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Receiving Communion -Who Should Or Should Not?
This article is a brief
discussion on why most true churches do not have "open" communion - and by
this I mean open to people who do not profess to be "born-again".
Sometimes open communion means open to all believers, whether or not they
are members of the local congregation. The Bible teaches that to take
communion if you are not born-again, not truly "saved", is to bring
condemnation upon yourself. This teaching comes from 1 Corinthians chapter
11, verses 23 through 29, quoted below:
"For
I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the
Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: 24 And
when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body,
which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 25 After the
same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is
the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in
remembrance of me. 26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink
this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come. 27 Wherefore
whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily,
shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But
let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of
that cup. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and
drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body." [1Cor
11:23-29]
Many of the churches I have been in will actually read
(and sometimes elaborate on) the above Bible passage before beginning the
communion ceremony. What Paul was saying, was quite simple and yet it
sounds complex the way it is stated above... "If you think you are saved
(and are not) and take communion as if you were a saved/born-again person,
then you are participating in communion in an unworthy manner." Paul knew
very well - and as he frequently preached - the only people who are worthy
to participate are those for whom Christ died, those who are born-again,
those who have become worthy ONLY BECAUSE Christ paid the full penalty for
all their sins... He shed His precious blood for all their filthy rotten
sins, and they know that and acknowledge that. And they are not trusting in
their good deeds, their penance, their sacraments, their prayers, anyone
else's prayers, their priest or pastor, their church, their pope or their
own self-righteousness. They know what the word "lost" means and they
knowthat it once applied to themselves. They also know that this verse
below also applies to themselves:
"For
when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."
[Romans 5:6]
God is holy. To be in heaven is to be with this holy
Almighty being and to experience intimate fellowship with Him. If God does
not convert a person in this life into what most people consider a Christian
"fanantic", then to be with God for ever and ever will be the greatest hell
for them. Now that I understand how holy God is and how great is His hatred
for sin, I would not be fit for heaven and I would hate being there with God
if God had not converted me. I now long for the day when I will be with
Christ and be ushered out of a world that uses His name as a curse word. I
long for the day when I will not longer have to deal with the sin in my own
life and in my own mind. Whereas, if I had not become born again, I would
be most uncomfortable, if not intensely miserable and even horrified, of
being in the presence of a being as holy as God, who hates sin so intensely,
that He declared that the only way that sin could be punished was either to
send us to hell forever or to nail his own sinless son to a cross and pour
out his wrath on that Son, for all the people he intended to rescue from
hell.
The question for each and every one of us is: Am I
one for whom Christ died? Will God have mercy on me and save my soul from
the wrath to come? In answer to those questions the Bible just says:
"Seek ye
the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near" [Isaiah
55:6]
because the answer to that
question can only be found by reading the Bible. When we study what the
Bible says about sin, about our sinful nature and about God, we will know
where we stand with God. If we don't think it is worth our time to do that,
then we are already admitting that we are not ready for heaven, we are not
fit to spend eternity with the author of the Bible and with the supreme
Lawgiver of the universe. If we don't care what God has to say as he has
revealed to us in Scripture through the prophets, apostles, and Jesus
Christ, then why in the world would we want to be where God is for all
eternity? God and his holiness and righteousness will be the focus of
heaven, the preoccupation of all who dwell there. The Bible says that those
who are not ready to meet God will be crying out for the rocks to fall on
them to hide them from God's wrath, because on Judgment day, it will be too
late to seek God's mercy and all there will be for the unsaved is God's
wrath.
Here are some very interesting messages based on the
Bible about what heaven will be like:
Ray Kane
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