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We've got so many!
Love it! Truly. I think I’ll still try to seize the opportunities afforded to us through days like today.
@Kaalvenist We were just discussing this!
Y'all know I'm generally wary of liturgical calendars. But is there truly a restriction against observing the Lord's table (in a worship context) another day of the week? Especially if it specifically remembers the Lord's death until he comes, as commanded?
Love it! Truly. I think I’ll still try to seize the opportunities afforded to us through days like today.
Y'all know I'm generally wary of liturgical calendars. But is there truly a restriction against observing the Lord's table (in a worship context) another day of the week? Especially if it specifically remembers the Lord's death until he comes, as commanded?
I'm curious. What opportunities would those be?
I'm curious. What opportunities would those be?
I'm curious. What opportunities would those be?
Love it! Truly. I think I’ll still try to seize the opportunities afforded to us through days like today.
Ryan, there are more than a few of us Baptists who agree that there are 52 holy days per year. No more. No less.We've got so many!
I'm only on board seizing such opportunities if the superstition, will worship and idolatry are warned against at the same time. Otherwise, you are just reinforcing and not warning against the error which is so part and parcel with the pretended holy days themselves, which are monuments of idolatry not to be trifled with like any other providential occasion. And it is not like there is no danger folks treat such times as holy when a leading Reformed theologian, the late RC Sproul, defended them as actually holy sanctified times on the same terms as the anglocatholics did prior to the second reformation in Scotland; almost identical words as Richard Hooker.
Y'all know I'm generally wary of liturgical calendars. But is there truly a restriction against observing the Lord's table (in a worship context) another day of the week? Especially if it specifically remembers the Lord's death until he comes, as commanded?
It seems like having the Lord's supper on a day other than the normal gathering, it leads credence to that day being more special. I would just be concerned about the fencing and the elevating of another day.
I must be misunderstanding something. If I put forth the meaning of the cross outside of Easter week, I may simply put forth the message of the cross as I did on my FB page. Yet because I took the opportunity to publish that gospel message on Good Friday, I was obliged to warn against the specific sins of superstition, will worship and idolatry?
...It seems like having the Lord's supper on a day other than the normal gathering, it leads credence to that day being more special.
The question was whether there’s a restriction against observing the Supper on another day of the week. As originally asked, I would not infer (not that you were) that the question being asked is whether the church may replace Sunday observance of the Supper with another day in perpetuity. Rather, I would take it to mean, is it permissible (or not) to observe the Supper on another day in addition to Sunday observances.
Your concern is that of falsely communicating one day as more special than another. I’ll get to that in a moment, but what if a congregation was in the habit of gathering every Wednesday for corporate worship and prayer? In such a case, would the regularity of gathering on Wednesdays alleviate the concern of wrongly implying that Wednesdays are somehow special holy days? If so, then in such cases, observing the Supper on Wednesdays would not present a problem in this regard.
Regarding infrequent gatherings like a particular Thursday once per year, if there is a call to worship and God’s Holy Word is expounded but the Supper is forbidden, what would that communicate, that the Supper is more special than the Word? In other words, to permit the Word in congregational worship while forbidding the Supper is a bit problematic. Not observing the Supper in such cases is one thing but forbidding it is quite another.
At the very least, this appears to be a question of prudence and not one of what is regulated by the Word, which is merely, “as often as you drink this cup...” I get the point and would definitely heed the caution offered, but Sola Scriptura leads me away from definite rules on the matter.
If you post a message about the cross on Good Friday, even if you make no mention of the day, will not the readers readily assume that your message is in observance of the day due to the pervasiveness of its idolatry?
And in doing so, do not you scandalize those of Reformed convictions regarding holy days and strengthen others in their idolatrous observances?
You may certainly share the Gospel as on any other day, but you ought to, in the manner in which you do, neither give occasion for a brother to stumble nor give the appearance of countenancing evil.
AN APPENDIX,
Touching Days and Places for Publick Worship.
THERE is no day commanded in scripture to be kept holy under the gospel but the Lord’s day, which is the Christian Sabbath.
Festival days, vulgarly called Holy-days, having no warrant in the word of God, are not to be continued.
Nevertheless, it is lawful and necessary, upon special emergent occasions, to separate a day or days for publick fasting or thanksgiving, as the several eminent and extraordinary dispensations of God’s providence shall administer cause and opportunity to his people.
As no place is capable of any holiness, under pretence of whatsoever dedication or consecration; so neither is it subject to such pollution by any superstition formerly used, and now laid aside, as may render it unlawful or inconvenient for Christians to meet together therein for the publick worship of God. And therefore we hold it requisite, that the places of publick assembling for worship among us should be continued and employed to that use.
If a call to worship is given, if the Supper is ministered, it becomes a different matter than a Wednesday night prayer meeting. It is then stated, public worship and it is incumbent upon all congregants to be present, unless providentially hindered, or they are rejecting the call and excommunicating themselves. On what authority can the church....
Why does one have to realize that they are idolatrous? If you preached a sermon in front of the golden calf and made no mention of its evil, would it be fine because the hearers don't recognize that the calf was idolatrous anyways? They don't assume you are an idolater per se, but that you regard the day. Given that observance of man-made holy days is idolatrous, they assume that you are engaging in an action which we know is idolatrous.In other words, readers will readily assume I’m an idolator? No, I don’t think they will. For one thing, if they’re idolatrous in this regard, they wouldn’t realize it. And if they wouldn’t realize it themselves, then it’s doubtful they’d recognize it in one who wasn’t.
I would encourage you to read Gillespie or another Reformed writer on the matter for you are turning liberty of conscience on its head. We have liberty from superstition, not to it.I wouldn’t be scandalizing those whose Reformed convictions are in accordance with a robust understanding of Liberty of Conscience and Sola Scriptura.
It sounds to me that tradition has handcuffed you. You observe special off-limit days.
False premise(s) leading to an unreliable conclusion(s). If my church decided to call worship every Tuesday and Thursday and I wasn’t “providentially” hindered to attend yet exercised my liberty not to in order to exercise other lawful and needful duties, including relaxing from work, that would not be tantamount to excommunication. My attendance would be regular enough. If the church were to try to exercise the keys in this regard, it’d be tyrannical.
@Reformed Bookworm, would you mind sending me info in a PM about the 2 outer books above. Maybe links to purchase from RHB. Thanks, G
A good Friday, indeed.