Church of God - they believe we must practice passover in order to be save?

Question

These fellows who approached me in order we must be save we must practice passover - meaning taking the bread of Jesus' body and drinking the wine meaning Jesus' blood. He based his teaching on John 6:50-56 "But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

52Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

53Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him."

What do you think?

Answer 1

Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved! Romans 10:10.

You do not have keep the passover or any other rite in order to be saved.
Salvation is a free gift. It is by God's grace through faith that you are saved.

Answer 2

They have it partly right, but because they operate only on what they can read from scripture, and their understandng is flawed by their own late and incomplete faith tradition, they miss the main point.

None of the old Jewish feasts or laws are of any effect or good purpose today, in these new covenant times. They were simply the temporary provisions made by God, that were replaced with a new and better system, based solely on Jesus Christ, his mercy, and and his grace.

The Crucifixion ... and the Last supper which anticipated it ... both served to fulfill the Jewish Passover and make it permanently obsolete.

From that moment forward, the definitive new covenant sacrifice for sins would be Jesus Christ alone, who is "the Lamb slain before the foundations of the world."

And once the blood of the true Lanb of God was spilled, any symbolic observance from a bygone era could have no further significance at all.

When Jesus said, "This is my body." "This is my blood." and "Do this in remembrance of me." he forever changed
the economy of salvation.

Ever since, and even before Pentecost, the apostles gathered together with the people on Sunday, the Lord's Day, to remember Jesus' death and proclaim his resurrection, until he comes again, by reenacting the Last Supper, where through the power of the Holy Spirit, ordinary bread and wine is transformed into Christ, just as he promised, and where the people eat the real, substantial, authentic and saving flesh of the true Lamb of God, just as Jesus commanded.

The Catholic Church has always taken Christ's words literally in this respect, and the Catholic Mass, which is celebrated all around the world, every hour of every day, is the way Christians are to worship God, and keep the new covenant with him, while honoring the spirit of the old Passover celebration.

Anything else, or anything less, is not likely to provide the necessary spiritual benefits, and may also fail to give correct praise, and proper, acceptable worship and sacrifice to God.

Malachi, the old testament prophet, predicted all this, thousands of years ago:

Mal 1:11 For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts.

This is further proof that a once a year remembrance, using profane and ordinary things, is not what God had in mind for his new covenant people.

An intimate and personal dinner together every Sunday, enjoying the "True Bread From Heaven" is much more like it.

We're God's family, for Christ's sake!

Answer 3

Passover is a holy day that is supposed to be kept. Just like all the rest of them. There are 7 in all..........You should keep all of these holy days just as Jesus did and all the rest of His followers of the time. The keeping of these holys day has never changed. The highly corrupt church of the Roman Empire never adopted the original Apostolic Christianity when they controlled the territory 150 - 200 A.D. They persecuted them and drove them off into the wilderness........But by the hand of God, the Church of God, (God's True Church, Apostolic Christianity) and all affiliated church's have survived down through the ages up to today. These are the Philadelphia era Church's that Jesus was pleased with as He prophesied in the Book of Revelation. These churches are what Jesus called His "little flock". They obeyed and kept the same covenant of holy days that God made with His people (jews) that honored God on those set aside days of the year.... Passover,.. the fest of unleavened bread,... pentecost, ..the feast of trumpets, .the day of atonment,... the feast of tabernacles,.. the last great day. ....The Sabbath should be kept every Saturday of the year between sunset on Friday and sunset on Saturday. Not on Sunday as today's church's keep it now.,......Sunday was originally a pagan day that was invented by Caesar Constantine of the Roman Empire, He was a Sun worshipper and worhipped the Sun god--Raw. Constantine invented Sun-day and injected his pagan day of worship into His Universal (Catholic) Church which are one of many pagan rituals and holidays that are being kept today by the Roman Catholic Church. The Protestant Church took some of the pagan holidays and rituals with them after Martin Luther the reformer of the Protestant Church disagreed with the doctrine of the Catholic Church and broke away from the "Mother Church" in the 1600's.....But the original teachings of Jesus Christ and God's true Church have not been "tainted" with pagan rituals of mysticism, divination, idolatry or corrupted false church doctrine....they keep all of God's 10 Commandments and Holy days and is what seperates these churches from the rest. These are the church's that will be protected by being taken out of harms way by the hand of God during the 7 year tribulation preceding the return of Jesus Christ.

Answer 4

I think you're confusing Passover with Communion....

Passover was when the Lord was going to send the death angel to kill the firstborn of all the Egyptians. The Israelites were to kill a lamb, then paint the frames of their doors with the blood of that lamb. Then they were to prepare the meat as instructed by the Lord and then eat. If there was anything left, it was to be burned in the fire. That meal, was in dedication to the passover, which e ventually led to the freedom of the Israelites from the captivity of the Egyptians.

Communion- Jesus spoke of the eating of the bread, symbolically, as the "partaking of His flesh". To partake of His body. The drinking of the wine was symbolic of the shedding of His blood to redeem mankind of their sins and to restore their fellowship with the Father.

The communion is an affirmation of faith in Christ. That you are partaking of His body, as a rememberance of Him.

Passover is an entirely separate issue, and is a feast celebrated by our Jewish brothers and sisters, but it's not a Christian feast.

Answer 5

I never heard that they believed that.Most churches have Communion.But I don`t believe The Church of God believes your not saved if you haven`t practiced it.In fact you are suppose to be saved already to be able to take Communion.

Answer 6

I think the bible is steeped in metaphor. No, he does not me " Eat me for eternal life " Salvation is simple. Follow and be saved. simple.