Expert: Cooper P. Abrams III - 7/3/2006

Question
I would like to know if you can take Communion with another church if you happen to be visiting upon that day and you are a Christian.  I have not been able to find any information on this.  I can not find anything in the church doctrine, also what about children?

Sincerely,

Judy Campbell  

Answer
Hi Judy,
   The matter of churches allowing members of other churches to take the Lord's Supper in their services is called having "open" or "closed" communion.
     I can find nothing in the New Testament that would limit taking the Lord's Supper just to members of that local church and excluding believers from another Bible believing church. This is called "open" communion.   Of course it is taken by the local church and is a ordinance of a local church, but I do not see any biblical reason to exclude believers who are of "like faith" who are members in good standing of another New Testament church. I find no instructions as to how to "police" the Lord's Supper which I believe the Lord would have given if He wanted us to.

    A church should of course not offer the Lord's Supper to the unsaved, give it to young children or infants, or anyone who has not publically made a profession of faith and been baptized.   Or to those who are in doctrinal error and members of churches that are not of "like faith."

   Closed communion is mostly practiced by "Landmark" Baptists or "Baptist Briders" who believe the only true church is one that came from John the Baptist...and the Apostles.  These Baptist churches call themselves the true Bribe of Christ and exclude everyone else, even other doctrinally sound Baptist churches who are not part of their historic line of churches.

   These churches believe in what is called "successionism" which means that they can trace their history back to John the Baptist and the Apostles in a direct line of "Baptist" churches.  As a student of church history I can assure you that they cannot trace a direct line of Baptist churches back to the early church.    John the Baptist was never a member of any church because he was beheaded before the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) when the Lord began the institution of the local church.   
     I did some extensive investigation into the matter some years ago and could find no varifible reference for their claims. I also wrote a number of Landmark Baptists asking for the sources for their claims and documentation. Not one of them replied. They have a list of churches which they offer, but after many attempts at verifying the list I found no one could document it.   By the way, the authenticity of a New Testament church rests on it belief and practice of the New Testament...not on whether it can trace its history back to the first century.   

     Closed communion originally mean that those in doctrinal error, the unsaved, unruly, and infant and those who could not examine themselves were to be excluded. It began because of the different denominations who believed and practiced different practices and teaching after the Reformation. It was not used to limit participation among those of a particular church or of like faith, but to separate different churches such as the Protestants from the Catholics. It is a practiced by all Catholic and Protestants. Closed communion was a Catholic notion because they taught that the bread and wine were the actual blood and body of Jesus and thus should not be given to non-Catholics who were outside of the Roman church who they teach is the only valid church on earth. The Lord Supper is a sacrament to them having "saving" properties so those outside their groups were to be excluded.

   I hope this helps answer your question.   Believes are members of local churches, also member of the body of Jesus Christ and we are brothers and sisters in Christ.   To withhold fellowship, such as in the Lord's Supper is rude and ignores our common bold and fellowship  in Jesus Christ.  
It is not a biblical practice with no offer fellowship to another believer.  3 John 5-5 says,  "Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers; Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well.   Because that for his name's sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth."   This verse is talking about how one church treats believers from another church.

   Thanks for you question...If you have further commenst or questions please write.
Cooper Abrams
http://bible-truth.org