wooQ: The Doctrinal Heresy of Healing through the Holy Communion

This is a theological rebuttal to the article 'Health And Wholeness Through The Holy Communion' by Joseph Prince, pastor of New Creation Church, Singapore. The article can be found in the August 2004 issue of Solid Rock, a publication of New Creation Church, or viewed at the website www.newcreation.org.sg. Another blogger, Elaine Loh, has provided a more detailed theological rebuttal that can be found over here.

In this article, Joseph Prince tries to show his readers that the Holy Communion has the ability to grant divine health to its partakers. Prince wrote in the article:

As long as we are here on earth, our bodies are subject to the ageing process, which is part of the divine sentence. All our bodies are decaying every day. Our brain cells are dying daily.

The Holy Communion is God’s solution for us to stop the decay. And even your friends will see the results. They will begin to ask you, “Hey, why do you seem to look younger and younger? You never seem to age!”

One day, when we get to heaven, we will have brand new bodies that never grow old, never tire and never look bad. Meanwhile, the Lord’s Supper is how God helps us offset this process of ageing and walk in divine health. Every time you partake, you are reversing the effects of the curse or divine judgement in your body…

Throughout the entire article, Prince mainly used 1 Corinthians 11:20-22,27-30 as his main Biblical reference. As I read and reread through the entire article a couple of times, I have discovered to my astonishment that Prince absolutely failed to highlight 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, which explains the real purpose of the Holy Communion:

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.' For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

When the Apostle Paul wrote this Scriptural passage, he was making reference to the event at Luke 22:19, where it states: “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.'

The big question to Prince is, if the Holy Communion is intended to provide divine healing, Jesus would have said, “do this to heal your bodies” or “do this in remembrance and it will heal your bodies also.” These alternative phrasings would definitely prove that there is healing in the Holy Communion. Though at the beginning of the article, Prince made clear that he would refer to 1 Corinthians 11, he probably knew that the verses 23-26 will not cast his unscriptural doctrine in a favorable light. Thus he chose to skip these verses entirely altogether.

Even without verses 23-26, Prince has failed to establish a direct relation between healing and the Holy Communion. Prince wrote,

What is it to partake unworthily? Read the rest of verse 29 and you will conclude that if you fail to discern or understand the significance of the Lord’s body, you are eating and drinking in an unworthy manner.

The Corinthians partook unworthily because they did not recognise that the broken body of the Lord was meant to bring them health and wholeness.

And by treating the Holy Communion as a ritual, they missed out on the blessings. They did not understand the significance of the bread. They did not know why they were partaking. This is what it means to partake unworthily.

The manner in which we partake will determine whether we experience the benefits of the Lord’s body. If our attitude is “it’s just a piece of bread”, then that is what it will be. And we will have robbed ourselves of the life-giving effects of the bread at His Table.

The full text of verse 29 is “For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.” Prince is implying that the Corinthians failed to recognize the “life-giving effects,” which he took to be “healing, health and wholeness.” However, there is a difference between the phrase “recognizing the body” and “recognizing the benefits of the body.” The former is trying to caution the Christians not to treat the Holy Communion like an ordinary meal by looking towards the atonement of Jesus Christ, while the latter is stressing on the blessings of the atonement.

Was the Apostle Paul concerned that the Corinthians were not recognizing the blessings? It seems not. At verses 20-22, the Apostle Paul stated the problem the Corinthians had with the Holy Communion; that they were treating it like an ordinary meal.

When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not!

The Corinthians were partaking the Holy Communion in a disorderly manner, with some getting drunk while others getting hungry. It is clear that the problem was behavioral. It has nothing to do with recognizing the blessings of the atonement. If the Corinthians had been partaking in an orderly manner, then perhaps Prince’s interpretation might have made more sense.

Prince wrote,

So, it follows that he was telling the Corinthians that they should examine themselves to see if they were eating and drinking in a worthy manner. Nowhere does it say that he told them to examine themselves to see if there was sin intheir lives.

I am in agreement with Prince that verse 28 does not state we should examine ourselves for sin. This verse is referring to the atonement of Jesus Christ and our need for a Savior. But I strongly disagree with Prince that Christ’s body was “broken so that our bodies can be made well.” So far, he has not explicitly proven the Scriptural passage indicates that the Holy Communion brings about physical healing.

Prince wrote,

Before you partake, just know that God wants you to “prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 1:2)

The verse 3 John 1:2 is taken out of context. It states: “Dear friend, I pray that you may prosper in every way and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.” The “I” in this verse is the Apostle John, not God. Therefore, it is referring to John’s will, not God’s will. Furthermore, the phrase “I pray that you may prosper” indicates that the Apostle John desires his friend prospers, not actually stating for a fact that his friend will definitely prosper. Otherwise, John would have wrote something like these words: “I know that you will prosper.”

Prince ended the article with the following words,

See the Lord carrying all your sins and diseases. He took your sins in His body on the cross. See Him taking on His body your physical conditions. If you have a tumour, see the tumour on His body. Whatever disease you might have, see it on His body. It is no longer on you. See His health come on you… Hold the bread in your hand and say this:

Thank You Jesus for Your broken body. It is for my healing, my spouse’s healing and my children’s healing. Thank You that by Your stripes, by the beatings You bore, by the lashes which fell on Your back, we are completely healed. I believe and I receive. (Take the bread.)

Next, take the cup in your hand and say this: Thank You Jesus for the new covenant cut in Your blood. Your blood has brought me forgiveness and washed me from every sin. I thank You that Your blood has made me righteous. And as I drink, I celebrate and partake of the inheritance of the righteous, which is preservation, healing, wholeness and prosperity. (Drink the wine.)

In the above quote, Prince misinterpreted Isaiah 53:5, which he has taken out of context. This verse also partially reappeared in 1 Peter 2:24. The phrases “transgressions,” “iniquities” and “bore our sins” all shows that the healing is spiritual, not physical.

I would also like to state that this act of visualization takes the sovereign will of God out of the healing process. It mocks God by saying healing is dependant on the Holy Communion, not on His sovereign will to heal at any time He pleases. This doctrine falsely teaches that our visualizations and rituals are the main factors for the physical healing process.

This unscriptural teaching is not too unlike the Roman Catholic doctrine of baptismal regeneration, where water baptism plays a major role in the forgiveness of sins. The false gospel teaches that without water baptism, one cannot be saved. What it fails to consider is that salvation is totally the work of God, not of man-driven rituals. Likewise, the doctrine of healing through the Holy Communion takes away the full glory of healing from God by making Him dependant on rituals. The truth of the matter is, as God can save at any time He pleases, He could also heal at any time He pleases. God does not need man-driven rituals to aid Him in carrying out His will.