Perhaps the answer to that question is an indirect answer, but an answer nonetheless.
How often do you need to examine yourself? 1 Cor. 11:28 "But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup."
If we are to examine ourselves, while taking the cup of wine and breaking the bread, perhaps it needs to be on a more frequent basis than once a year (as most churches I was a part of would do). That no doubt is what Paul was speaking of, as he wrote this in vs. 30 "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep."
Unfortunately, I have never seen or found a 'pentecostal church' that actually eats the Lord's Supper. The closest I found was a Gospel Assembly ('Twoness') but they didn't seem to know what they were doing.
The vast majority of non catholics who 'have communion' or 'take communion' are simply engaging in a mimic of the Mass.
And the Mass is a horrible caricature of the Lord's Supper.
I have been in OP and Pentecostal churches who did communion once a year at the New Year's Eve service, and very few that would do the foot-washing as well. Most churches as a whole would do communion at least once a year.
However, I really think that we need to reconsider the importance of the communion in the believer's life, and perhaps the fact that our hearts are under examination before partaking of the symbolic body and blood of Christ which would help root out some sin in our lives, and help the church body as a whole to function as a well body, and not as a sick body....
I have been in OP and Pentecostal churches who did communion once a year at the New Year's Eve service, and very few that would do the foot-washing as well. Most churches as a whole would do communion at least once a year.
Yes, I have too. They call it 'communion' but it isn't, to be honest.
Unfortunately, I have never seen or found a 'pentecostal church' that actually eats the Lord's Supper. The closest I found was a Gospel Assembly ('Twoness') but they didn't seem to know what they were doing.
The vast majority of non catholics who 'have communion' or 'take communion' are simply engaging in a mimic of the Mass.
And the Mass is a horrible caricature of the Lord's Supper.
What's the right way?
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Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
Perhaps the answer to that question is an indirect answer, but an answer nonetheless.
How often do you need to examine yourself? 1 Cor. 11:28 "But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup."
If we are to examine ourselves, while taking the cup of wine and breaking the bread, perhaps it needs to be on a more frequent basis than once a year (as most churches I was a part of would do). That no doubt is what Paul was speaking of, as he wrote this in vs. 30 "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep."
So...if I examine myself, I run to the fridge for some wine and bread? get my sins forgiven all over again?
__________________ Let it be understood that Apostolic Friends Forum is an Apostolic Forum.
Apostolic is defined on AFF as:
There is One God. This one God reveals Himself distinctly as Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
The Son is God himself in a human form or "God manifested in the flesh" (1Tim 3:16)
Every sinner must repent of their sins.
That Jesus name baptism is the only biblical mode of water baptism.
That the Holy Ghost is for today and is received by faith with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues.
The saint will go on to strive to live a holy life, pleasing to God.
Why do we quote a handful of verses, proof-text them, make some elaborate point and miss the boat on the rest of what was said? No where else but the Bible do we take an entire discourse, cut it up into microscopic bits, and wax doctrinal for days on a couple sentences when dozens or more sentences were actually uttered, sentences which, if not kept together in light of the topic, make the few sentences we do quote and high-light completely un-understandable.
The Lord fully explains what He meant:
"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."
In other words, what He just said wasn't literal. His flesh was the veil. The veil didn't and
doesn't matter nearly as much as what's behind it: the Holiest of All.
We should all be a little less obtuse with our Scripture reading. And yet we all claim to love the Word of God, even as we slaughter it and do things to it that God never permitted??? Come on. Rightly dividing the Word doesn't mean dividing it into pieces like some buffet or jigsaw puzzle. It means cutting away and separating the true from any falsity being added by an outside source.
2. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish OUGHT from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.
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For anyone devoted to His fear:
The fact can't be denied that in 1 Cor. 11 we know the Gentile church in Corinth participated often enough in what Paul called communion, for there to be problems.
Paul mentions communion/the Lord's Supper in two different passages in 1 Corinthians...
1 Cor. 10:16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? the bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
1 Cor. 10:17 For we being many are one bread, and one body and we are all partakers of that one bread.
So Paul here was teaching the Corinthians how the symbolism of the communion they participated in, was to remind them how they were part of the body of Christ.
And again Paul teaches in 1 Cor. 11 the importance of what he had just called communion and also referred to as the Lord's Supper... how necessary it was to the body of believers.
20 When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper.
21 For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.
22 What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.
23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.
27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
33 Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.
34 And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.
Perhaps not having communion on a regular basis is part of what is wrong with the body of believers today? 1 Cor. 11:30 "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep."
I believe that the answer to Seekerman's question is ,
Quote:
27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
How is a person going to examine themselves, if the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, is not in him? And if his sins have not been washed away?
The unregenerate d heart is deceitful.
If we have not been baptized into the Lords death, and rose from the watery grave to walk in newness of life, by the power of the Holy Ghost, we are unworthy to partake of the Lords supper.
If we have done those things, which includes being born again, and we are trying to live a righteous and holy life and examine ourselves to see if we need to repent of an evil thought, a greedy act, unloving words, and then partake of the Lords supper, YES, we shall inherit eternal life.
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