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Hundreds of thousands of people gather at their churches on Sunday mornings and partake of crackers and grape juice calling this "communion" or "The Lord's Supper".
The guide used before partaking of this is a scripture in I Cor. 11 telling us to "examine ourselves" before partaking.
I never could understand "how" I was supposed to examine myself.
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Many years later, God, by HIS Spirit, explained the Lord's supper to me as follows:
The Lord's supper is the partaking of THE WORD OF GOD which we do when we read the Bible. Each time we read Bible we partake of the Lord's supper. We examine ourselves as we eat and drink HIS word, making appropriate changes to our lives by the Word of God, the HOLY Scriptures.
The Lord's supper has nothing at all to do with crackers and grape juice.
Crackers and grape juice have no power.
The word of God has great power.
The Word of God is the Lord's supper!
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Therefore, when the apostle Paul wrote I Cor. 11, he was speaking of the way we, as individuals, handle the Bible and other words from God.
There is a severe penalty to those persons who mishandle the scripture.
Paul explains:
I Cor. 11 ... Whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
But let a man examine himself (by the scriptures), and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup (examining himself as he eats and drinks the scriptures).
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep (die).
For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
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We judge ourselves by the scriptures. We cannot judge ourselves by crackers and grape juice.
Fleshly minds of men set up crackers and grape juice in the church.
God said to me the following concerning what they are calling communion, crackers and grape juice:
You are not the better if you eat, neither are you the worse if you don't eat.
It is just nothing but crackers and grape juice.
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My favorite aunt was Church of Christ.
When I was a little child, we would visit her, 250 miles from where we lived. If it was a weekend, I would go with her to church. I was only 5 or 6 at that time. Someone must have explained to me that I could not eat the crackers nor drink the grape juice which they always passed around at the end of the Sunday service. I would watch her carefully to see what she did when they brought the trays. She would be very somber as she broke off a small bit of cracker and put it in her mouth. Then they brought another tray of purple liquid. She took a small glass and drank the liquid. Again she was very somber.
Years later, when I was 15, I was baptized in Church of Christ. Now I could partake of crackers and grape juice according to their doctrine.
But I always dreaded this part of the church service. We were taught we were to “examine” ourselves to see if we were worthy to eat the bit of cracker and to drink the grape juice. I had no idea how I was to examine myself. I partook of it but I never felt comfortable doing this and I always dreaded this part of the service.
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Years later, God showed me the scriptures in I Cor. 11 and God opened my eyes: The Lord’s supper is not eating crackers and drinking grape juice. The Lord’s supper is partaking of the Word of God itself.
We examine ourselves by the Word of God. We judge ourselves by the Word of God, conforming to that Word, applying that Word in a proper way, making appropriate changes to our lives to conform to the instruction given in the Word of God.
Now it all fit! Crackers/grape juice have nothing to do with the Lord’s supper. Crackers/grape juice have no power at all. But doing the scriptures has great power!
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