I heard it
again.
In a
conversation with an independent Baptist preacher recently I heard it said,
concerning the Lord's Supper, that churches have authority to practice the
Lord's Supper as they believe is right. In this case the preacher said,
"Because that's what happens in fact."
- I agree that a preacher ought
to lead his church to worship God as he understands the scriptures to
teach and not simply as a movement of churches might insist
- I understand that this makes it
appear that churches observe the Lord's Supper as seems right to them
But this is not
a Biblical view of why and how we observe the Lord's Supper. Each pastor ought
to lead his church to observe the Lord's Supper as he understands the
Scriptures to teach. The authority is in the Bible and not the church. A pastor
is shirking his duty to say, "I am not a scholar enough to understand what
the Bible teaches about such things so I believe how each church chooses to
practice it is scriptural."
This has at
least two problems:
The pastor is
simply taking the road of expediency
Rather than
worshiping according to the dictates of his conscience, he is just worshiping
the way everyone wants to.
This
misplaces authority
It goes back to
the Catholic concept of church dogma being as authoritative as the word of God.
It gives the church, even if it claims to be Baptist/non Protestant church, a
Protestant tie back to Catholicism. It rips the Baptist doctrine of the Bible as
our sole authority out of our statement of faith and replaces it with the whim
and wishes of men.
I realize that
ultimately each church is going to observe the Lord's Supper as the majority of
its members understand it should be. Though the distinction may seem fine it is
still imperative. We observe as we understand it to be taught in the Bible and
not merely as we personally think is right. We are obligated to study the Bible
and to practice it as we understand the Bible to teach.
Marvin McKenzie
In the field
