John MacArthur and Communion

Gershom,

Will you also be inviting the entire Church to your house for this communion? If you are going to use this verse as your proof text, I think you probably should.

Joseph Botwinick

 

Our Church takes communion to the sick and shut in every first Sunday. I usually take my kit on hospital visits etc... Jesus was not in a Church, they were in an upper room having supper.

What was the problem concluded in the previous thread.

 

a few years back - i was a camper at a christian camp - been there 10 years this summer now.

our counsellor (there were 8 of us all together) and us. at the end of the week - the camp speaker did an altar call - and annointed some with oil - and we as a cabin did communion.

it was very interesting and the Lord spoke to me through it all.

i dont see anything wrong about where you take communion. its doing it all in rememberance.

 

Concerning limitations on offering communion; do you believe the Lord Jesus Christ took communion, at the Last Supper, with Judas? Think about it.

 

Communion is an ordinance of hte church, not individuals. Acts 2 references the church assembled in houses because they had no buildings. They took communion when they were assembled together as the church.

There is no biblical basis to have communion apart from the church. There are many to limit it to the church.

 

There is NO Biblical basis that communion is an ordinance of the church. For those that believe the myth of closed communion, think about what you are basing the standard on. It is based on a local church roll. A roll where I am going to guess 60-70% of the members have not been there in years and another 20% sit like bumps on a log in the pew on sunday morning and do nothing else. So, if you are basing it on a known factor of you know their salvation testimony or baptism experience, well, the 70%'s witness is quite clear. That is one pitiful standard not worthy of the Lord's Supper. The Bible tells us to examine ourselves, so God sets the standard, not man with his church roll. Kind of sounds like Arminian communion.

 

I agree that communion isn't limited to the Church (which is the uiversal as well as local) as a whole. Where do you stop? If you have communion, every believer in the world has to at the same time? Jesus said that His body and blood were shed for you (singular), not "you guys", or "the whole assembly of believers". Acts 2 cannot be used as a proof text...
“They, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house.”
"They" does not mean every single believer within the church, but is a number of people greater than 1. They continued daily with one accord in the temple, and shared meals from house to house, but the text does not add these together that the one accord shared meals from house to house, as that is reading into what is not there. In Acts, the church grew to thousands. How could you have thousands of people sharing meals home to home? Impossible.

 

The Church is a local fellowship of believers, not a building. It was the Church that met in houses, not individual families.

Joseph Botwinick

 

I would like to know how thousands of people fit into tiny houses...

 

Let's not forget that communion is also a means of discipline (if/when a church practices discipline.) If a brother or sister is disfellowshiped/excommunicated etc. they are not allowed to participate in communion, although few cases would prevent them from entering the building and attending the services.

 

What about them?

Can you show one NT church instance of it being celebrated apart from the gathering of the church?

Sounds like a bad view of ecclesiology to me. I recognize nothing here that is in the NT. Churches should purge their rolls through church discipline. Here, if you don't show up for three months, you are not a member. We would tell people in evident sin that they are not welcome to participate. That is not man setting the standard. That is God setting the standard and us following it.

Interesting though that you claim we should examine ourselves and then proclaim that these people are unworthy of the Lord's Supper. How does that work?

And how does church discipline work? Should a person under church discipline partake of communion?

Overall, it sounds like you have pretty weak ecclesiology.

 

Communion is an ordinance of the church. Not just the local assembly but the whole bride of Christ. Worship and the study of Gods' word are not confined to sunday morning in the "church" building. There is no scripture that mandates that worship ie prayer, singing hymns, the Word, and even communion can only take place under the supervision of the church leadership. The father and husband is the priest, and pastor of the home. As such he should be leading his family in worship. Communion in the home and as a family is appropriate and a wonderful time of worship.

 

I think that outside of the church building is NOT (imho) the same as outside of the Church.

Your OP seemed to indicate that you will fellowship and raise your children outside of the Church.

Outside of the Church there can be no communion. Communion with Our Lord is a Church function - ordinance. If what you are saying is correct, then I disagree with John Mac on this.