Francis Chan Says God Wants Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox All at the Same Communion Table - by Publisher

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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The doctrinal Police are at it again. The unnamed "Publisher" has an opinion about a statement made by Francis Chan about communion. Now, we don't wish to defend the unbiblical doctrines of various sects, nor do we intend to defend Mr. Chan, but we also don't want to dismiss millions of professing Christians (it's not within anyone's ability to know the eternal status of anyone) as far as who is eligible to receive communion. 

In addition, correct doctrine is not a determiner of salvation. Correct doctrine is certainly a desirable pursuit, but regarding the Holy Spirit's action in the human soul, well, that is a matter of divine knowledge and not related to correct doctrine.

But more to the point, eligibility to partake of communion as a sacrament is really a matter of individual church or denominational practice. But this is not described in the Bible. 

Nor is it the solemn ceremony practiced by most churches.

The Bible describes communion as a meal where the saints come together to fellowship. The early church gathered frequently to eat together: 

Ac. 2:46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts...

Paul told the Corinthian church that their divisions were a big problem:

1Co. 11:18 In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it.

According to Paul, this was spilling over into their communal meals (1Co. 11:20). They were dishonoring the Body by getting drunk and excluding people, who ended up going hungry (1Co. 11:21). That's why Paul charged them to examine themselves to see if they were properly remembering the Body in the midst of their fellowship together (1Co. 11:28).

Notice that Paul made no requirement regarding the salvation status of anyone. We might presume that all were Christians, but Paul doesn't say. The problem was one of division and exclusion, not of the salvation or doctrine of the attendees.

So let's bring this to today. Biblically speaking, communion ought to be the regular gathering of the saints to eat and to remember Jesus' sacrifice. Though an assembly of the saints, it should be open to all comers. Those who are lost and those who might belong to a deviant church should come and see how much the brethren love one another. 

It might save some of them.

It seems ironic that "Publisher" would want to exclude certain people when that is exactly what Paul's complaint was about. We would therefore hope that attitudes about communion would change to conform to biblical teaching.

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Francis Chan, who has been moving decidedly ecumenical in recent years while abandoning the distinctions that differentiate biblical Christianity from other sects including Roman Catholicism, is once again preaching a gospel of superficial unity between various, contradictory denominations that call themselves “Christian.”

Chan, who made our False Teacher of the Day #22, has embedded himself with Roman Catholics and charismatics, and has embraced such spiritual folly as tongues, prophecies, and even faith healings. At one ecumenical event with Roman Catholics, Chan removed his shoes on stage while several Catholic priests pray over him. At the same event, Chan declined to share the gospel with a Catholic, stating “I don’t believe the Holy Spirit wants me to.” Chan also has embraced the Roman Catholic heresy of transubstantiation.

In fact, it is only by his embrace of transubstantiation that he is able to come up with this crazy idea that somehow, communion is “intercourse” with God—and sadly, I know that there are people who would defend him for saying this. But I find the terminology perverse, at best, and reduced to its logical conclusion, rather blasphemous.

But with Chan’s new ecumenical take on spirituality, one has to wonder, when will he join and unite with other religions, including Islam, since he’s in spiritual intercourse with almost every sect of Christendom already. Why not just open the gates even wider? Apparently, according to Chan, God wants all subsects of Christendom at the same communion table, from Protestants to Roman Catholics to Orthodox.

…there’s no way you can say you believe that God wants us at separate tables, that this was His desire. This is what He wanted, that there’d be 30 different tables, mutually exclusive. You can’t look me in the eyes and tell me that when you read the Scriptures, when you pray, that’s what the Spirit tells you.

This is a good thing. So I’m not saying I have an answer, but let’s fight to figure out how to get back to one table. Amen.