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What If One Cannot Physically Attend a Church?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: The question of the previous caller was about the authority of the church on earth, etc. The next question is: What about a person who is a shut-in, who has divorced himself from a church which he did not feel was proclaiming Christ, and has no ability to go out to a church and become a church member? How does one take Communion, which he feels is absolutely necessary? What is one's status at that point?
HC: That's a very good question. And I'm very grateful for this question, because it may clarify some of the things that I said earlier.
First of all, we are not saved by the church. Church membership is not a requirement for salvation. While it is the church that is instrumental in sending out the Gospel, and the believers are the ones who support Gospel radio stations, and it is believers who band together to send out missionaries and to produce printed literature that can go out so that others might read about the Gospel, all of this is done by bodies of believers. The actual fact of salvation is a very personal relationship between an individual and God, where that individual has surrendered to God. He's confessed his sins. He's cried out to God for mercy. He's placed his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, if that person is saved and there is no church that he can belong to—if he's on a desert island, or if he's a shut-in, he's a soldier on the battle field, or whatever—then he can't belong to a church. And that does not impair his salvation in any sense whatsoever. God has people all over the world who become saved, let's say, through short-wave radio, who have no church of any kind in their community or in their tribe, or wherever they may be. They simply hear the Word, they respond to the Word. God does His work of saving grace in their lives, and they are children of God. If later on they are able to join a church, then they should. But if there is no church, if there are no other believers around to fellowship with, then their salvation is still not impaired in any way.
And so it is in your case, if you're a shut-in. Your salvation is not impaired in any way. Now the Bible nowhere says how often we are to partake Holy Communion. If you're a shut-in, or if you're on the battlefield, or if you're on a desert island, and there is no church, then you don't partake of Communion. It's not going to impair your salvation in any way.
If you're able to partake of Communion, if there is a church that you can join which is faithful to the Word, and the pastor and elders will come and have a Communion service with you in your home, wonderful. That's a little bit extra blessing. But it's certainly not a requirement for your life. I would suggest in your case that you pray that God perhaps might show you a way in which you could become identified with a body of believers.
CALLER: I did that twice, at your suggestion, about three years ago. One required a church membership. I was in its parish, but I could not go along with its doctrine, which was based on tradition. The other was a church that was very receptive, and its denominational affiliation certainly was excellent. It preached the Word of God. But in this particular congregation the pastor had gone off into the charismatic movement, and I frankly said, "No, thank you." And after these two attempts, I felt that the door was really slammed in my face.
HC: Well, it could be, you know, that God is teaching you the same thing that He taught the apostle Paul: "My grace is sufficient." Now you're a shut-in. God has provided some very definite limitations in your ability to get around And it could be that God wants you to learn that His grace is sufficient.
On the other hand, God may be teaching you patience, and He wants you to try it again and again. There may be other congregations that you could test out. A lot of times, you know, God puts testing programs in our life just to encourage us to be patient, just to encourage us to endure in the face of some obstacles of some kind.
If there is not a congregation in your community, and there are many small communities where this is true, if there is not a congregation that is true to the Word of God, then the body of believers may be no larger than a family, or two families that begin to come together. And they may begin to have a church. In your own case, if you're a single individual, you may just have to live alone and endure faithfully under this kind of a situation.
Of course marvelously, marvelously, because of radio you can fellowship through the radio with other people. You don't feel nearly as much alone as if you were without this blessing.
May God continue to give you much wisdom.
CALLER: Thank you.
HC: Thank you. Good night.