Jul 6 2016, 05:49 PM
Uncle Yeeck, i just saw some comments on other forum and would like to share with you:
So, you don't believe that Barnabus should have been allowed to preach the gospel? What are the 'special' qualifications that you have found in the Scriptures for those who would administer the sacraments? Did Philip have some 'special' qualification to baptize the Ethiopian? Beyond just being an apostle and believer himself? Friend, for several hundred years, those who led the many, many fellowships of believers upon the earth were just men who were recognized as godly men by the fellowship in which they served. Just as Paul instructed the fellowships. That they should choose one among themselves who was upright and lived a righteous life and had but one wife. Those were Paul's instructions for fellowships choosing pastors, deacons and teachers among the various fellowships. These were all just believers who gathered together in the various cities in which Paul and the other apostles had gone to and spread the gospel. As people within those communities came to believe then they began to meet together and as their fellowship group grew they were instructed to begin choosing upright and righteous men to be their pastors, deacons and leaders of that local fellowship. Every once in a while, and honestly their visits were obviously years apart, one of the apostles would go back through and see how the local fellowships were faring and instruct them in errors that they were holding to and proper worship. But, there was never any visible hierarchy of authority and control over the scattered fellowships until the Romans began to exert control over the believers. The Romans began all of this proper and formal worship and control over the people of God and that still continues today.
Listen, I obviously am not going to convince you that you have any of this wrong. It just isn't going to happen in this venue of discussion. Read the Scriptures. Every time you open them get down on your knees and humble yourself before God and beseech Him to give you understanding and wisdom through His Holy Spirit of the things you are reading.
Surely, you can understand what Peter was telling us in his letter. That there are people among us who honestly and fervently believe that they have read the Scriptures diligently but don't understand what it is that they are reading. They then go out and teach others some cracked up untruth about the things of God and their condemnation is just waiting on them.
Communion is exactly what Jesus said it was. A time of reflection and remembrance of all that Jesus has done for us. A time for us to stop and reconsider the pain and suffering endured on our behalf. A time for us to give joyous and heartfelt thanks to the one who has made the way that we might have the eternal life for which our God created us to enjoy with Him. Paul admonished some of the believers for having a rather flippant attitude about the communion and so yes, I believe that we are to be sober and clear minded about what we are doing when we sit down to share communion among the brotherhood. But, this idea that the cup and bread are somehow magically or mystically turned in to the actual body and blood of our Lord. No, I'm not convinced that the Scriptures ever alluded to or infer in any way that we are to have that understanding of the emblems.
The bread that we partake is no different than the bread that Jesus handed around to his disciples. Telling them that it was to be understood as his body and we should spend time remembering and reflecting on the suffering that his body endured for us. The cup was nothing more than the fruit of the vine and Jesus encouraged us to consider that it represented his blood that had been shed for our salvation. Still today, whether we actually drink wine or just grape juice, we are drinking of the 'fruit of the vine'. There is nothing in the Scriptures that alludes to or confirms that the 'fruit of the vine' was fermented drink.
Friend, as I understand the Scriptures, that's exactly what Jesus taught us about the partaking of communion. It should be a solemn and sober time for the born again believer to stop and reflect again on all that the Lord has done. To remind himself what a great price was paid for the hope that he holds for the future and to then steel himself for going out again into the world as a blood bought representative of the one true and living God whose Son paid the price for our sin.
Honestly, any gathering of born again believers can hold a communion service and no one has to administer the emblems. They can merely be handed around from one hand to another just as Jesus likely did with his disciples. He handed them the loaf of bread and encouraged them, as the bread was handed around, to take and eat of it and likewise the cup was shared from one disciple to the next. There is no requirement in the Scriptures that someone specially qualified has to administer any of the sacraments. Similarly with baptism, all that is necessary is that the one being baptized has professed saving faith and any other born again believer can baptize that new believer. There is no Scriptural authority or instruction regarding any qualifications for one to baptize another except that they both be believers. Even that the one doing the baptizing being a believer isn't actually written in the Scriptures, but we do find that it is the example we are given when someone came to believe.
That Mary is to be respected and venerated is nowhere taught in the Scriptures. All that Mary says of herself is that people will call her blessed. And yes, Mary was greatly blessed to be chosen by God to carry His Son into the world. Mary was absolutely blessed! Other than that, there is absolutely no Scriptural example or instruction that any of the apostles or disciples as they journeyed out from Jerusalem and Israel to carry the gospel to all the world ever said or did anything about Mary and who she was.
LYN Catholic Fellowship V01 (Group), For Catholics (Roman or Eastern)
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