EXPOSING THE ELCA
  • Home
  • ELCA Exposed News
    • on The Bible
    • on Homosexuality & Sex
    • on Universalism & Hell
    • on Goddess/Mother God/Gender Neutral Lang.
    • on Israel
    • on Abortion
    • on Social Media (ELCA Wolves Blog)
    • on Radical Hospitality and Prophecy
    • on Transgenders and Drag Queens
    • on Social Justice
    • on Gospel Reductionism / Antinomianism
    • on Called to Common Mission
    • on Other Critical Issues
  • Responses to ELCA
    • The Bible vs. ELCA
    • Churches Respond
    • Pastors Respond
    • Exposed Quotes
    • People Respond
    • More Responses
    • ELCA Finances
    • Alternatives to the ELCA
  • Exposed Blog
  • Share
  • Support
  • More
    • About & Contact
    • Help and Advice on Leaving ELCA
    • Important Information
    • Church Produced Info
    • ELCA Vault
    • Readers' Comments
    • ELCA Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber
    • ELCA Colleges
    • ELCA Seminaries
    • Want to Know Jesus?
    • Exposing the ELCA Newsletters & Important Websites
    • Submit Tips

ELCA congregation says "There are no rules" for Holy Communion

6/17/2016

3 Comments

 
(The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org.  You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and twitter - here.)
 
The Bible teaches, and virtually all churches have always taught, that Holy Communion is for baptized Christians only. But there is a new heresy in the church which says everyone, nonbelievers included, should be invited to Holy Communion. We are told this is part of the "radical hospitality" of Christ. But this new teaching is not loving. The Apostle Paul teaches that a person should examine himself before he takes communion (I Corinthians 11:28) and a person who takes communion improperly is bringing "judgement upon himself" (I Corinthians 11:29).
 
Thus, it is troubling to come across this statement on the website of a very large congregation in the Twin Cities of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
 
What are the rules for taking communion?
There are no rules. Everyone is welcome at our table of grace.
We believe that Holy Communion is a way of receiving the grace
of God meant for all people.
 
I encourage everyone to read the entire chapter of I Corinthians 11. God was killing people for abusing Holy Communion.
 
May we partake of the Lord's Supper with repentance from our sins and faith in Christ's redeeming blood. To do otherwise, we hurt ourselves and others.
 
In Jesus our Savior,
 
Pastor Tom Brock
pastorsstudy.org

3 Comments
Sasha Kwapinski
6/20/2016 10:40:14 pm

"Radical hospitality" is just a code word for relativism.

Reply
Gregg
6/21/2016 07:49:46 am

"Dearly beloved in the Lord, forasmuch as we be now assembled, to celebrate the holy communion of the body and blood of our savior Christ, let us consider these words of Saint Paul,* how he exhorteth all persons diligently to try and examine themselves, before they presume to eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For as the benefit is great, if with a truly penitent heart and lively faith, we receive that holy sacrament (for then we spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood, then we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us, we be one with Christ, and Christ with us) so is the danger great, if we receive the same unworthily, for then we be guilty of the body and blood of Christ our savior, we eat and drink our own damnation, not considering the Lord's body: we kindle God's wrath against us, and provoke him to plague us with diverse diseases and sundry kinds of death.

"Therefore if any of you be a blasphemer of God, an hinderer or slanderer of his word, an adulterer, or be in malice or envy, or in any other grievous crime, bewail your sins, and come not to this holy table: lest after the taking of this holy sacrament, the devil enter into you as he entered into Judas, and fill you full of all iniquities, and bring you to destruction, both of body and soul. Judge therefore yourselves brethren, that ye be not judged of the Lord: repent you truly for your sins past, and have a lively and steadfast faith in Christ our savior, seeking only your salvation in the merits of his death and passion, from henceforth refusing and forgetting all malice and debate, with full purpose to live in brotherly amity and godly conversation, all the days of your life.

"And albeit we feel in ourselves much frailty and wretchedness, as that we have not our faith so perfect and constant as we ought, being many times ready to distrust God's goodness through our corrupt nature, and also that we are not so thoroughly given to serve God, neither have so fervent a zeal to set forth his glory, as our duty requireth, feeling still such rebellion in ourselves, that we have need daily to fight against the lusts of our flesh, yet nevertheless seeing that our Lord hath dealt thus mercifully with us, that he hath printed his gospel in our hearts, so that we are preserved from falling into desperation and misbelief: and seeing also he hath endued us with a will and desire to renounce and withstand our own affections, with a longing for his righteousness and the keeping of his commandments, we may be now right well assured that those defaults and manifold imperfections in us shall be no hindrance at all against us, to cause him not to accept and impute us as worthy to come to his spiritual table.

"For the end of our coming thither is not to make protestation that we are upright or just in our lives, but contrariwise, we come to seek our life and perfection in Jesus Christ, acknowledging in the meantime that we of ourselves are the children of wrath and damnation. Let us consider then, that this sacrament is a singular medicine for all poor sick creatures, a comfortable help to weak souls, and that our Lord requireth no other worthiness on our part but that we unfeignedly acknowledge our naughtiness and imperfection." (John Knox, "The Forme of Prayers," in LITURGIES OF THE WESTERN CHURCH, ed. Bard Thompson [Fontana Books, 1961] pp. 301-302)

* 1 Cor. 10:16; 11:23-31

Reply
Ross
6/22/2016 04:10:50 pm

In apostolic times, the Lord's Supper wasn't even part of the public worship or prayer that unbelievers might have attended. It was a completely separate service done in the context of an entire meal (see 1 Cor. 11:21) which was called "agape" or "love feast" (see Jude 12 and Acts 2:46). That's why Paul had to urge the big eaters to eat at home first so others wouldn't go hungry (1 Cor. 11:34). Paul reprimands the Corinthians in part for treating the Lord's Supper as ordinary food, "not discerning the body" (11:29).

Holy things are profaned when they are used in a common manner (see Dan. 5:1-6; 22-30).

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.  
    ​1 Thessalonians 5:21

    Dan Skogen

    Former ELCA seminary student and former ELCA member who is fed up with the ELCA's consistent mockery of God's Word.


    If you have been helped and blessed by Exposing the ELCA's ministry, please help us continue to proclaim the truth of God's Word to ELCA members who need to hear it.

    Give online
    by clicking the "donate" button below:

    Categories

    All
    2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly
    Abortion
    Adam And Eve
    Advocacy
    All Paths Lead To God
    Angels
    Anglican Church
    A Pastors Thoughts
    Astrology
    Bds
    Belief
    Berlin Wall
    BIPOC
    Bisexual
    Bishop
    Black-lives-matter
    Blasphemy
    Border Fence
    Camp
    Christian Nationalism
    Christmas
    Church Leaves Elca
    Church Plant
    Climate Change
    Columbus Day
    Communion
    Community Organizing
    COVID
    Covington-catholic
    Creation
    Cross Dressing
    Cursing
    Deaconness
    Decolonizelutheranism
    Divorce
    Drag
    Drag Queen
    Eappi
    Easter
    Elca
    ELCA Churchwide Assembly
    Elca College
    ELCA Conference Of Bishops
    Elca World Hunger
    Environmentalism
    Episcopal
    Equality Act
    Evil
    Evolution
    Exposing The Elca
    Feminism
    Feminist Theology
    Fracking
    Franklin Graham
    Fundamentalists
    Future
    Gay Bar
    Gay Marriage
    Gender
    Gender Neutral Language
    Gnosticism
    God
    Goddess Worship
    Gospel Of Affirmation
    Grace Luth Eau Claire
    Guns
    Heaven-on-earth
    Hell
    Herchurch
    Heresy
    Heterosexism
    Holy Spirit
    Homosexuality
    ICE
    Ilhan Omar
    Illegal Immigration
    Illustration
    Immigration
    Inclusion
    Inerrancy
    Interfaith
    Intersex
    Intolerant
    Israel
    Jesus
    John Dominic Crossan
    Jonah
    Judge Kavanaugh
    Lcmc
    Lent
    Letter
    Liberal Theology
    Liberation Theology
    Lift
    Living Lutheran
    Lutheran Church Of Hope
    Lutheran Core
    Lutheran Immigration And Refugee Sevice
    Lutheran Social Services
    LWF
    Mainline Protestant
    Mantra
    Marcus Borg
    Martin Luther
    Masterpiece Cake Shop
    Masturbation
    Media 1517
    Membership
    Methodist
    Mike Housholder
    Missionaries
    Money
    Mother God
    Naked And Unashamed
    Nakedness
    Nalc
    National Day Of Mourning
    Non-Binary
    Operation Christmas Child
    Other Religions
    Overpopulation
    Pam Rocker
    Pat Robertson
    PC(USA)
    Police
    Politics
    Polls
    Polyamorous Relationships
    Pornography
    Portico Benefit Services
    Prayer
    Premarital Sex
    Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton
    Presiding Bishop Herbert Chilstrom
    Pronouns
    Purity Rings
    Queer Eye
    Queer Theology
    Race
    Racism
    Rage
    Reform Elca
    Refugees
    Reiki
    Resurrection
    Rev Nadia Bolz Weber
    Right And Wrong
    Rob Bell
    Salvation
    Salvation Army
    Samaritan's Purse
    Sanctuary
    Satan
    Saul Alinsky
    Seminaries
    Sex
    Silencing Free Speech
    Silencing Pastors
    Sin
    Smudging
    Socialism
    Social Justice
    Spirit Guides
    Standing Rock
    Store
    Substitutionary Atonement
    Syncretism
    Synods
    Taxes
    Thanksgiving
    The Bible
    The Finger
    The Gospel
    The Lutheran
    The Tea Party
    Thrivent
    Tolerance
    Transgender
    Trump
    UCC
    Unitarian Universalist
    United Methodist Church
    United Nations
    United States Of America
    Unity
    Universalism
    Universal Salvation
    Vagina
    Video
    Virgin Birth
    Welca
    White
    White Privilege
    White Supremacists
    Wiccan
    Wordalone
    Yoga
    Youth


    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009


    RSS Feed


    Exposing the ELCA
    Exposing the ELCA is on Facebook

    Picture
    Follow Exposing the ELCA on Twitter

    ​Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. - Ephesians 5:11

Home

Share

Exposed Blog

HELP

Contact

Exposing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
​Copyright © 2021
Photo used under Creative Commons from lcm1863
  • Home
  • ELCA Exposed News
    • on The Bible
    • on Homosexuality & Sex
    • on Universalism & Hell
    • on Goddess/Mother God/Gender Neutral Lang.
    • on Israel
    • on Abortion
    • on Social Media (ELCA Wolves Blog)
    • on Radical Hospitality and Prophecy
    • on Transgenders and Drag Queens
    • on Social Justice
    • on Gospel Reductionism / Antinomianism
    • on Called to Common Mission
    • on Other Critical Issues
  • Responses to ELCA
    • The Bible vs. ELCA
    • Churches Respond
    • Pastors Respond
    • Exposed Quotes
    • People Respond
    • More Responses
    • ELCA Finances
    • Alternatives to the ELCA
  • Exposed Blog
  • Share
  • Support
  • More
    • About & Contact
    • Help and Advice on Leaving ELCA
    • Important Information
    • Church Produced Info
    • ELCA Vault
    • Readers' Comments
    • ELCA Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber
    • ELCA Colleges
    • ELCA Seminaries
    • Want to Know Jesus?
    • Exposing the ELCA Newsletters & Important Websites
    • Submit Tips