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

6/17/2016

(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.

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

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).

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

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