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YOUR QUESTION (No.
46)
Do you
take Communion at home? If so, how often?
Also, do you have scripture from Jesus that tells us how to purify a defiled and dirty heart? MY
ANSWER
I hope you are ready for this, because I cannot answer this question without explaining. No, I do not take Communion at home, or anywhere. Our Lord did not institute the so called Holy Communion, and his disciples have no need of it. Indeed, we are far better off staying far from it. Of course, we have the accounts of the Last Supper in Matthew, Mark and Luke (not in John). When we read these accounts, we should consider these things: They were together participating in the traditional Jewish Passover meal. Here is this specification: Luke.22The "it is fulfilled" means, as I understand it, "it is consummated" or "it is finished." The kingdom of God came shortly thereafter, the next afternoon about 3 PM (the sixth hour, when he died on the cross) and I understand that at that point the Passover ritual was finished for Jesus and his disciples. You may not have noticed, in the Acts, that there is no record of any disciples taking Communion? Yes, the Jewish disciples, some of them, continued to keep the Passover, not realizing that the Lord had set them free from Jewish ritual. The earliest disciples had no command to do this, as a participation in his body and his blood, and they did not do it. They took their meals in common. This was not Communion (though many insist that it was) but a sharing of their food resources. To read the earliest testimony by the Church "fathers" go to this site:http://www.romancatholicism.org/self-communion.html In the Fourth Gospel, Jesus delivers a lengthy discourse on eating his flesh and drinking his blood, and then explains that these are only metaphors, that the flesh profits nothing, and the thing that we disciples must eat is his Word: John.6 [60] Many of his disciples,
when they heard it, said,
"This
is a hard saying; who can listen to it?"
[61] But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at it, said to them, Do you take offense at this? [62] Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where he was before? [63] It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. If you will read this entire segment with this in mind, beginning with vs. 6:25, concentrating on the meaning of his term, "bread of life" this should become clear for you. The real manna from heaven is the bread of life that is his Word, and one must ingest the Word to receive eternal life -- that is, one must eat the Word. To eat his actual flesh, and drink his actual blood, if that were possible, is worthless because of what he has said in v. 63. The flesh avails nothing! Further, had it been his intention to establish "Communion" at his last Passover meal with his disciples, he would never have taught them that the flesh was of no profit. It is a contradiction. I believe that this is what took place: the early church leaders needed an effective means to "hook" the poor fish Christians and invented Holy Communion for this purpose. It was a natural! Basing it on the account of the Last Supper, they proceeded to establish it as essential many years after the fact. Participation was, for Catholics, made essential to salvation. Only an ordained person, a priest or other ordained official, was qualified to dispense the elements, and partaking regularly in the elements was essential to the Christian life. The result? The poor Christian is hooked; he buys the doctrine of the church and believes participation in the Holy Communion to be essential to his salvation, and he must support the only person qualified to dispense it -- an official of the church. This made the ministrations of the Church essential to them, and firmly established the church on this false doctrine. This became so strongly established that the Reformers failed to recognizes its falsity -- indeed, most of them love if for it sealed the members of the churches to the church, which is the only place they could go to partake in the body and blood of the Lord. So, it continues to this day. Now here is the terrible thing that resulted: thinking themselves qualified for salvation by this supposed participation in the body and the blood, they had no incentive to receive the genuine body and blood which is the true Holy Manna from heaven, the Word of Truth defined by Jesus in John 6. They also fail to receive the Spirit or eternal life because the Spirit comes into us with the Word. The Lord's promise of eternal life is rigidly tied to eating this "living bread" and drinking this "living water." John.5Therefore, the only effect that Communion has, besides assuring the priests and pastors of a continuing source of support, is to cause people to believe that they do not need to receive his Words, which forever seals their condemnation. Isn't that awful? But there is another way to approach this subject. If we define Communion as participating in the Living Bread and the Living Water, then I take Communion every day, just as I eat plain old bread every day for the sustenance of my body. So we should participate in the Living Bread and the Living Water every day to sustain our souls. You also ask, "Do you have scripture from Jesus that tells us how to purify a defiled and dirty heart? John 15:Sanctify means purify in this context. You see, these two questions you have asked have a common answer: everything depends upon the Word. The Word brings Spirit and Life, and purifies the heart, for an impure heart cannot entertain the Word. John.8 |