3/03/03
ROMISH COMMUNION
Many
American Protestants have adopted Romish religious practices. One
area where this trend can be seen is in the area of communion. Many Protestants are abandoning the
principle that thorough catechism in scriptural doctrines should precede
communicant membership. Communicant
membership thus no longer means knowledge and assent to the reformed body of
doctrine. In turn, this means there is
no real unity in the faith among communicants, because there is not a shared
knowledge and agreement with the Protestant faith.
Dr.
Francis Nigel Lee has written extensively and cogently against Romish
communion, and in favor of historic Protestant communion practices. Here is an excerpt from Dr. Lee’s writings:
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“Paedocommunionism is ultimately rooted in Paganism. Foreign to the Holy
Bible, it crept into the Early-Mediaeval Church especially in the East –
and
was later sectarianly recycled by the Anabaptists in the West in their
polemic against antipaedocommunionistic Protestant Paedobaptists.
In the Holy Bible, there were 'Catechism Schools' to train
Pre-Communicants
before their admission first to the Passover and later to the Eucharist.
Thus Dr. Samuel Miller, Dr. John Gill, and the Talmud. A minimum number
or minyan of ten adult males was needed at every official ecclesiastical
worship service (Exodus 12:3f,21-26,37 cf. Ruth 4:2 & Luke 22:7-30).
Indeed, also the Lex Gentium regards the attainment of adolescence and
accompanying training at that time -- to be essential for admission to
adult
responsibilities. Thus e.g. the
Early Britons, the Anglo-Saxons, Alfred,
Athelstane & Canute.
Classic Protestantism rejected not just Infant Communion but also
Pre-Adolescent Communion; but at Trent, Romanism condemned such
strict catechizings at puberty.
All of the Calvinistic Confessions of
Faith either explicitly or implicitly condemn Paedocommunionism.
Indeed, the present and ongoing Neo-Paedocommunionism in the West
is a rancid fruit of the ungodly French Revolution with its warped
emphasis
on the total equality of all human beings which has today resulted even
in grossly-exaggerated so-called
'rights of the child' (sic).
Professor Kamphuis rightly views Child Communion as the end of all
Church
Discipline. The modern heresy
of Neo-Paedocommunionism has
been condemned by Iain Murray, Dr. K. Deddens, Dr. Leonard Coppes,
Dr. Edwin Elliott, Dr. Richard Bacon, Dr. Joe Morecraft, Dr. Ken Gentry,
Theo Danzfuss, Bob Grossmann, Parnell McCarter, Dr. Morton Smith,
Matthew Winzer and Dr. Francis Nigel Lee – even though some modern
Western denominations have capitulated to this product of the ongoing
march
of the French Revolution even into many churches. What is needed,
against such Paedocommunionistic Deformation, is a New Protestant
Reformation!
The mature Adam was catechized by God regarding manducation of
the
fruit-trees in Eden. Adam no
doubt later catechized Eve similarly; and,
subsequently, their three sons Cain and Abel and Seth. Seth catechized
his children; Jared, his son Enoch; Enoch, Methuselah; Methuselah,
Noah; and Noah his three sons Shem and Ham and Japheth. The Semite
Abraham catechized his household -- and so on down to Moses who,
in turn, instructed the Elders and fathers of Israel to catechize their
sons
regarding the Passover.
Thenceforth, also the Passovers themselves were
Catechetical Schools.
In Proverbs 22:6, David’s son Solomon urges: “Keep on catechizing a lad
in the way he should go! Then,
when his beard starts growing, he will not
depart therefrom.” The word
‘catechize’ means ‘instruct’ – and is
often
used also in the New Testament.
There, it often precedes maturely and
publically professing one’s faith in the Lord, and apparently also with
regard to manducation at the Passover and at the Lord’s Supper which
has replaced it. I Timothy 5:12
cf. Aboth 5:21 and Luke 2:42f & Hebrews
5:11 to 6:5.
The Early Christian Church continued the confirmatory Hebraic “custom”
of catechizing for three years before giving her own covenant youth the
Lord’s Supper at or after but not before puberty. Cf. Clement of
Alexandria, the Apostolic Constitutions, Cyril, Chrysostom, Ambrose,
Augustine, and Calvin’s Institutes.
That catechizing taught the Ten
Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer; the substance of the Apostles’
Creed; and the nature of the Sacraments.
Calvin insisted infantly-baptized covenant children were after their
early childhood to be catechized and publically to profess their faith
when adolescents or subsequently, before being admitted to the
Lord’s Supper. The Candidate
“would be questioned on each head,
and give answers to each [Exodus 12:26-37 cf. Luke 2:42-47]....
It has ever been the practice of the Church...to see that children
should
duly be instructed in the Christian religion...and...to question
children
in the churches.... The Supper
was instituted by our Lord.... On the
Sunday before its celebration, an announcement shall be made that no
child is to come to it – before having made ‘Profession of Faith’ in
accordance with what is taught in the Catechism.”
Calvin’s Student Knox insisted: “All Ministers must be admonished to be
more careful to instruct the ignorant...and to use sharp examination....
The administration of the Table ought never to be without examination
passing beforehand.... None are
to be admitted to this ‘Mystery’ [of
the Supper] who cannot formally say the Lord’s Prayer, the Articles of
the Belief [alias the Apostles’ Creed], nor declare the Sum of the Law
[alias the Ten Commandments].”
The same is implied by the Westminster Shorter Catechism as “a
Directory for catechising such as are of weaker capacity.” It requires
those desiring to receive the Supper for the first time, initially to be
tested and approved by the local Session of Christ’s Church before
their Admission to the Table.
Also the Westminster Directory for
the Publick Worship of God states that “the ignorant are not fit to
receive the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper”-- which, declares the
Larger Catechism, should be given “only to such as are of years
and ability to examine themselves (First Corinthians 11:28-29).”
Indeed, “such as are found to be ignorant, notwithstanding their
profession of the faith and desire to come to the Lord’s Supper,
may and ought to be kept from that Sacrament by the power which
Christ has left in His Church” and vested in the Session of Elders who
are to guard the Lord’s Table from being misused.
For Christ Himself “instituted” His Holy Supper. At that very time,
however, only adult Christian disciples ate and drank of it -- at the
Worship Service there in the Upper Room. Thus the Confession
29:8 says that even such of the godly as are still “ignorant” of these
matters, are “unfit to enjoy communion.” They are “unworthy of
the Lord’s Table and cannot without great sin against Christ -- while
they remain such -- partake of these ‘Holy Mysteries’ or be admitted
thereunto. First Corinthians
5:6-13 & Matthew 7:6.”