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To: Dr. North; annalex
What of those who are saved by Christ, fully accept that salvation, and yet never take communion?

Are you contending that they would be less saved by virtue of their not taking communion?

If so, that is elevating communion above being saved by Christ, and saying that being saved by Christ is insufficient to in fact be saved if not supplemented by communion.

I have a little story relevant to your above concern which you may find interesting.

First my testimony: God is not a hypothesis, His Name is I AM, I’ve known Him for half a century and counting. I am a Christian, plain and simple.

Now my story: For many years I’ve attended mass with my Catholic family members whenever they invited me. Lately, I do it a lot as some family members are elderly and need physical assistance to attend.

The local priest and a person I gather is a deacon routinely offer me the bread and the cup which I routinely decline. The reason I decline is that in the very front of one of the books in their pews is an official statement by the Catholic Church instructing non-Catholics to not participate in that part of the mass.

And so out of respect and honor for the Catholic Church and my beloved relatives, I comply, even though I know this particular doctrine does not comply with Scripture (emphasis mine:)

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of [that] bread, and drink of [that] cup. – I Cor 11:28

I do realize the doctrine is one of compassion, not wanting a participant to bring down judgment on himself by ignorance and so limits participation to those presumed to be informed Christians, i.e. members of the Catholic Church with a clear conscience:

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. – I Cor 11:29-30

I am a Christian, baptized in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; I have a clean conscience and yet the cup and bread is withheld from me as a matter of doctrine.

Truly, I would not want to be among those in the Catholic Church who participated in the establishment of this doctrine, i.e. I don’t see how they shall justify before Christ the withholding of what they believed to be His body and His blood.

To God be the glory, not man, never man!

427 posted on 01/07/2010 9:10:38 AM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: Alamo-Girl

INDEED.


431 posted on 01/07/2010 9:24:41 AM PST by Quix (POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 TRAITORS http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: Alamo-Girl
If you don't agree with the confessional standards of Catholicism, why would you want to receive communion at their altar?

Page 20-23 of the following link is instructive. I apologize for the cut and paste aspect:

http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/CTCR/Theol_lord_supper1.pdf

441 posted on 01/07/2010 10:33:22 AM PST by xone
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To: Alamo-Girl; Dr. North

First off, congratulation on doing what is right, — on both attending the Divine Liturgy and not presenting yourself for the Holy Communion at this stage.

The critical question is one addressed by St. Paul in the verse following the one you cited. Do you discern the body of Christ in the Eucharist? If you do, and yet something keeps you from conversion, you need to examine that impediment. When you overcome it, trust me, they’ll let you receive in due course. And if you don’t then of course you should not receive, nor should you desire to receive, for your own sake, lest you do so unworthily.


531 posted on 01/07/2010 5:39:11 PM PST by annalex (http://www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php)
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