So apparently it is a man-made tradition since the NT does not require it for the Church.
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Does your church have an altar?
- Thread starter robycop3
- Start date
So apparently it is a man-made tradition since the NT does not require it for the Church.
We used to gather around the altar and pray before the closing prayer. Now... I am afraid... Our church has picked up too many "Alters" ... Or those desirous to change everything.
Might well be. Our church sometimes plays music on a boom box. (We have no choir.) I'm not concerned one way or another.
That’s right.
“ You are my friends” “ A man can have no greater Love than to lay down his life for his friends “
That is completely right, so totally Right. Love makes the Altar dudes. Love is the Priesthood and Jesus is the High Priest of Sacrificial Love.
See the words with the eyes of grace fellas.
Any dude can quibble over words like a lawyer we want to kick in the groin. Whether the lawyer is for us or against us we still want to kick his groin.
Wherever the Sacred pledge of Jesus is, I make my Sacred pledge to him. That is my Altar and my offering together with His.
See the Sacred in the Last Supper brothers, it was no ordinary night. That night was the pledge of The New and Everlasting Covenant of Love made and betrayed.
The Lord's Table and the Lord’s Cross was one and the same Altar or Love for us.
Go you lawyers and scrounge your words, scribble and dither in text and see not the words by grace.
“ You search the scripture thinking that in them you have life, scripture bears witness to me, yet you refuse to come to me that you might live”
Do not be afraid of Altars, my father’s weathered and broken hands were an Altar, they laboured for love of me, they blessed me in my sleep.
I see The Eternal Fathers Love for me in my Fathers hands.
If you see Love by Grace, you will see the Altar.
Where Love is, the Altar is.
When I belonged to the Freewill Baptist church we would gather around the altar for communion and footwashing. And have a wonderful time in the Lord!!
Brethren "YOU" are the Altar... Brother Glen
1 Peter 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
1 Peter 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
Good on you brother. That’s what Jesus wants, for us to love and laugh in praise of Him, that is where Joy comes from.
We get scared sometimes worrying in this earthly life, but even right now Jesus wants us to trust in His Love and just be joyful as children.
It’s a little secret, but it’s not really a secret to those who believe His Word. He told us.
Be as Children. Trust and Love are the foot prints of children.
Tell Jesus you Love and Trust Him, ask Him not to test you in it, but that His heartbeat never leaves your ear.
In a dream I saw John, a child by our standards today. But he was considered a man in those times, always with Jesus looking out at what Jesus was looking at. John never lay by the fire, he stayed by the Lord. The test was never his, he stood at the Cross without fear as in the coldest of nights.
Trust and Love is the heart beat and the pause is Hope.
The Absolute corruption today can not understand Goodness and Love. True Goodness and Love is far from even the best of men today.
Children however are not as the world, and the Lord loves them for it. Do not lose that quality dude, I say this so you persist in that joy you experienced in the Lord.
If the night grows cold, draw closer to the Lord, fear nothing.
Yep. Old Testament. Like the altar.
The earliest churches excavated have very distinct altars front and center of the church. The Early Church Fathers refer to them as ALTARS not 'Lord's table' as you seem to believe they were. There are many references to their use and purpose:
Tertullian speaks of the Christian altar as ara Dei. But St. Cyprian makes a sharp distinction between ara and altare, pagan altars being aras diaboli, while the Christian altar is altare Dei [quasi post aras diaboli accedere ad altare Dei fas sit (Ep. lxv, ed. Hartel, II, 722; P.L., Ep. lxiv, IV, 389)]. Altare was the word most commonly used for altar, and was equivalent to the Greek trapeza.
old regular
Active Member
I am not sure as to what you are calling an altar ? Is it a mourners bench ? We have communion tables but no mourners benches etc..... The early Church often met in homes , so I don't know when the '' Altar'' came about.
Hebrews 13:10 (D-R): We have an altar whereof they have no power to eat who serve the tabernacle.
Paul is referring to the NT Sacrifice - the Eucharist.
In Old Testament times, the altar was an elevated table where sactifices were burned. The need for it ended when Jesus fulfilled the sacrificial laws once & for all on the cross, But some churches have an altar as a symbol for sacrifices, with some having a Bible placed upon it.
5 point Gillinist
Active Member
Just snagged a free one at work yesterday that they were throwing out. I guess I can tell my wife that I now have a purpose for it now.
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How sad
Hebrews says that Christ died once and that His atonement was good enough for all eternity.
sadly, some insist on crucifying Him weekly not understanding the power of God, nor His Gospel
5 point Gillinist
Active Member
Or Exodus 20:4-5.
Hmmm, no old school (New Testament) Baptist churches that I’m aware of have alters? What would be the point as the Lamb has been slain, His blood has been shed on the cross. We are washed in that blood. No, we don’t need any more sacrifices…. Just deliverance.
So you don’t have people to sing these hymns… we do it acapella.
CalTech
Active Member
Greetings,
I do believe the copying of the altar may have started with Constantine, wikipedia has a good amount of history on him.
"Constantine played an influential role in the proclamation of the Edict of Milan in 313, which decreed tolerance for Christianity in the empire. He called the First Council of Nicaea in 325, at which the Nicene Creed was professed by Christians."
I also, like you know they never had any type of "altar" in home fellowship meetings, why would they, when Jesus Christ is the Living Tabernacle?
So any type of such "furnishings" are not needed. The One True Faith in Christ is simple, there is no need for all that costly and symbolism.
The Lord bless you.