Updated comment on The Exclusive Brethren web site in March 2010:-

            One proposes to comment on the time the Lord’s Supper (Breaking of Bread) is held. This is said to be Early Morning on Sunday (Lord’s Day) under Church Life on the page described as Meeting Rooms. It is public knowledge that Early Morning means 6.00 a.m. to the Exclusives.

            Further, when one clicks on the button by Church Life all one gets are the words Holy Scripture. We are not given anything to indicate the significance of these words in the context !

            One notices that Exclusives speak of the Lord’s Supper. A supper is essentially an evening meal which is one we normally partake of after the day’s work is done. An early morning meal is called a breakfast, presumably because it is when we break the nightly fast which we have for practical purposes when we sleep.

            However, looking into Scripture we find that our Lord instituted the Supper in the evening when He and his disciples were eating the Passover. This is stated in Matthew 26:20 and Mark 14:17. Further, John tells us that when Judas went out it was night (John 13:27/30). Paul also remarks that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread... (1 Corinthians 11:23). In Acts 20 the assembling to break bread was apparently in the evening as it says Paul prolonged his discourse till midnight and there were many lights in the upper room where they were assembled (see verse 7 and onwards). Again, although not an assembling of Christians, and not properly the Lord’s Supper, we find that in Luke 24:28-35 the Lord blessed the bread and gave it to the two disciples who were with Him. The context indicates that it was late in the day.

            When I was young it was the practice to hold the meeting for the Breaking of Bread at 11.00 a.m. on Sunday morning. Mr Raven commented as to this: “You may say eleven o’clock is late to come together, but many are up late on the Saturday night, under great pressure in shops, and then there are mothers of families, nurses up all night, etc.” (New Series Vol.10 page 87). In my booklet written in August 1968 “Why it has become necessary to separate from those commonly known as The Exclusive Brethren” under Lack of Stability I wrote: “Another unhappy feature found amongst Brethren today is the bewildering character of what is taught and the continual change that is taking place, making for a complete lack of stability. Brethren move from one crisis to another, each usually involving a spate of secessions. The time of the supper on Lord’s day was changed from 11.00 a.m. to 10.00 a.m.; from 10.00 a..m. to 9.00 a.m.; and from 9.00 a.m. to 6.00 a.m. The times of other meetings have been similarly changed about, so much so, that some meetings have refrained from repainting their notice boards because of a lack of a fixed time for the Gospel. Pieces of paper pinned to the boards have had to suffice as notice of the time the meeting is currently being held. The times 9 : 12 : 3 of which so much was recently made have now apparently been abandoned. If these times were intended by the Lord to be used for the purpose Brethren put them, why have they been given up ? Do they think the Lord changes his mind ? or has no mind at all about the matter ?” Being tossed about like a ship on a rough sea has nothing to commend it (James 1:6-8). Further, the disciples in their boat experienced this sort of thing when the Lord was not with them and when he was asleep (John 6:16-21; Matthew 8:23-27) ! 

            I am not advocating a time when the Breaking of Bread should be held. In any case times are not the same around the world so that when the Breaking of Bread is held in the UK it would be impractical to hold it at the same time in New Zealand because what is evening in the UK will be quite a different time in New Zealand.

            May I suggest that the underlying reason that Exclusives hold the Breaking of Bread early on Sunday morning is to show that they are being more devoted than others, because they are sacrificing a lie-in which others are enjoying at that time of the morning. If persons want to make sacrifices let them do it privately and not to be seen of men (see Matthew 6:5-18). They might like to investigate the practice of those living in monasteries who engage in religious observances. Similarly the practice of Muslims. Is all this done to show how good they are, like the Pharisee in Luke 18:9-14 ?

March 2010

“You must go by the word of God. Your natural mind is against it, religious thought is against it, religious training is against it, and Satan is behind all these things to hinder you from the blessing of God... ‘My father if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldst thou not have done it ?’ Yes, people will get up in the morning to go to four, six and eight o’clock mass - you wonder at them; but we see illustrated in them the power of fleshly religion; how much it influences people ! In the East we know how much is done in that way by Mohammedans and those of other religions there. They go even to the length of sacrificing persons to carry out religious requirements. All is utterly false and satanic.”

“Fickleness or changeability renders us useless or worse; we must get the mind of God, which is conveyed in His word, this is what is true, and what is true to-day is true to-morrow and true eternally. The living stone has that character.”