Where in the Bible does it give someone authority to refuse communion?

Question

Simple question. Where is the authority given to refuse communion?

I mean refuse to give someone communion.

Also 1 Corinthians 11 says nothing about refusing anyone communion. It says a man should examine himself before taking communion. The person is to judge whether they can or not.

1Corinthians 11:28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

Father K - I know you don't believe in sola scriptura. But just because you are wrong does not mean I have to be wrong. lol

You all are quoting 1 Corinthians 11. That says nothing about refusing someone communion. It tells the person to check their self. It does not say someone else should make the decision for them. Read. Don't just parrot what you have been told.

spiritroaming - I am not sure why you find it so hard. And I never said for 1500 years no one was right. There is always a remnant. Don't you find it interesting how quickly the reformation followed the Bible being available to the common man? Once man could read for their self they started moving away from Catholicism.

spiritroaming - all of Christianity follows 1 Lord - Jesus. Has 1 Faith - in His sacrifice. 1 baptism - baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The denominational stuff is mostly unimportant details. I think all denominations agree on the important things. (The exceptions being JW's and mormons who aren't Christians anyway)

Answer 1

There is no answer to this question, because there is no authority given in the Bible to refuse a person communion. The only place that is found is in the Catholic doctrine.

Do they have Bibles?

Answer 2

wow people are sure crazy...the bible clearly teaches that we need to JUDGE ourselves before taking communion...not to judge others... and the bible teaches that if there is a believer AKA Brother who has been found immoral he should be EXPELLED...not only refused communion, he can not partake if he is not in the church..see 1 Corinthians 11: 28..and concerning expelling the immoral you will find that in 1 Corinthians 5

Answer 3

Certainly Jesus gave all authority to the Church but there are other indications that communion should be refused to some. St. Paul said that if one does not discern the Body and Blood of our Lord that by receiving it they bring condemnation on themselves. If the Church did not follow St. Paul's teaching and allowed those who do not believe in the reality of His corporeal presence in the consecrated elements, the Church would be a party to their condemnation and in fact be a stumbling block towards their faith. Besides St. Paul even says that some had gotten sick and others had died as a result of their disobedience through disbelief.

In Christ
Fr. Joseph

Answer 4

Father K if I could give you 10 thumbs up I would

Edge: you know the Scriptures find the one about the sinner in your midst and kick him out thing---what do you want? Give him Communion before you shove him out the door with your foot? Your just arguing to argue now.

and another thing, I sit here and watch questions about Pentecostals go by right and left and you never even bother answering one but, let someone ask a question about a Catholic and your right there like your a Rhodes Scholar. You even answered a question about the Rosary with some doofus answer from out of no where.You are a Pentecostal why don't you go and answer your own questions or is it just the excitement of being thought an intellectual because you think if you hang out with them you will be thought as one?

Answer 5

As you know (because you are an intelligent fellow, Edge) that many of us do not buy into the Sola Scriptura argument that you hang your entire religious expereince on...)

It is ancient Church tradition (and based on 1 Cor. 11:29) that the Pastor (the shepherd of the flock) has the right...nay the duty...to refuse Communion to "notorious and evil livers"...

This is directly from my own tradition - and the 1549 Book of Common Prayer:

¶ If among those who come to be partakers of the Holy Communion, the Minister shall know any to be an open and notorious evil liver, or to have done any wrong to his neighbours by word or deed, so that the Congregation be thereby offended; he shall advertise him, that he presume not to come to the Lord’s Table, until he have openly declared himself to have truly repented and amended his former evil life, that the Congregation may thereby be satisfied; and that he hath recompensed the parties to whom he hath done wrong; or at least declare himself to be in full purpose so to do, as soon as he conveniently may.

¶ The same order shall the Minister use with those, betwixt whom he perceiveth malice and hatred to reign; not suffering them to be partakers of the Lord’s Table, until he know them to be reconciled. And if one of the parties, so at variance, be content to forgive from the bottom of his heart all that the other hath trespassed against him, and to make amends for that wherein he himself hath offended; and the other party will not be persuaded to a godly unity, but remain still in his forwardness and malice; the Minister in that case ought to admit the penitent person to the Holy Communion, and not him that is obstinate. Provided, That every Minister so repelling any, as is herein specified, shall be obliged to give an account of the same to the Ordinary, within fourteen days after, at the farthest.

Answer 6

GOD HIMSELF warns of partaking unworthily:

(1 Corinthians 11:27-34) “27 Consequently whoever eats the loaf or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty respecting the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 First let a man approve himself after scrutiny, and thus let him eat of the loaf and drink of the cup. 29 For he that eats and drinks eats and drinks judgment against himself if he does not discern the body. 30 That is why many among YOU are weak and sickly, and quite a few are sleeping [in death]. 31 But if we would discern what we ourselves are, we would not be judged. 32 However, when we are judged, we are disciplined by Jehovah, that we may not become condemned with the world. 33 Consequently, my brothers, when YOU come together to eat [it], wait for one another. 34 If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, that YOU may not come together for judgment. But the remaining matters I will set in order when I get there.”

--SO THEN IF ONE IS INEBRIATED this indeed would be a determining factor as to worthiness!

Answer 7

It dont say that. But in the case of a public figure, one who openly supports abortion, the priest has not only the authority to refuse communion to that person, but a solemn duty before God, because it would cause great scandal for people to see this person receive communion, and it is a serious offence against God, as it says in corinthinins that if we do not examine our conscience and we are guilty of sin we bring judgement down on ourself, so a priest has authority to withold communion.

Answer 8

1 Cor 11

Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord.
28
A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup.
29
For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

1 Cor 10
"The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?" (1 Cor. 10:16).


"To answer for the body and blood" of someone meant to be guilty of a crime as serious as homicide. How could eating mere bread and wine "unworthily" be so serious? Paul’s comment makes sense only if the bread and wine became the real body and blood of Christ.


Ignatius of Antioch, who had been a disciple of the apostle John and who wrote a letter to the Smyrnaeans about A.D. 110, said, referring to "those who hold heterodox opinions," that "they abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in his goodness, raised up again" (6:2, 7:1).

Forty years later, Justin Martyr, wrote, "Not as common bread or common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nourished, . . . is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus" (First Apology 66:1–20).

Origen, in a homily written about A.D. 244, attested to belief in the Real Presence. "I wish to admonish you with examples from your religion. You are accustomed to take part in the divine mysteries, so you know how, when you have received the Body of the Lord, you reverently exercise every care lest a particle of it fall and lest anything of the consecrated gift perish. You account yourselves guilty, and rightly do you so believe, if any of it be lost through negligence" (Homilies on Exodus 13:3).

Cyril of Jerusalem, in a catechetical lecture presented in the mid-300s, said, "Do not, therefore, regard the bread and wine as simply that, for they are, according to the Master’s declaration, the body and blood of Christ. Even though the senses suggest to you the other, let faith make you firm. Do not judge in this matter by taste, but be fully assured by faith, not doubting that you have been deemed worthy
of the body and blood of Christ" (Catechetical Discourses: Mystagogic 4:22:9).

In a fifth-century homily, Theodore of Mopsuestia : "When [Christ] gave the bread he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my body,’ but, ‘This is my body.’ In the same way, when he gave the cup of his blood he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my blood,’ but, ‘This is my blood,’ for he wanted us to look upon the [Eucharistic elements], after their reception of grace and the coming of the Holy Spirit, not according to their nature, but to receive them as they are, the body and blood of our Lord" (Catechetical Homilies 5:1).


Edge - I just find it impossible to believe that for 1500 years, no one was right! Actually, Martin Luther believed in the Real Presence also.


Edge - How many sects are there now? Including all the independent 'Bible' only churches? THAT is a sticking point for me, my friend. Jesus said one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

Answer 9

just gonna third Corinthians 11

you must be IN communion to partake!

Answer 10

There is no person that can do that to another. Paul the apostle, in talking about it in 1 Corinthians, discussed what is correct conduct, didn't physically refuse people.

Anyway the point is moot, because those that refuse others are usually catholics, and their doctrine regarding it is utterly unbiblical, just as catholics hold a false gospel of works that leads to eternal hell.