The New IFB teaches that the Lord’s Supper should not be observed in a church meeting at all. Steven Anderson has his congregation, for example, do it at their homes, perhaps inviting another family over to do so.
The justification for this unorthodox practice is a great example of why, if the New IFB is going to be so careless in interpreting scripture, that they shouldn’t be so quick to decry Bible college. It’s not like a Bible college is needed to refute this juvenile misunderstanding, but perhaps if they had their pastors go there, they would be prevented from twisting the Bible so.
So here’s why they do this: 1 Corinthians 11:20 says this: When you come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper.
Now, if you’ve read the Bible and studied this passage, you are probably groaning along with me to see them try to use this verse to claim that we shouldn’t have the Lord’s supper in church, but in case you don’t know the doctrine, here it is: The New IFB, as usual, ignores the context. Here are the two verses following, as well:
20 When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper.
21 For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.
22 What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? what shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.
From the context, the answer is plain. This verse is not prescriptive, it is descriptive. Paul isn’t saying “When you come together, you shouldn’t be eating the Lord’s supper”, he is saying “When you come together, you haven’t really been eating the Lord’s supper.” In other words, Paul is criticizing the Corinthians for coming together under pretense of eating the Lord’s supper, when they are really having a drunken feast.
The funny thing is, which you’ll see below, is that the New IFB preachers normally begin their discussion of this passage by saying they have never heard anyone preach on it. That’s no surprise, because if they had heard a proper sermon on the topic, they wouldn’t believe something so foolish. Even commentators (many of which wrote their commentaries hundreds of years ago) can get this point right.
Here’s Barnes Commentary on the passage:
When ye come together therefore … – When you are assembled as a church, compare Hebrews 10:25, and see the note on Acts 2:1. Christians were constantly in the habit of assembling for public worship. It is probable that at this early period all the Christians in Corinth were accustomed to meet in the same place. The apostle here particularly refers to their “assembling” to observe the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. At that early period it is probable that this was done on every Lord’s Day.This is not … – Margin, “Ye cannot eat.” The meaning of this expression seems to be this. “Though you come together professedly to worship God, and to partake of the Lord’s Supper, yet this cannot be the real design which you have in view. It cannot be that such practices as are allowed among you can be a part of the celebration of that supper, or consistent with it. Your greediness 1 Corinthians 11:21; your intemperance 1 Corinthians 11:21; your partaking of the food separately and not in common, cannot be a celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Whatever, therefore, you may profess to be engaged in, yet really and truly you are not celebrating the Lord’s Supper.”
Here’s Jamieson Fausset Brown:
20. When … therefore—Resuming the thread of discourse from 1Co 11:18.this is not to—rather, “there is no such thing as eating the Lord’s Supper”; it is not possible where each is greedily intent only on devouring “HIS OWN supper,” and some are excluded altogether, not having been waited for (1Co 11:33), where some are “drunken,” while others are “hungry” (1Co 11:21).
Meyer…
οὐκ ἔστι κυριακ. δεῖπν. φαγ.] there does not take place an eating of a Lord’s Supper, i.e. one cannot eat a Lord’s Supper in that way; it is morally impossible, since things go on in such fashion as 1 Corinthians 11:21 thereupon specifies by way of proof.
Here are Jonathan Shelley and Joe Major making their silly presentation of this passage:
