the “Battle of Armageddon.” 1. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, it seemed to them that such prophetic declarations by the Watchtower Society were indeed being fulfilled and that the new system of things under Christ’s millennial reign of one thousand years was just around the corner. Heralding such statements, Jehovah’s Witnesses flocked to the streets, urging prospective converts to join the Watchtower organization in order to avoid the impending doom that they claimed would occur near this date.