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| Volume 18 Number 2 February 2016 | Page 16 |
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| Volume 18 Number 2 February 2016 | Page 16 |
Assembling to Partake
of the Lord’s Supper
Louis Rushmore, Editor
Hello. I have a question concerning the Lord’s Supper. According to the word of God we take the Lord’s Supper to commemorate His death on the cross for us. We are to do it in memory of him. Now it is very good to take it together with other true believers. In some churches, the Lord’s Supper is scarcely taken. I am not complaining about that because every servant of God has when they think it is appropriate for them. But now, there are some believers who will like to take it alone at home. Some feel they will like to take it at home alone though they have their local churches. According to the word of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are living with the true believer and he is not living alone. Jesus said he will come and sop with the true believer. Moreover God is a Spirit. Though we do not see him, he is there and the angels of God are always with us. What I want to ask is this. Can a believer take communion alone at home? Is he violating the word of God in some way?
There are several assumptions affirmed in the paragraph in which finally a question is posed. Religious affirmations need to be substantiated with Scripture citations. It is an assumption for which there is not biblical validation that it is merely good to partake of the Lord’s Supper with other believers. It is an unfounded assumption that the frequency of observance of the Lord’s Supper is inconsequential or does not matter and is solely at the discretion of mankind. Furthermore, if the Word of God teaches that all three persons of the Godhead dwell within a Christian, biblical evidence ought to be cited. If it is the case that angels are always with believers, scriptural evidence ought to be noted. For one desiring to know whether or not some practice violates the Word of God, a “thus saith the Lord” in all religious matters and affirmations is certainly warranted.
The church over which Jesus Christ is the Head (Ephesians 1:22), for which He shed His blood (Acts 20:28) and about which one can read upon the pages of the New Testament observed the Lord’s Supper on the first day of each week (Acts 20:7). That apostolically approved example determines the occasion for which, the day on which and the frequency with which the Lord’s church must partake of the Lord’s Supper. In addition, the Lord’s Supper was observed in the first century church when it assembled together. Note that the apostle Paul corrected some abuses of the observance of the Lord’s Supper by the congregation at Corinth, but they were assembling for the observance, and that is one thing the apostle did not need to correct (1 Corinthians 11:17-34).
There are five acts of worship (in no particular order) that can be seen in Scripture which were practiced in New Testament worship by the Lord’s church when it assembled on the first day of the week: praying and singing (1 Corinthians 14:15), partaking of the Lord’s Supper and preaching (Acts 20:7) and giving (1 Corinthians 16:1-2). No one seems to misunderstand the day on which and the frequency with which the early church assembled and collected a contribution – the first day of every week (1 Corinthians 16:1-2). Therefore, no one should be confused so as to not clearly see that the Lord’s church is supposed to assemble for worship on the first day of each week, and that part of that worship is partaking of the Lord’s Supper.
A person might partake of the Lord’s Supper at home out of necessity if for whatever reason he or she is not afforded an opportunity to assemble with the Lord’s church and observe the communion at that time. Yet, what of the other four activities of worship? Unable to assemble with the true church of the Bible, one would not only observe the Lord’s Supper (alone perhaps) at home, but he or she also ought to practice singing, giving, praying and preaching or teaching (study God’s Word). Dear Reader, if you are aligned with a religious group that does not follow the New Testament regarding worship or other matters (e.g., biblical name, organization, plan of salvation, Christian living, Christian service, Christian doctrine, etc.), visit the church of Christ (Romans 16:16) in your community.
What Is the Origin of the Races?
Louis Rushmore, Editor
Someone inquires about the origin of the races that populate the earth. Whereas the atheistic evolutionist attributes everything to his illogical and unprovable theory of evolution, Bible believers are confident that all which exists is the result of creation by God (Genesis 1:1). As such, we look to our first parents – Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:7, 21-23; 3:20) – as representing the original gene pool from which their descendants of varying skin pigments and additional physical characteristics have come down to the present. From consideration of verifiable or true science, is it even possible for one set of parents over the space of just as little as perhaps 6,000 years to produce the various races of humanity? Yes! Please note the article at the following link, whereby you can see for yourself: https://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=9&article=82.
In addition to the original gene pool possessing the wherewith to result in the racial variables discernible today, God periodically made changes to the physical world in which mankind was originally placed. These changes affected humanity both directly and indirectly.
The topography of planet earth dramatically changed respecting the events surrounding the universal flood of Noah’s day (Genesis 6-8). Mountains pushed upward. Oceans were formed. In turn, especially in the absence of the cloud canopy that had distributed an equalized climate across the globe, oceans and mountains effected weather patterns not known by man before – some of which are agreeable as well as some that are catastrophic (e.g., tornados, hurricanes, etc.).
The eight souls aboard the ark represented a sampling of the gene pool and the variations that occurred since the time of Adam and Eve. In addition, the gene pool was limited to those eight persons as opposed to being affected by the larger gene pool that perished in the flood. Had there been more people representing additional combinations of genes with which to mix in the offspring of Noah’s children, theoretically, the results might have differed somehow from what exists today. These are some possible indirect affects upon the races by changes that God made after the original creation.
Later, God reacted to mankind’s reluctance to spread across the globe as originally instructed to do (Genesis 1:28; 8:15-17). Mankind had settled and found contentment on a mud-plain between the Persian Gulf and the northeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. There man built the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). God, though, came down and confused the languages of the people so that they could not understand each other. Subsequently, those of the same language congregated together as the people parted from each other and spread themselves across the planet – as God had originally instructed them to do.
It is reasonable to ponder whether people sharing the same God-given language may have shared other physical, racial characteristics as well. Or, did God distinguish people from each other at that time by the pigment of their skin and other physical characteristics in addition to confusing the languages? At any rate, from the time of the Tower of Babel onward, people scattered across the planet – distinguished from each other by both their languages and their racial characteristics.
In the strictest sense, there is only one race – the human race. We are all the offspring of God (Acts 17:29), irrespective of what language we may speak, the color of our skin or other physical characteristics. “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth…” (Acts 17:26 NKJV). Ultimately, we all have to thank for our racial diversity father Adam and mother Eve. Of more consequence, though, is that we are the offspring of God – made in His image, spiritually (Genesis 1:26).