Should ALL Christians eat and drink the emblems of Jesus?

[Eloi]

That's this topic about: Should ALL Christians partake of the symbols of Christ?

First idea: To whom did Christ tell that he was making a covenant with, so they will be kings and judges?

Luke 22:24 However, there also arose a heated dispute among them over which one of them was considered to be the greatest. 25 But he said to them: “The kings of the nations lord it over them, and those having authority over them are called Benefactors. 26 You, though, are not to be that way. But let the one who is the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the one taking the lead as the one ministering. 27 For which one is greater, the one dining or the one serving? Is it not the one dining? But I am among you as the one serving.
28 “However, you are the ones who have stuck with me in my trials; 29 and I make a covenant with you, just as my Father has made a covenant with me, for a kingdom, 30 so that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and sit on thrones to judge the 12 tribes of Israel.

Second idea: If during the great tribulation Jesus separates sheep from goats according to what humans did to their brothers, who would be his brothers, and who would be the sheep selected for having treated them well? (Matt. 25:31-46).

Matt. 25:31 “When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit down on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will put the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right: ‘Come, you who have been blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world. 35 For I became hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you received me hospitably; 36 naked and you clothed me. I fell sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous ones will answer him with the words: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and receive you hospitably, or naked and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 In reply the King will say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ ...

[tam]

Peace to you,

In my experience most Christians think you should drink the wine if you love Jesus and not drink it if you dont.

I guess alcoholics aren't allowed to Love Jesus if they're trying to stop drinking....

Grape juice would be just as fine. Wine is made from grapes after all, and grapes are a fruit of the vine. Nor does it matter if it is red wine or white wine (and so it would not matter if it was white grape juice or purple grape juice). I mean, if you were in a situation and you had nothing at all except water, then just use the water. God and His Son are not that exacting. The fact that you are doing as Christ commanded with whatever you have is what matters. That is what shows your love and your faith.



Peace again to you,
your servant and a slave of Christ Jaheshua,
tammy

[onewithhim]

[Replying to tam in post #41]
If we respect the emblems that represent Christ's body, we will conform our bread and wine, to be used in the celebration, to strict guidelines, discerned from reading the entire Gospel accounts. Jesus' body was perfect and uncontaminated, so the bread would be made from only grains and nothing else except a little water. The wine should be real wine with nothing added, as Jesus' blood was precious and uncontaminated. Grape juice or water is not acceptable.

[tam]

Peace to you,

[Replying to tam in post #41]
If we respect the emblems that represent Christ's body, we will conform our bread and wine, to be used in the celebration, to strict guidelines, discerned from reading the entire Gospel accounts. Jesus' body was perfect and uncontaminated, so the bread would be made from only grains and nothing else except a little water. The wine should be real wine with nothing added, as Jesus' blood was precious and uncontaminated. Grape juice or water is not acceptable.

The only requirement I know of for the bread would be for it to have no yeast (since yeast represents hypocrisy, and there was no hypocrisy in Christ). But as if God is going to reject an alcoholic (or anyone) - tell that person he cannot partake of the body and blood of Christ - because that person cannot drink alcohol. Of course you can drink grape juice instead - it is made from the same thing wine is made from for goodness sake (and if you have access to nothing else, then even water, as long as you are acting in love and in faith and doing your best to obey His commands out of love for Him. And as a dear sister of mine in Christ once mentioned, did He not turn water INTO wine at one point? But of course a person can and should always take that to Christ, Himself.)


There is no law against love, owh (Galatians 5:22, 23).


But where is the love or the mercy in what you are saying?


And wouldn't the best way to "respect the emblems" be to do what He said to do? To exercise our faith and our love with obedience? To Eat, To Drink, To keep doing THAT (eating and drinking) in remembrance of Him? He is offering His flesh and his blood so that we may have life in us - telling us to take and eat, to take and drink.

The wts makes a production about getting the ingredients right (at least what they think is right) - but only to refuse to eat them and then toss them in the garbage at the end of the night.

Where is the respect in that? What good is that? It would be like Noah building the ark just as God said, and then not bothering to get on the ark (and not letting anyone else on the ark who might have wanted to get on.)



May anyone who wishes them be given ears to hear, so as to get a sense of these things, and to hear the Spirit and the Bride say to you, "Come!" May anyone who thirsts and anyone who wishes, "Come! Take the free gift of the water of LIFE!"



Peace again to you, and to you all,
your servant and a slave of Christ,
tammy

[JehovahsWitness]

Just because some Christrians are not part of " the new covenant " this doesn't mean they dont appreciate the gift of Gods precious son.

[Eloi]

These words of Jesus while instituting the memorial of his death, are very interesting:

Luke 22:19 Also, he took a loaf, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them, saying: “This means my body, which is to be given in your behalf. Keep doing this in remembrance of me.”20Also, he did the same with the cup after they had the evening meal, saying: “This cup means the new covenant by virtue of my blood, which is to be poured out in your behalf."

When he mentined "the new covenant" he revealed that the participation of the emblems (the bread and the wine) is reserved for those who are on that covenant:

Luke 22:28 “However, you are the ones who have stuck with me in my trials; 29 and I make a covenant with you, just as my Father has made a covenant with me, for a kingdom, 30 so that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and sit on thrones to judge the 12 tribes of Israel.

Since not all Christians will be kings on heaven with Jesus, not all Christians are part of that covenant and therefore, not everyone can eat and drink of the emblems. However, all those who wish can be present and participate in the celebration, to also remember that gesture of love from Jehovah and Jesus so that we would have the opportunity to reconcile with God and live forever.

We officially invite anyone who wants to show some gratitude for the sacrifice of Jesus on behalf of the human race to attend this memorial https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/memorial/

[JehovahsWitness]

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[JehovahsWitness]

Since not all Christians will be kings on heaven with Jesus, not all Christians are part of that covenant and therefore, not everyone can eat and drink of the emblems. However, all those who wish can be present and participate in the celebration, to also remember that gesture of love from Jehovah and Jesus so that we would have the opportunity to reconcile with God and live forever.

Exactly, only those that will RULE with Christ participate (as in eat and drink) but all who will benefit from the ransom attend. The ransom was for all humanity.

[Ross]

As a young Jehovah's Witness in my late teens and early twenties, I used to dread Memorial night.

The atmosphere was dark and serious; the sombre discourse centred upon how there were two distinct classes of Christians, and that the New Covenant was only with a dwindling and almost extinct remnant of 'Jehovah's servants'. And how seriously wrong it would be to mistakenly eat the bread or drink the wine.

When the emblems were passed from person to person, there was morbid silence, and they would be taken and then handed to the next person to you as quickly as possible as though you were rejecting a deadly poison.

[boatsnguitars]

Peace to you,

In my experience most Christians think you should drink the wine if you love Jesus and not drink it if you dont.

I guess alcoholics aren't allowed to Love Jesus if they're trying to stop drinking....

Grape juice would be just as fine. Wine is made from grapes after all, and grapes are a fruit of the vine. Nor does it matter if it is red wine or white wine (and so it would not matter if it was white grape juice or purple grape juice). I mean, if you were in a situation and you had nothing at all except water, then just use the water. God and His Son are not that exacting. The fact that you are doing as Christ commanded with whatever you have is what matters. That is what shows your love and your faith.



Peace again to you,
your servant and a slave of Christ Jaheshua,
tammy

So God has the power to turn water into wine, but not stop alcoholism when a person drinks in honor of God? Why doesn't God turn the wine back into water for them?

Let me guess, that would be evidence that God existed and we can't have that....

[Eloi]

Christendom does not teach its members that there is a small group of people (144 000) who are going to reign in heaven over the humanity on earth, those who will survive the great tribulation right on the planet. They make believers think that all of them will go to heaven, so they deceive them into believing that everyone who believes in Jesus Christ can consider themselves a future king and priest... some even imagine that they already are "kings and priests" on earth before they die.

As can be read in Luke 22:28-30, the pact to reign was made by Jesus with certain special followers who have to "drink the same cup" that Jesus drank in his trials and sufferings before they to be able to inherit those promises to be kings with him.

Matt. 20:20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached him with her sons, doing obeisance and asking for something from him. 21 He said to her: “What do you want?” She replied to him: “Give the word that these two sons of mine may sit down, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your Kingdom.” 22 Jesus answered: “You do not know what you are asking for. Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said to him: “We can.” 23 He said to them: “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit down at my right hand and at my left is not mine to give, but it belongs to those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

In fact, not even Jesus himself could decide to be a priest of Jehovah, but it was Jehovah who specifically chose and appointed him. Similarly, no person is authorized to choose himself as Jehovah's "king and priest" except that he himself shows him that he has been called for such an assignment.

Heb. 5:4 A man does not take this honor of his own accord, but he receives it only when he is called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 So, too, the Christ did not glorify himself by becoming a high priest, but was glorified by the One who said to him: “You are my son; today I have become your father.” 6 As he also says in another place, “You are a priest forever in the manner of Mel·chizʹe·dek.”

Even after being called, the person must prove faithful to the point where his position as future king and priest with Jesus in heaven is "sealed" or final.

Phil. 3:8 What is more, I do indeed also consider all things to be loss on account of the excelling value of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have taken the loss of all things and I consider them as a lot of refuse, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in union with him, not because of my own righteousness from following the Law, but because of the righteousness that is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 My aim is to know him and the power of his resurrection and to share in his sufferings, submitting myself to a death like his, 11 to see if at all possible I may attain to the earlier resurrection from the dead.

In view of the fact that this covenant is unique for some people, it is completely contrary to God's purpose for any believer to make any other believer think that they should eat the bread or drink the wine of the Supper, without considering that this is reserved only for the future kings and priests.