Eucharist – Kanisa la Christadelphian huko Anderlecht

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Sharing bread and wine only for baptized brothers and sisters

After the baptismal service I received a question from a young lady who was sad because she and others who were baptised were not allowed to share in the bread and wine.

By those other baptised people she meant Catholics. I tried to make it clear to her that there were two main reasons.

Infant baptism

In the Catholic faith, most are baptised as babies. This infant baptism is usually administered in the first days or weeks of a child’s life and it is assumed that this pouring with some water would wash off original sin, according to the church father Augustine. It is assumed that, according to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, babies can be secured in such a way that they would die prematurely that they would not be doomed to have to burn in hell forever. (Children’s) baptism means (according to Catholic teaching) that one receives salvation and is incorporated into the church.

In the past, the Papal Church went so far that in the time of persecution and inquisition one had to choose either death or baptism.

However, during infant baptism, the child has never made the choice for God himself, but the parents or others have made that choice for the child.

However, it is important that everyone, when they have reached an age of consciousness, makes a conscious choice to want to be a child of God in Jesus’ name and to move in that direction of faith for this.

Adult baptism

Later in life, a person can decide for himself which way he wants to go.

The first Christians were always about an act of surrender to God, which could only be performed at an age of reason. Catholics and Reformants had the doom idea of hell in their heads and wanted to save the child from this. As a basis for infant baptism, they point out the covenant and God’s promise.

In our region, more Anabaptists and Baptists also emerged during the time of the Reformation, preaching an Only God and an adult baptism. The Baptist movement rejected infant baptism and advocated baptism after making a confession of faith. In the Netherlands, this idea was adhered to, among others, by Menno Simons, a Frisian ex-priest who became a Mennonite.

The Baptists prefer to call their baptism ceremony baptism of faith because young people who are not yet adults, but already have sufficient insight into the Biblical Truth, can also be baptised on the basis of their faith. The Brothers in Christ or Christadelphians also assume that once a person can make a conscious choice and prove that he has sufficient insight into God’s Word and Teaching, he can surrender to God by allowing himself to be immersed in water, as a symbolic act of purification of past sins.

Participation in the memory of the Lord’s Supper

In most churches of the Christian faith one can only take communion if one has recognized and signed the confession of faith of that community.

In the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Roman Catholic Church, the Last Supper is commemorated in the Eucharist, of which Holy Communion is a part.

In the Latin rite of the Catholic Church, only the consecrated host or Sacramental bread is awarded at communion, drinking from the chalice is usually reserved for the priest. On special occasions, believers may also take communion under two guises (host and wine from the chalice). The idea here is that one becomes one with Christ.

Also among the Christadelphians there is a memory with a « sacrificial meal » in which bread is broken and this is distributed as a symbol of Jesus’ body to all believers who have been baptized according to the Biblical conditions, namely complete immersions with a testimony of faith in only one God (Jehovah) and in His sent Saviour, Jesus Christ. The wine then symbolizes the shed blood of Christ, which may be consumed by the baptized believers, as a sign of forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ blood.

Why only limited participation

It may be strange for Christians from the Trinitarian faith communities that they are not allowed to sit down at the sacrificial table in the services of Christadelphians.

This is because the Christ the Christadelphians believe in is a different Christ from the one the Trinitarian Christians, such as Catholics, Anglicans, Reformed, et al, believe in. For those who believe in the Trinity, Jesus Christ is God who came to earth to redeem us.

For Christadelphians and other True Christians, such as Yeshuaists (or Jeshuaists) and members of The Abrahamic faith, the Church of God, Nazarene Friends, Witnesses of Jehovah, one can only be a participant at the table if one belongs among those who are part of the approved by God, or those who worship only Jehovah as the Only True God.

There is no middle ground for God. He only accepts true worship.

If you still like to join the table

During the baptism ceremony it was noticed that several attendees were convinced that Jesus is the son of God. But bad enough, they were convinced that their Catholic Church thought the same way and did not see Jesus as God. I encouraged them to ask their pastor or some priests from that church questions about this, so that they would gain a better understanding of the teachings of the Catholic Church.

If they are really convinced that Jesus is the son of God and not a god the son, they would be happy to erase whether they are in the right community of faith and whether it is not better to go outside and to God, wouldn’t it be better to join a church community that adheres to Biblical teachings?

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Additional reading

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The Words of God in Pilgrimages

Above all, the pilgrim finds himself gathered together with others to listen to the Word of God, and the light of this word provokes in him a new look of faith on his own life, and on the rejection he has made of God on many occasions. He discovers the road ahead. Like David, like the prodigal son, he turns away from his sin and turns to God, who is always ready for forgiveness. He does penance in the full sense of the word: his pilgrim confession is the starting point of an authentic conversion.

In joy, and in an atmosphere of celebration, he partakes of the bread and wine together in memory of the Last Supper of Jesus Christ (the Eucharist). He experiences the unity that exists among all the children of God: there is truly one faith, one Lord, one baptism, one God and Father, but also an unfeigned charity, which carries with it peace and happiness. Finally, he finds himself part of the Church’s mission. At the same time, he feels solidarity with all men in the same struggle for justice and freedom.

God’s Words for the Pilgrimage of life

Life is a pilgrimage

It is in a second phase that pilgrims will discover, in the light of the Word of God, that the unfolding of their life takes on a new meaning in the radiance of the realities lived during a pilgrimage: « Life is the true, the only pilgrimage ».

A Journey to Meet God

Like pilgrimage, human life is a journey to meet God. God has always been looking for man to give himself to him and he offers him an exchange of love, which is realized in Jesus Christ. The sanctuary that the pilgrim frequents is only the image of that « perfect sanctuary » which is the humanity of Christ. God was the first to love us with an extraordinary love through the gift he gave us of his Son, Jesus Christ.

A walk in the Church

Son of God, who came to the earth of men, ‘the Word of the Father which he reveals, ‘a servant who accepts suffering’, he continues his mission in the Church.
Through Baptism, he united us to the mystery of his death and resurrection. Now, when we gather in the ecclesia, we feel connected as brothers and sisters in Christ, but even more so with our Divine Father, the One True God. This connection with God or God’s covenant with His people, and us, gives us the strength to go on in life.

And his Spirit is beginning to realize in the community of believers the unity towards which the whole of humanity is on the move.

An Upward Walk to Holiness

It is also in the Church that the Christian receives the eternal Word of God. He receives it in faith, and in its light he perceives the vocation to holiness which is his and which he must realize throughout his life and through the most diverse forms of his activity. He will do so, not on the cheap, nor even passively, but with a fully lucid commitment, the true dimension of which he sometimes needs to rediscover. Through his work, in his daily life, the effort made will not only be a legitimate search for the happiness for which he is made, but also a contribution to the building of a new world.

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