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Why Weekly Communion? An outline of an argument

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1. Eating God’s special food is a basic way God relates to humanity.

Genesis 1 and 2 lay out general and special space (world and garden) as a distinction between general and special food. We go from this

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.”

to this

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil… The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

2. Sin means being cut off from God’s food and a curse on eating:

 And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread…”

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

3. Under Moses, there was only one sanctuary which allowed sacramental food and which most people could only visit three times a year.

You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you…

But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, then to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, but at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.

However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer. Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, but you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place that the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake. Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land….

Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths.

4. In reconciling us to God, Jesus came to give believers new access to God’s presence that had been restricted before.

Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” But Peter began and explained it to them in order: “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him [to your table], but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him [to His table]. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

5. Christians now meet on the first day of the week, not merely for prayer and teaching like in the synagogues, or “solemn assemblies” of the Old Covenant, but for full worship and fellowship greater than, but more like, what was available in the Temple.

On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

6. In the days right after Pentecost, we see the Apostles breaking bread daily but it seems to “settle” into a weekly pattern later in Acts.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas, but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days we came to them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days. On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted. But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land. And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene. And sailing from there we came the following day opposite Chios; the next day we touched at Samos; and the day after that we went to Miletus. For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.

7. This weekly pattern fits the First-Day times when the local Christians would gather “as a church,”–a time when it was taken for granted that the Church was always supposed to practice the Lord’s Supper.

But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes… So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another—if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.


THUS

It makes no sense to treat Lord’s Day worship as if we were still stuck in the Old Covenant when full feast-fellowship with God was absent for most people on most of their Sabbaths. Coming together as the Church should mean table fellowship in Christ with God and one another!

Nu2U? 10 things a church can do to save the world

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The principle to keep in mind is that we have to change ourselves first.

1. Participate in the Lord’s Supper Every Sunday in Worship
The Kingdom is again and again a feast. The Church is the beachhead of the Kingdom. Does Jesus ever tell a parable comparing the Kingdom to a lecture hall? Does he ever compare the Kingdom to a music concert? Then lets not stop up the Kingdom at the source. Lets get it right. Lets eat and drink.

2. Drink Wine in Church
Duh. How else would you worship a glutton and a drunkard? The Gospel is New Wine that bursts wineskins–not grape juice that sits there inert. You want to know if God can forgive a sinner like you. Get it in a cup and drink it down and you will know. That changes everything.

3. Sing the Psalms
By sing, I mean chant. Don’t remake the Psalms to fit a rhyme scheme. Sing the words that are there according to an accurate translation. What would happen if we did this? For one thing a ton of bad theology would be exorcised.

Arise, O Yahweh
O God, lift up your hand;
forget not the afflicted.
Why does the wicked renounce God
and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
But you do see,
for you note mischief and vexation,
that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself;
you have been the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
call his wickedness to account till you find none.
Yahweh is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land.

4. Pray the Psalms
Arguably this is redundant with the point above. But I want to stress that God wants us to pray things like:

judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.
Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
and may you establish the righteous—
you who test the minds and hearts,
O righteous God!

There are people and whole churches who claim to be Bible-believing who think this is sinful to pray. You can’t change the world for God if you think He is really a Pharisee unless he has the help of your styleguide by which to edit his prayers.

5. Tell people in church that God has forgiven them.

Don’t preach that God forgives some people somewhere some time. Tell the professing Christians in front of you, and their children, when they confess their sins together, that God has wiped each one of their slates clean. The good news that is going to change the world is not that God forgives someone somewhere at some time.

(Yes, God forgives them at other times, including when they pray apart. But these things are not opposed. Rather, one helps the the other. Those who are trained to believe that God hears and forgives them will be encouraged to trust God for the same at other times and places.)

6. Believe the whole Bible and teach it like God really meant it.

Because saying, “You’re getting too much of your theology from the parables” mostly means, “Jesus was a stupid peasant who told misleading stories that we have to carefully strip down to a single point that we found in Paul’s Epistles”–or rather, “that we found in Westminster Confession” (or, “… the Councils of Trent” or whatever). I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that God isn’t blessing churches who don’t like the Bible.

7. Preach Jesus as King but Avoid Petty Politics

Jesus is Lord and he wants a visible unified entrance to the Kingdom (Church) as a witness to that fact. We have to obey what Jesus says, but we also have to recognize how divisions and arguments actually can undermine the theocratic Faith. So find some highly obvious points in the public square to harp on (i.e. abortion), but try not to get bogged down in minutia (don’t preach Christian libertarianism, socialism, or whatever from the pulpit).

8. Let the Great Commission be your commission

If you think you know what this means, go read it, and ask yourself what this says about being “born again,” “faith,” or “evangelism” compared to what it says about obedience, theocracy, baptism, and ongoing teaching/training of everyone.

9. Worship like the Bible matters

Does it not strike anyone as odd that, if you want to attend a worship service that took you systematically through Scripture, you would be better off in an Episcopal, formal Lutheran, Roman Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox service rather than a Baptists, conservaitve Presbyterian, or “Bible Church” assembly? Is God supposed to speak to us in the Church or not? If not, how are we supposed to see anything change, let alone the world?

10. Live Corporately like Matthew 18 is in the Bible

I mention the whole chapter on purpose, by the way, because it is obviously focused on humility and forgiveness, and in that context gives directions for accountability and purifying the Church. I think that is important because, while not one church in a hundred includes Matthew 18.15-19 in their real canon, some that do can be so zealous (I’m using a euphemism) about it as to reinforce the temptation to neglect it. But it is in the Bible and it is an operating instruction from the Lord Jesus. So obey Him.

(I originally wrote and published this in Fall of 2007)

From the Father’s love to the Son’s in Romans 8.31-39

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31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

via Romans 8 ESV – Life in the Spirit – There is therefore – Bible Gateway.

COMMENT

This text was read aloud in Church today and I noticed something that sent me scurrying to find it in print and double check. Perhaps all the commentators have mentioned this and I have forgotten about it…

But this text starts by talking about God’s love and then switches to the Love of the Son.

First, most obviously, the love of the Father:

31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn?

But mentioning the question of who might condemn reminds us that God Himself has already condemned sin in the flesh of Christ (Romans 8.3). So this provides a segue from the love of God to the love of Christ because Christ is the one who has willingly received the condemnation:

Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

So not only does the Father love us by sending His Son, but the Son loves us by voluntarily submitting to death and interceding for us. This leads to a list of possible separators and then a quotation from Palm 44.22.

Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

Psalm 44 is about immense suffering and seems (to me!) obviously prophetic of Jesus’ own crucifixion. If so, the idea seems to be that Jesus has taken jurisdiction over all the things he suffered so that those things are part of his realm now. When we are moved to these places we are not moved to some place where he is not Lord. Compare Romans 14.7-9:

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

So then, Paul continues, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Whose love? The Father’s or the Son’s? Both perhaps: Nothing will be “able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Ready to Applaud

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The idea that, on Judgment Day, your life will be projected on a giant movie screen, has got to be one of the most terrifying urban legends within Evangelicaldom. Even people confident they are forgiven live in horror in the expectation that every sin will be portrayed in glorious technicolor. (I suppose that dates the myth; now it would be 3d or virtual reality).

But the Lord seeks love and is a faithful friend: “Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends” (Proverbs 17.9). He is not a slanderer, but is rather trustworthy in spirit: “Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered” (Proberbs 11.13). So He has no intention of embarrassing you in front of your family and friends. The movie screen isn’t going to happen.

But I think we need to go further. Not only is he not going to display your faults on camera, he watches you with another intent entirely. As Paul tells the Romans:

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

Time and again audiences crave movies and TV shows about an unrecognized hero or heroine who overcomes great obstacles. We root for such a protagonist all the more when everyone else in the drama is oblivious to their personal trials and ultimate triumphs.

God is your audience.

Paul couldn’t tell us that a true believer’s “praise is not from man but from God” if he wasn’t indeed ready and willing to praise us. God doesn’t watch us to catch us in sin. He watches us to reward us.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you

I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

This promised reward is not hypothetical–dependent on some impossible level of sinless behavior. In context Jesus is talking to people who are sinners but who God is eager to reward:

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

God is quick to reward people who are evil. He isn’t looking to catch us in sin but to reward us for our good deeds. And, while we don’t often have enough faith to do this; God sends circumstances into our lives so that merely enduring is the most amazing thing.

And we’re tempted to think that we are friendless and no one cares or knows what we’re going through.

But God’s rooting for us.

Did Jesus preach “Law” or “Gospel” to the rich young ruler?

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When Christ enjoins upon the young man the duty of following him (Mt. 19:23), he does not give a counsel, but a command to all in common because no one can have a hope of salvation unless he follows Christ (2 Pet. 2:21), although from a particular cause it is peculiarly adapted to him. –Francis Turretin (Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Vol 2, p. 32; 11.4.11)

 

And a certain ruler questioned Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” And when Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess, and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when he had heard these things, he became very sad; for he was extremely rich. And Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And they who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But He said, “The things impossible with men are possible with God.” And Peter said, “Behold, we have left our own homes, and followed You.” And He said to them, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.”

I’m asking this question about the Rich Young Ruler because recently I have become aware that some in my own theological tradition have claimed that Jesus never told him the Gospel. Rather, they claim that Jesus preached “Law” in order to make him realize he could never be good enough to merit eternal life. Presumably Jesus wanted to meet him at a later date in order to tell him the true Gospel–that Jesus intended to live a perfect life and then die for his sins in order to give him eternal life as a free gift.

This is a bizarre claim in my judgment. After all, what would these people say of a preacher who, when asked how to be sure one was saved from the wrath of God, deliberately misled him and let him walk away without ever giving him correct information?

The reason some wish to claim that Jesus failed to preach the gospel to the rich young ruler is because he told the man to do things in order to inherit eternal life. But that objection will not stand up to scrutiny in Luke’s Gospel. Luke, after all, tells us of John the Baptist that “with many other exhortations also he preached the gospel to the people” (3.18). John’s Gospel message was about the coming enthronement and presence of God resulting in judgment and vindication (3.15-17). The exhortations which accompanied this Gospel message included “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (v. 8), “Let the man who has two tunics share with him who has none; and let him who has food do likewise” (v. 11), “Collect no more than what you have been ordered to” (v. 13), and “Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages” (v. 14). These are the exhortations that Luke says are involved in John’s preaching of the Gospel. How can we claim that Jesus’ command to the Rich Young Ruler involves something other than the Gospel?

Of course, the proper response to the Gospel is not to try to be good enough to earn God’s favor. The Gospel itself is a declaration that this is the day of God’s favor. Rather, the proper response to the Gospel is to trust God and therefore do the appropriate acts of one who trusts God.

Jesus was calling the Rich Young Ruler to place his faith and trust in him rather than in his own riches–a besetting temptation for those with wealth. As the Apostle Paul writes,

Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed (First Timothy 6.17-19).

This is what Peter and the other disciples had chosen to do out of their trust in Jesus (as Jesus himself affirmed) but which the Rich Young Ruler refused to do.

Likewise, in that classic chapter on faith, the author of Hebrews shows us that Moses was once in a similar position to the Rich Young Ruler but decided to trust God rather than his earthly inheritance:

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin; considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward” (Hebrews 11.24-26).

I can’t say that God calls us in Christ to sell all that we have and give to the poor. But I can say he calls us to join with his church in a congregation of believers, to regularly worship and learn the Word of God and participate together in the Lord’s Supper and to give no less than ten percent of our income to Him through that branch of the visible church. We have it much easier than Moses or the Rich Young Ruler.

No doubt in our era it would be appropriate to explain to those old enough to understand how the death and resurrection of Jesus are the way in which has become the savior of all who trust in him and to give other information as well.

But still, “follow Jesus”; that’s the Gospel. Don’t walk away sad.

John Williamson Nevin against D. G. Hart

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Union College had at this time a better reputation than it deserved. Dr. Nott himself took only a very small part in its actual work of instruction, and this itself never amounted to much more than empty form. The institution lived largely on the outside credit of his name. It was a mistake in my own case, at the same time, that I was sent to college at too early an age. I was the youngest and smallest student in my class, and a mere un-fledged boy, I may say, on to the end of my college course. I maintained a very respectable standing however, in my studies, and graduated with honor in the year 1821. But my health was broken; and I returned home, to be the next three years a burden myself, and all around me, through a long course of dyspeptic sufferings, on which I still look back as a sort of horrible nightmare, covering with gloom the best season of my youth.

My college years exercised, of course, an important influence on my religious life. Favorable, it might be considered in some respects; but in other respects, as I have since come to see, it was decidedly unfavorable. Union College was organized on the principle of representing the collective Christianity of the so-called evangelical denominations; and in this view proceeded throughout, practically, on the idea, that the relation of religion to secular education is abstract and outward only- -the two spheres having nothing to do with each other in fact, except as mutually complemental sides in the end of what should be considered a right general human culture. The common delusion by which it is imagined so widely, that the school should be divorced from the Church, and that faith is of no account for learning and science. We had religion in college, so far at least as morning and evening prayers went; and we were required, on Sundays, to attend the different churches in town, But there was no real church life, as such, in the institution itself. It seemed to be set only for apprenticing its pupils in the different departments of common academical knowledge, and not at all for bringing them forward in the discipline of a true Christian life. That was left to outside, more or less sporadic and irregular appliances altogether, and entered in no way into the educational economy of the college itself as its all-pervading spirit and soul.

via Repost: “My Own Life” by John Williamson Nevin (continued) » Mark Horne.

Stating the obvious: You have to be Roman Catholic to feel obligated to be Roman Catholic

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What if Protestantism in its present form is the fractured remains of a Catholic protest movement that began in 1517, but which has long since forgotten not only what it was protesting, but that it was formed by Catholics, in protest over conditions and practices within the Catholic Church? What if Protestantism has forgotten that its original intention was to return to full communion with the Catholic Church when certain conditions were satisfied?

via Reformation Sunday 2011: How Would Protestants Know When to Return? | Called to Communion.

But what if Roman Catholics are sectarians dreaming they constitute the historic and perpetual center of the identity of the Church?

What if the real Catholic Church is simply continuing on and the Roman Catholic Church is pretending that it is not lacking that full communion because it has created without warrant autistic conditions for fellowship?

Evangelicals have many issues to work on as they continue through history. But there is nothing to rejoin. If the Roman Catholic Church and another denomination join and receive, then that is simply two denominations uniting together. And if they join and receive under the shared assumption that the Roman Catholic Church is some kind of perpetual “center” that all others are “peripheral” to and must come “back” to, then all that would mean is that the Christian people of the other denomination have become persuaded of sectarian superstitions.

Look, Luther never stopped being a Catholic. Neither did anyone else. If any group should be held suspect on that charge, the case against the Papal party and Vatican II is far more convincing.

I totally and emphatically agree that Protestants should recover their understanding of their history in the ancient and medieval Church. They can then learn how the Church has grown and matured in grace. To claim that they have any less solidarity with that history of the Church than do Tridentine Catholics is utter nonsense.

One lesson from this is that Protestants who insist on holding up the Roman Catholic Church as an inherent and eternal enemy are endangering their own identity. The Roman Catholic Church as we now know it may be gone in a century or less–just as could happen with the PCA or any other denomination. They are not some kind of everlasting historical force over against which the “true” Church can always identify itself.

Alastair on substantiations and other aspects of the Lord’s Supper in Protestantism

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It is popularly supposed in certain quarters that the general denial of transubstantiation among Protestants and particularly by the Reformers was occasioned by a resistance to the ideas of the ‘Real Presence’ of Christ in the Eucharist, or to the notion of our participation in the substance of his flesh and blood in the sacrament. Having recently responded to this assumption, and being very surprised by the fact that the person in question held it, I thought that I would repost an edited version of my response here. While I am fairly certain that for the significant majority of the followers of this blog, the following is olde hatte, experience is teaching me that there are certain facts whose knowledge one shouldn’t take for granted. There are ideas that have a lot of popular currency, despite their utter lack of historical support. For those whose impressions of Protestantism are derived from the experience of independent evangelicalism, with its low view of the church, sacraments, and the liturgy, it can come as some shock to discover that the Reformers generally held quite different visions. As I appreciate that the following post may be completely familiar to you, I beg your indulgence for the sake of those for whom this really is new.

via Protestantism, Eucharistic Participation in Christ’s Flesh, and Transubstantiation | Alastair’s Adversaria.

Please go read the entire article. It is a great one-stop-shop resource on the entire issue.

Same planet, different world? PCA and Communion

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So a PCA pastor has written a post: “Are We Neglecting the Lord’s Supper: 3 Starter Questions.” It begins this way:

Ever since seminary I’ve heard whispers and murmurs on one topic, but never open discussion. On most theological subjects in the Reformed Community there is plainly agreement or disagreement, yet when it comes to the Lord’s Supper this doesn’t seem to be true. Sure we learned about the three views in the Reformation: Consubstantiation, the Memorial View, and Calvin’s view. While we learned that the Lutherans hold to consubstantiation, things got very muddy, after that. This confusion seemed to come in part because there is disagreement about what Calvin and Zwingli (the proposed herald of the memorial view) actually believed on the issue, and because there is also disagreement with these two views but often there is not really any alternative position put forth.

Let me ask the church leaders reading this post a few questions (these aren’t the three big questions, I’ll get to those in a minute.) First, during your ordination exam were you ever asked, “what happens in the Lord’s supper?” Second, if such as question was asked do you think there would be consensus? Finally, would you feel comfortable giving a 30 minute presentation explain your view of the Supper to members of your Presbytery? To members of Reformed churches: has your pastor ever taught a class on the subject? (Not just a few comments in a larger topic but a whole class.)

For some reason a theology of the Lord’s Supper has been neglected, but before taking the time to write on the subject, I believe the Reformed community needs to answer three questions about the Supper, in order to define our objectives and ground rules.

via Are We Neglecting the Lord’s Supper: 3 Starter Questions | Vintage73.com | Vintage73.com.

I seem to remember “what happens in the Lord’s supper” being a standard question in either Missouri Presbytery, the Pacific Northwest Presbytery, or both. But this is a memory of direct knowledge from over a decade ago, so maybe I am misremembering or maybe my information is dated and the exams have changed.

But in general, I don’t understand why anyone thinks the topic is generally neglected in the PCA. For example, Given for You: Reclaiming Calvin’s Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper was published by P&R with an introduction by R. C. Sproul. Michael Horton also wrote a blurb for the back and he is pretty well-known in the PCA.

So I’m not sure if I get where the neglect comes in.