Help! Lacking Understanding...
I really need your help on understanding something. Lord wills as we both know! I am struggling with the communion. The way the institution sees it is WRONG. I know that in my heart (sounds crazy to most when I don’t have all the answers), but I just can’t get a clear picture of what Jesus is saying. I know the bread and blood are Him! They stand for His provision for us. Could it be that when we gather together and share the word and our love for one another, this is called the “Lord’s supper”? Does it really have anything to do with eating? “I Am the bread that comes down from heaven.” Or is that too hyper-spiritual?
I also have one more BIG one when you have just a moment. ;) What about the fact that they mention in the Scriptures that they gathered on the first day of the week and broke bread? I again believe that the main frame of the Bible shows a family, DAILY! But meeting on the first day of the week is mentioned. BUT I find that when talking to the Gentiles, they decided to only require them to abstain from blood, strangled animals.... Okay, so this says we are free. Free to do nothing out of religious duty, but I still feel like I lack understanding. I have prayed and searched and prayed and searched. Thought maybe you could help. : )
Praying for ya!
First of all, YES, the “Lord’s Supper” is TANGIBLE and visible. Just as real and visible as “fellowship, prayer, and devotion to the Teaching of the apostles” (Acts 2:42). And it is NOT just a “meal” either, or that verse would make NO sense at all.
As for the “day,” in 25+ years there is only ONE MENTION of “the first day of the week” in the book of Acts, written by the same God who wrote Leviticus. No WAY is that a “doctrinal statement” in Acts 20, but only a historical, one time fact. There is no evidence beyond just a statement of what happened that day. AND, it apparently didn’t happen ANYWAY! The only thing we know is that they “broke bread” ON THE SECOND DAY OF THE WEEK, even in that case. Anything other than that is simply adding to the Scripture what is not there. “I fear I’ve wasted my time on you,” is what God said through Paul for having some particular day “set apart” (“holy”) as something different. Those with Faith “count each day alike.” There are many things “mentioned” that are historically accurate but carry NO weight as “Christian doctrine,” since they are NOT taught to be such by the Scriptures, or the evidence of sixty years of New Testament teaching in the Bible. One other mention of “the first day of the week” (to the Corinthians, with NO mention of “meetings” at all in the context, but only a mnemonic for saving money for his arrival) only proves that Paul taught no such thing to them when he LIVED there in Corinth for a couple of years. That’s IT for the ENTIRE New Testament. Pretty skimpy evidence for an “unquestionable” Christian Doctrine! But, this is the Christianity that embraces the easter bunny and santa claus as having something to do with Jesus, too! ;)
Love,
6/14/2001
