Today I am talking about Communion in the more non-formal churches like the Brethren, Pentecostal and Independent baptists. These churches are very particular about communion every Sunday, and people who miss communion (the Lord’s Table) are looked upon as spiritually careless.
On the other hand, most believers in these churches are meticulous about participating in the Lord’s Table every Sunday, and they miss participation only if there is something seriously wrong with them. Non-participation for a long period is often an indication that this person is a backslider.
The way Holy Communion is taken seriously in these churches is to be appreciated. Related to this is one question — who should be allowed to participate in communion. Should it be restricted only to members of a congregation?
Some do not allow outsiders to participate, even if they are believers in good standing in their churches. Others are so strict that even within their own church communicant members need to face strict conditions before they participate. The question is, what is the Biblical model. Is it that of a close communion or open Communion?
What do YOU say?
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There are numerous couples among our churches who are childless. Some are due to medical problems, others are due to lifestyle induced problems. Whatever the root cause, many of them greatly desire to have a child or more.
Some of them are finally able to conceive with the help of medical intervention such as corrective medication, corrective surgery, or medically assisted fertilization. Ultimately all of it amounts to medical help for a couple to get a child.
However, some of the couples are unable to conceive because the husband does not have proper sperm count, or has some other such defect that prevents him from fathering a child in spite of medical help and intervention. In such cases, many of them are advised to buy sperms from a sperm-donor and go ahead with medically assisted fertilization.
Many believers have toyed, from time to time, with these ideas of taking sperm from another person (mostly, anonymous donors). A few of them contact me, knowing that I speak on apologetic and ethics-related issues. They need a scriptural and logical counsel.
What do YOU have to say scripturally on this issue?
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Voter apathy is something to be lamented about. However, the quick-fix solutions that politicians and people offer for national (and also for the not the larger) problems is to be lamented even more. It seems that idiocy is at a premium when it comes to solving problems that affect the masses.
Some years ago I read about the inmates of a home for mentally handicapped. The directors, or someone of that ilk, decided to sterilize all the women inmates because they were repeatedly getting pregnant. The unscrupulous men who were forcing themselves upon these helpless women were not blamed because the directors, presumably, discovered that the act of getting pregnant was more serious than the act of rape. It also did not occur to them that sterilizing the men could have the same result. Even if that had occurred to them, they would not have dared to do that because imposing a punishment on normal people is not as easy as imposing a solution on hapless women.
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