Originally posted by luvroftheWord
Joe,
If you will not accept sound reasoning and are content to commit logical fallacy after logical fallacy, all the while thinking you are justified because you are using the Bible to do so, then whatever. But the foolishness of your argument is evident to all. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You cannot build a universally binding principle off of a particular case example. I think you know this is true because you avoided my reductio of your position entirely. Tell me, Joe, do you believe that since we have an example of Jesus going up on a mountain to pray for a whole night, that we are therefore morally obligated to do the same?
What is a logical fallacy? Did not Christ say, " Teach them everything I have said and commanded?" There is enough Scriptural evidence that this WAS practiced weekly. I honestly am without words on what else to say. Is nto what we read in Scripture, The primitive Church, the Fathers enough evidence?
As to your question, I hope you are being fascecious. Are we to attempt to walk on water also? What does Scripture INTEND to teach Craig? You know that is a basic rule.
Let me post some thoughts from the Reformed Theological Resource Center.
One of the most significant liturgical practices reintroduced to the Church by the protestant Reformers was their insistence on frequent celebration of the Lord's Supper by the laity. Calvin suggested the Church observe the Lord's Supper whenever the church gathered together for worship. Calvin wrote that this means most Christians would observe the Lord's Supper each week.
The irony is that today, particularly after Vatican II, the Roman Catholic laity are offered and partake of the Lord's Supper as often as they attend a worship service. Congregations of the Reformation churches -- and evangelical churches in general -- typically celebrate the Lord's Supper only a few times a year. In fact, many protestant churches celebrate the Supper so rarely that they approach Luther's low standard of celebration of three or four times a year. Recall that Luther taught that if you received communion only three or four times a year, then you were treading the line of unbelieving neglect.
Calvin makes what seems to me to be a biblically reasonable suggestion: "[W]e ought always to provide that no meeting of the Church is held without the word, prayer, the dispensation of the Supper, and alms." Calvin's suggested rule permits celebration of the Lord's Supper more than once a week. Nonetheless, at the very least Calvin commends that churches should observe the Lord's supper at least weekly, because that is typically as often as they assemble together for worship. This is his explicit suggestion, as can be seen in the quotation from Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, on page 2.
I will argue that this rule -- that as often as the church assembles together for worship, so the Lord's Supper should be celebrated -- is suggested in the Scriptures. Furthermore, that the very earliest Christian churches followed this practice is suggested by early Christian writings describing the typical worship service of the early Church. Although even the earliest extra-biblical writings do not present the Church with conclusive proof of a practice being biblical, they do provide an important witness of a practice being biblical. Finally, I will present a simple theological argument as to why a local church should celebrate communion whenever it gathers together for worship.
Paul writes of Christians coming together "in church" as though that were the same thing as Christians coming together to celebrate the Supper. Look carefully at how Paul describes the same event in 1 Corinthians 11:
v. 17: "you come together"
v. 18: "when you come together in church"
v. 33: "when you come together to eat"
v. 20: "when you meet together it is not to eat the
Lord's supper."
v. 34: "eat at home, so that you may not come together for judgment."
Each description of the purpose for which the Corinthians "come together" refers to the same object -- the gathering together of the church for worship. So close is the identification between coming together for church and celebrating the Lord's Supper, that Paul calls the coming together for worship the coming together "to eat." And he chastizes the church at Corinth, rebuking them because when they do come together, so corrupt is their practice, that "it is not to eat the Lord's Supper." The implication being, of course, that one of the main points of meeting together is, in fact, to eat the Lord's supper: to say one is to mean the other
Each description of the purpose for which the Corinthians "come together" refers to the same object -- the gathering together of the church for worship. So close is the identification between coming together for church and celebrating the Lord's Supper, that Paul calls the coming together for worship the coming together "to eat." And he chastizes the church at Corinth, rebuking them because when they do come together, so corrupt is their practice, that "it is not to eat the Lord's Supper." The implication being, of course, that one of the main points of meeting together is, in fact, to eat the Lord's supper: to say one is to mean the other
Note, then, how Luke describes the purpose of the Sunday meeting: they were "gathered together to break bread." Of course other events were also present -- Paul preached a lengthy sermon at the service. Yet the noted purpose of the church gathering together here is to celebrate the Lord's Supper. Just as Paul used phrases interchangeably in his letter to the Corinthians, so Luke seems to use the same phrases: To say that the Church gathers together on Sunday for a service is to say that the church gathers together to celebrate the Supper.
The same suggestion appears present in earlier passages in Acts, when Luke records the practice in the first days of the Church: "And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ... [A]nd they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart..." (Acts 2.42,45-46).
The earliest Christian sources outside of the New Testament confirm that the Church followed Calvin's rule-of-thumb, and celebrated communion whenever the church gathered together. According to the Didache, a very early text written for Christian instruction probably between 60 and 80 A.D.: "On the Lord's own day gather together and break bread and give thanks, having first confessed your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure" (ch 14). The Didache also contains a description of how the sacrament should be administered in a worship service.
So, too, the many records of the early worship services of the Church all include the celebration of the Lord's Supper. Again while this is not compelling, it does provide evidence indicating an apostolic practice, and later Christians are obligated at least to consider such testimony. Because the Supper was written into every early liturgy (at least that I know of) it indicates that the early Church followed the practice of celebrating the Eucharist whenever the church assembled to worship God, typically on Sunday. Calvin and Luther recovered the same emphasis in their desire to renew worship along more scriptural lines.
Thus, are Christians supposed to "proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2.9)? That proclamation occurs in the Eucharist (1 Co 11.26). Does the Church come together as Christ's body (Eph 1.23, Col 1.18,24)? We share share in His body by eating the bread (1 Co 10.16).
Do we need to drink the blood of Christ, in which there is life, in order to live eternally (Jn 6.54, Lev 17.11)? We drink Christ's blood in His Supper (1 Co 10.16). Is the Church the creature of a New Covenant (Jer 31.31, Heb 8.8, Heb 9.15)? Jesus introduced the New Covenant at the last Supper (Mt 26.26-29).
Does God discipline the Christian for our own good (Heb 12.10)? God disciplines us in the eucharist (1 Co 11.32). Do we need a sacrifice for sin so that God will pass over our sins (Heb 9.22)? The Eucharist is our Passover feast (1 Co 5.8-9). Does Jesus tell us that if we hear His voice and open the door that He will come in and He will dine with us (Rev 3.20)? Do we not dine with Jesus, in His presence, in eating His Supper (Jn 6.56, cf., Jn 6.58, 1 Co 10.3-4, Dt 14.26).
Are Christians told to assemble together (Heb 10.25)? Paul tells us that the many assemble together in one body because we share one loaf (1 Co 10.17) and drink of one Spirit (1 Co 12.13).
Calvin on Communion
"[T]he sacrament [of the Lord's Supper] might be celebrated in the most becoming manner, if it were dispensed to the Church very frequently, at least once a week. ...
"What we have hitherto said of the sacrament, abundantly shows that it was not instituted to be received once a year and that perfunctorily (as is now commonly the custom); but that all Christians might have it in frequent use, and frequently call to mind the sufferings of Christ, thereby sustaining and confirming their faith: stirring themselves up to sing the praises of God, and proclaim his goodness; cherishing and testifying towards each other that mutual charity, the bond of which they see in the unity of the body of Christ. ... Thus we ought always to provide that no meeting of the Church is held without the word, prayer, the dispensation of the Supper, and alms. ...
"By these enactments, holy men wished to retain and ensure the use of frequent communion, as handed down by the apostles themslves; and which, while it was most salutary to believers, they saw gradually falling into desuetude by the negligence of the people. Of his own age, Augustine testifies: 'The sacrament of the unity of out Lord's body is, in some places, provided daily, and in others at certain intervals, at the Lord's table; and at that table some partake to life, and others to destruction' (August. Tract. 26, in Joann.6). And in the first Epistle to Januarius he says: 'Some communicate daily in the body and blood of the Lord; others receive it on certain days: in some places, not a day intervenes on which it is not offered: in others, it is offered only on the Sabbath and the Lord's day: in others, on the Lord's day only.
"Most assuredly, the custom which prescribes communion once a year is an invention of the devil, by what instrumentality soever it may have been introduced. ... Each week, at least, the table of the Lord ought to have been spread for the company of Christians, and the promises declared on which we might then spiritually feed."
John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, bk IV, ch 17.
Joe
... nowhere do we have a command to observe the sacrament with a specific frequency. There is no command to do it everytime you come together, or every week, or every month, or whatever. Of course, it's possible that we have some examples of the early church in Acts observing the supper each time they came together, but all that means is that we are permitted to do this if we choose.
