p. 131 | THE DOCTRINE OF BLOOD by William P. Pearce

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 26, 1901

THE DOCTRINE OF BLOOD

By William P. Pearce

WILLIAM P. PEARCE

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” Lev. 17:11. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7.

There is no one thing more significant to the intelligent mind, more repulsive to one’s sensitive feelings, than blood. And yet blood was the main characteristic in the Levitical ritual; the link that connected the Noachian age with the Mosaic, and the Mosaic with the Christian; the basis on which our religion is built, and the doctrine around which all others revolve,—God’s plan of redemption.

This term, used four hundred times in the Bible, may be applied in various senses. Sometimes it denotes consanguinity; thus Paul, when addressing the conceited Athenians and intellectual Greeks on Mars Hill, preached the truth which military men have waged a crusade against: “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.” Acts 17:26. If there stood before me an American, a Chinaman, a negro, and an Indian, and I should open an artery in each man’s arm, I should find the same kind of blood, with the same characteristics. It would be red, complex, fibrinous, globular, containing potassium, sulphuric acid, phosphate of magnesia, and other properties; and if inquired of, all the doctors of the land—homeopathic, allopathic, hydropathic—would instantly acknowledge the veracity of Paul’s declaration.

The word “blood” is also used in a figurative sense. We speak of the martyr’s blood as the seed of the Church, the soldier’s blood as the promoter of liberty, the blood of Christ as the sinner’s redemption and the seal of the “everlasting covenant.” Heb. 13:20. In fact, twice in the Old Testament and twice in the New we read of the covenant of blood. The blood of the old covenant was that of an animal; that of the new is the “precious blood of Christ.” 1 Peter 1:19.

When General Grant visited Egypt, he was entertained at the house of an official. Before entering the home, however, he was detained until a beef, beautifully garlanded with flowers, was brought forth and killed. It was then cut in twain, and one part was laid on one side of the door, and the other on the other side. Mr. Grant was then invited to enter the house. He stepped over the blood which had been sprinkled on the threshold, and between the parts. By this Oriental act, which was in vogue in Abraham’s day (Gen. 15:9, 10, 17), he entered into the most solemn covenant with his host,—the blood covenant,—and thus they became blood brothers, a relation which lasts as long as life lasts. But with Christ and His people it lasts forever, increasing in beauty and worth as the ages roll by.

But blood stands for more than this. According to physiological science and microscopic investigations, “blood is the life,” and the vitality and strength of the whole body is derived from it. Let it deteriorate in quality, and weakness will result; let it diminish in quantity, and power is lessened; let it be forced from any part of the system, and there is chilliness in that part, and a congestion somewhere else. Why, for instance, should wet feet produce a cough?—Because the dampness of the feet has sent the blood away from their capillary vessels, and there is a rush of blood to the lungs or bronchial tubes, which chokes them, and thus produces congestion of those vessels, causing various disorders. Why does one become chilly when out in the cold?—Because the blood has receded from the capillary vessels of the skin. It is not there to keep one warm, hence the chill. Bring it back to the surface, and there is warmth; equalize it, and there is comfort and health.

To stop the circulation of the blood to any part of the system will produce disease in that part. There will be no motion, no sensation, no life. Stop the circulation to the brain for an instant only, and the result is syncope—the heart ceases to beat, respiration is stopped, and insensibility results. Cut the nerve of your finger, and it will paralyze that finger, but that member still lives. Cut off the blood from the finger, and it will speedily die. Open an artery, and with every heart-beat the blood will spurt up in a jet, until the heart stops, as the engine for the want of fuel.

But what is blood? you ask. In what sense is it the life? Have not chemists made blood?—Yes, just as seeds and eggs have been made. They have used the proper quantity of water, and albumen, and sodium, and phosphates, and iron, and other ingredients, but no chemist has yet found out the secret of infusing life, any more than the scientist has been able to hatch a chick from an artificial egg. No, there is a God-life in the blood. How placed there I know not, and how it controls and directs the blood in its circulation through the numberless channels I can not tell. I can define its two kinds—arterial and venous. Blood is simply a mixture of infinitesimal particles of such solids and fluids as are necessary to compose and keep in perfect repair the human system, in which God has breathed life; and when that life is recalled, death seals the whole person.

From these facts we now get an insight to the reason why blood was prohibited as food, which will lead up to how blood cleanses. Six times God declared that blood should not be eaten. Two reasons are given. Literally, it is the vehicle of life, “the first to live,” as Harvey said, “the last to die, and the primary seat of the animal soul.” Symbolic, it is, as God designed and declared, “the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Lev. 17:11. That is what the blood on the lintel of the Israelite’s door meant when the destroying angel went by. That is what was meant when Moses sprinkled Aaron and his sons when consecrated to the priesthood. That is what was meant when Eleazar dipped his fingers in blood, and sprinkled it seven times before the tabernacle. That is what Paul meant when he declared: “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” Heb. 9:22. Hence it was that Christ, the perfect offering, ended the long list of Levitical sacrifices by offering himself and giving His blood. As the apostle said: “If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Heb. 9:13, 14. Now can we sing with Isaac Watts, with a better understanding—

“Not all the blood of beasts On Jewish altars slain, Can give the guilty conscience peace Or wash away the stain.”

In considering the second text, we have no need to deal with the chemical elements of blood; but I would have you note carefully that it is specific blood of a specific person. Theoretically, we know Him. He is the “Ancient of days” (Dan. 7:9), God’s beloved Son,—the Son who reigned from everlasting, and who will reign to everlasting in unchallenged supremacy and illimitable glory,—the Son who looked down from His beautiful abode, and saw humanity groping in darkness, separated from eternal happiness by the chasm of sin, and who gave himself to bridge that chasm that humanity might be saved.

His life I can not reiterate, only to say that earth’s first gift to Him was a manger, and its last a cross. The world treated Him with contempt, with hellish madness. They nailed Him to the cross; and, not content with this, one heartless wretch disfigured His side by thrusting a spear into it, when blood gushed forth, making the earth recoil with horror as it fell on its bosom; thus transforming its native green to a bloody red.

(To be concluded.)