Have you heard of excommunication being used today?

Question

If we use the biblical model for this (2 or 3 witnesses.....bringing it to the churche's attention....etc..), I'll be more than willing to bet that God would bless more churches in our day & age.

Sin shouldn't be allowed to continue "in the camp"

Your thoughts fellow believers.......

Batgirl:

I can understand your feelings on this but....it is the biblical model. We also need to restore people who have been punished.

Answer 1

It isn't talked about in the Pentecostal church...but Hebrews 3 verse 13...talks about keeping each other accountable and trying to keep them "in the camp" before they go off sinning..
If they are sinning...we still need to love them but we do need to let them know that sin is sin and not acceptable..I think most people really don't understand it, so they don't know how to use it and therefore don't. I think with proper training it should be used. We want on FIRE churches....not lukewarm ones to be spit out of His mouth.

Answer 2

Excommunication is still used in the Catholic church today, but we don't make it so public (such as the book, bell, and candle ceremonies of the Middle Ages), so as not to embarrass the person being excommunicated. If you are excommunicated you will be warned several times that you must stop whatever it is that you are doing that warrants excommunication, if you don't you will receive a written document from the Vatican (most likely the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) telling you that you are officially excommunicated from the Church and the subsequent consequences.

Answer 3

Ex-communication is still done today but just as aften as not its not done for valid Biblical reasons.

Probably half or more of those ex-communicated from the Roman Catholic Church were teaching something from the Bible which the Pope was not, so the Pope kicked them about.

I would say that most of those ex-communicated these days even in non Roman Catholic Churches are done for reasons for church politics instead of following the Bible.

So most of the time the sinners who were "in power" kicked out the people who were the Godly people following the Bible.

Pastor Art

Answer 4

I am sad to say that it IS indeed used in a few churches today. The Biblical model is used. The person in question is approached, and then two or three of the elders from the church go to visit and admonish, and if the person still won't budge, he or she is put out of the church, I disagree with this!

Answer 5

Ex communication was and is a tool used by the Catholic Church that supposedly denied the individual access into purgatory. Since I don't believe in purgatory it is not neccessary.

Shunning is what I think that you are talking about and each pastor and the deacons have to make a judgement on a case by case basis. Most churches don't practice much shunning today, but there are cases where church splits occur because of issues that are related.

Answer 6

In the Catholic Church, formal excommunication is rare. Most commonly it is done to declare that a person has removed himself or herself from the Catholic Church.

There was a bishop who took it upon himself to ordain a number of women as priests against the practice of the Catholic church. He was excommunicated as a sign that by ordaining these women, he has removed himself from the Catholic Church.

What is more common is a person excommunicating himself or herself by actions, but there is no formal declaration. A person who has had an abortion or assists another in having an abortion has removed himself or herself from the Catholic Church by the committing of that act.

In all cases, a person who has been excommunicated or has excommunicated himself or herself can be welcomed back to the Catholic Church.

Answer 7

Ministers that stand against sin aren't PC and may get in trouble.The church today tries to join in with the world's push for tolerance.God didn't decide to be PC,45 years ago.The old testiment prophets were tortured,imprisoned,and killed for telling the truth.Jesus was hated by "religious"leaders when He was on the earth.Yes,christian ministers,and christians as a whole need to stand for truth.Trying to draw people by comprimising the truth hasn't worked and won't work.People need to hear the true Gospel and need to hear the need to repent of ALL sin.
Sin needs to be removed from the church.(I haven't heard of any catholic being excomunicated recently or any christian church removing someone either).

Answer 8

Yes excommunication still happens in my church. It is done as a last resort, or when the sin is bad enough that it needs to be punished that harshly. It isn't something that anyone wants to think about, but it does happen.

Answer 9

Excommunication is a pretty complex process to remove people from the Catholic Church. To me it's like branding people with the letter A except you're using an E. If you've learned how to live perfectly please let me in on the secret. I think it's almost impossible.

Answer 10

Our church family calls it disfellowship but its the same method of discipline from Matthew. Most of the time, a brother disfellowships himself (or herself.) Their sin is so self consuming, they stop attending. If not, when the church leaders get involved, things usually come to a head and the person either changes their ways or quits coming. If that doesn't work, we have to disfellowship but not to just get rid of him. The whole point is to bring about the brother's repentance. God always wants His children to come home.