I have to reiterate some of the things I said in my last update on this platform concerning ‘no conditions before a believer to partake of the Lord’s baptism or the Lord’s Communion’, since someone has raised a question that is worthy of clarification. Below are the key points I made when analyzing a believer’s qualification to partake in both the Lord’s Communion and the Lord’s Baptism: 1. There is a church that deems all their members worthy of baptism including their infants, but do not have such consideration for them to partake of their communion; unless they first go through a class and able to answer some of their questions in their acceptable standard, before they are recommended for communion; 2. There is another church that thinks in the opposite direction to the first on this matter, in that the church deems all their members worthy of the Lord’s communion including their infants, but do not have such consideration for them to partake of their baptism; unless they first go through a class (Baptism class or foundation class) and able to answer some of their questions in their acceptable standard, before they are recommended for baptism; 3. Then I said clearly to only those who listens to me (Not to everyone who reads what I write), do not let anyone to induce you into any class before partaking in any the Lord’s communion or the Lord’s baptism. The same condition you need to be baptized is the same condition you need to partake in the Lord’s Communion, and the same condition you need to partake in the Lord’s Communion is the same condition you need to partake in the Lord’s baptism. That condition is to only believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God, who died and rose from the dead for your salvation. I said the only condition is to believe, meaning that there is no condition to a believer. Now if you can partake of the Lord’s baptism as you are, you can be baptized in him as you are, and vice versa. You don’t need someone to start asking you, ‘Are you born again?’ ‘Are you Sanctified?’ ‘Which church do you attend?’ And other questions to identify you as a christian and a member of any church. All you need is to believe in Jesus Christ, and confess him just as the Eunuch did before Philip the Evangelist baptized him according to Acts 8:36-38. Infact, that moment you answered altar call was the moment you were supposed to be baptized (Acts 2:41): As it is written, “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that does not believe shall be damned.” (Mark 16:15-16). Remember what I apply to Baptism I apply to Holy Communion also. It is understandable if there is no water for the Baptism or if there is no bread to break and wine for the Communion, but not when someone says you must attend a class first before you are worthy of any of them. Now some said, there is no big-deal if the class is conducted as a pre-requisite, after all what they teach in the class is to help build the faith of the people in God and no knowledge is a waste. But there is a problem with that, because a condition has being attached to the faith of the believers, before they are worthy of what the Lord has done for them already: 1. Whatever condition someone places on a believer before he baptizes the believer is the condition he is placing before that believer will be saved – Saying indirectly, this is what he must do before he can enter the kingdom of heaven, because that is what he must do before he is baptized. 2. Whatever condition someone places on a believer before the believer receives the Lord’s Communion is the condition he is placing before that believer before he will be saved – Saying indirectly, this is what he must do before he can enter the kingdom of heaven, because that is what he must do before he partakes of the Lord’s communion. By baptism or Holy Communion, you are demonstrating what it took or takes for you to be saved: Baptism points how you are saved: As it is written, “The like figure in that even baptism does also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:” (1 Peter 3:21). I also said that Baptism and the Lord’s Communion are for the sinners who have faith in Christ and for saints in him, for the both speaks of the remission of sin by the death Jesus Christ for sinners and his resurrection for their salvation. Both of them demonstrate that “when we were without strength, and when we were sinners, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6-8). Therefore, it is unfair to start asking a believer, are you born again, are you sanctified, are you holy, are you worthy of the communion or baptism? Etc. since he is a believer, he automatically becomes worthy of both; for his faith in what Jesus has done for him makes him worthy. Look at his faith, and not his sin nature or his class attendance register. 1. Baptism speaks of the remission of sins (Acts 2:38); 2. Holy Communion speaks of the remission of sins (Matthew 26:27-28). It is the sick that needs a doctor more than the healthy. But someone asked, if sinners were allowed to partake of the Communion, will that not a breach of what the Bible said in 1 Corinthians 11:27-29? Whoever takes of the Lord’s communion unworthily, shall be guilty and be liable to damnation, for not discerning the Lord’s body. How do I explain that? To explain that, you have to differentiate between unworthily and unworthy: I remember saying in the last update also, ‘It is not about whom should participate, but about how they should participate’ – the unworthy speaks of whom (the sinners), but unworthily speaks of how. Unworthily that was referred in 1 Corinthians 11:27-31 speaks of how people were eating of the Communion right there during the communion, not about the sins they had committed before coming or after. There were two potential sinners in the Lord’s communion with his twelve disciples – Judas and Peter. Judas will later betray Jesus and Jesus said it even before giving him the communion (Matthew 26:21), and Peter will later deny Jesus and Jesus said it after giving him the communion. Now the reason Judas receive damnation of Satan possessing him right there on the Communion table has to do with how he ate what he was given, so also the reason one will be stricken with damnation from the Lord’s communion is because of how he eats of it. I remember a Holy Communion service I attended one day, in which the preacher was inculcating fear in the mind of the people thinking it is a sanctified fear, saying to us, if you know that you have malice against someone, do not eat of this communion, if you know you committed fornication or any sin which you have not repented, do not partake of the communion etc. lest you eat and drink damnation to yourself (quoting from 1 Corinthians 11:27-29). That is incorrect, because that place is not speaking of one’s sins of the past, but of how one eats communion right there in the present: Atleast the preacher should have read the beginning of the context in (1 Corinthians 11:20-23) and the last of that context in (1 Corinthians 11:34), to understand what that passage is saying. Do not get me wrong, I do not give any sinner license to continue in any sin, rather I speak the truth in Christ and I do not lie by adding or taking away from his word.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 07:51:28 +0000
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