--- title: The Communion Denial url: https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/communion-denial/ markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/communion-denial.md type: argument perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching topics: [Salvation, Practice] challenges: [Salvation Requires Works and Organisation Membership, 'Only 144,000 Go to Heaven — The Rest Live on Earth'] verses: [Matthew 26:27, Matthew 26:26, John 6:53, 1 Corinthians 10:16, 1 Corinthians 11:27, Luke 22:20, Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 8:10, John 10:16, Ephesians 2:14, Luke 22:19, 1 Corinthians 11:26, John 6:54, 1 Corinthians 11:23] strength: Strong tone: Excellent attribution: Research — Watchtower publications, JW Memorial practice, ExJW Panda Tower video analysis, jwfacts.com statistics added: '2026-04-01' last_reviewed: '2026-04-08' index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt --- # The Communion Denial *Matthew 26:27 — 'Drink from It, All of You'* ## Doorstep Question > "When you go to the Memorial each year, do you personally eat the bread and drink the wine? If not — why not? When you read the account that evening, does the passage say some people shouldn't partake?" ## JW Claim The Watchtower teaches that only the "anointed" — those who claim to be part of the 144,000 destined for heavenly life — may partake of the bread and wine (which JWs call "the emblems") at the annual Memorial of Christ's death. The millions of Jehovah's Witnesses who identify as the "great crowd" or "other sheep" are told to attend as respectful observers but to pass the bread and wine along without eating or drinking. Key Watchtower statements: - "Only the 144,000 members of the Israel of God have properly partaken of the emblems during the Memorial of Jesus' death, and only with them did Jesus make his covenant for a Kingdom." (The Watchtower, 1985, "The 'Other Sheep' and the Lord's Evening Meal") - "Those who rightly partake of the Memorial emblems are absolutely sure that they are parties to the new covenant." (wol.jw.org, "Partaking in a Worthy Manner") - "The 'great crowd' of 'other sheep' that is forming today is not in that new covenant." (The Watchtower, April 1, 1979, p. 31) - Anyone who eats from the emblems without being "anointed" would be considered to have acted presumptuously — almost blasphemously. The result is staggering. In 2025, over 20.6 million people attended the Memorial worldwide — but only 24,576 partook. That means 99.88% of attendees passed the bread and wine without touching them. In most congregations, there are zero partakers — the elements go around the entire room and come back untouched. ## Strategy 1. Start with lived experience. Ask: "When you attended the Memorial, did you eat the bread and drink the wine?" Most JWs will say no. Follow up gently: "Why not?" They will explain the anointed/other sheep distinction. 2. Open Matthew 26:26-28 together. Let them read verse 27 aloud: "Drink from it, ALL of you." Ask: "Who is the 'all'? Did Jesus add any qualification — 'all of you who are anointed' or 'all of you who have a heavenly hope'? Or did he simply say 'all of you'?" 3. Move to the strongest verse: John 6:53-54. Read it aloud: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have NO LIFE in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood HAS eternal life." Ask: "Jesus says that eating and drinking is the condition for having life in you — not just for 144,000 people, but as a universal statement. If you are not eating and drinking, what does Jesus say about your life?" 4. Reinforce with 1 Corinthians 10:16-17: "Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; for we ALL partake of the one loaf." Paul says ALL partake — this is what makes believers one body. Ask: "If you are not partaking, are you part of the body?" 5. Address the "unworthy manner" misunderstanding. Some JWs think 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 means unqualified people should not eat. But read it carefully: Paul warns about eating IN AN UNWORTHY MANNER — not about abstaining entirely. The danger is in HOW you partake, not in WHETHER you partake. Paul says "each one must examine himself before he eats" — the assumption is that everyone WILL eat. 6. Point out the new covenant connection. Luke 22:20 says the cup is "the new covenant in my blood." The Watchtower restricts the new covenant to the 144,000 — but Jeremiah 31:33-34 says the new covenant is for "all" of God's people, "from the least of them to the greatest." Hebrews 8:10-12 repeats this: "They will ALL know me, from the least of them to the greatest." There is no class distinction in the new covenant. 7. Let the statistics speak. In 2025, 20.6 million attended and 24,576 partook — that is 99.88% of attendees told they must not eat the bread or drink the wine that Jesus commanded "all" to share. The number of partakers has been rising (from 8,524 in 2005 to 24,576 in 2025), which embarrasses the organisation because the 144,000 were supposedly sealed long ago. The Watchtower has even suggested that rising partaker numbers are due to people who are "mistaken" or have "mental or emotional problems" — dismissing the very people who feel moved to obey Jesus' command. Note on the official figure: the 24,576 number is itself the result of a filtering process. At every congregation, elders observe and write down who partakes at the Memorial. Members the elders judge to be mentally unstable, emotionally confused, or to have started partaking inappropriately are quietly excluded from the count that is sent up to the branch office. The published worldwide figure is therefore the count after the elders have removed those they consider non-credible partakers — not the raw count of people who actually ate and drank that night. When you point this out to a JW, they may not have known the filtering happened. Many partakers do not know they have been removed from the count. ## Key Insight Jesus said "drink from it, ALL of you" — he did not say "some of you watch while the anointed eat." And in John 6:53 he made partaking a condition of having life itself: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." The Watchtower has taken the most intimate act of Christian fellowship — sharing in the body and blood of Christ — and turned 99.88% of its attendees into spectators at their own Lord's Supper. ## JW Responses & Counters ### Response 1 **JW says:** "The emblems are only for those in the new covenant — the 144,000 anointed." **Counter:** Where does Jesus say that? In Matthew 26:27 he says "drink from it, all of you" — no restriction. And Jeremiah 31:33-34, which describes the new covenant, says it applies to ALL of God's people, "from the least of them to the greatest." Hebrews 8:10-12 repeats the same words. The new covenant has no upper limit and no two-tier system. If you are excluded from the new covenant, you are excluded from the forgiveness of sins it provides — verse 12 says "I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more." ### Response 2 **JW says:** "John 6:53 is about exercising faith in Jesus' sacrifice, not literally eating bread and wine." **Counter:** Even the Watchtower acknowledges that John 6:53 applies to all Christians, not just the anointed — they say the statement about having "life in yourselves" applies to "all those receiving everlasting life, in heaven or on earth." But if that is so, why does the organisation then forbid 99.88% of its members from partaking of the very meal that symbolises that faith? You cannot say the principle is universal but then restrict the practice that enacts it. Jesus instituted the bread and wine as the way believers participate in his body and blood (1 Corinthians 10:16). If the faith applies to all, the meal applies to all. ### Response 3 **JW says:** "1 Corinthians 11:27-29 warns against eating unworthily — we are not worthy." **Counter:** Read the passage carefully. Paul warns about eating "in an unworthy manner" — he is addressing HOW you eat, not WHETHER you eat. He says "each one must examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup." Notice: Paul assumes everyone will eat and drink. The self-examination is preparation for partaking, not a reason for abstaining. In fact, Paul's concern is the opposite of yours — he is worried about people eating carelessly, not about people refusing to eat at all. ### Response 4 **JW says:** "The 'other sheep' of John 10:16 have a different hope — they live on earth, not in heaven." **Counter:** John 10:16 says the other sheep will be brought in so that there will be "one flock, one shepherd" — not two flocks with two different suppers. Most scholars understand the "other sheep" as Gentiles being brought into the same flock as Jewish believers, which is exactly what Paul describes in Ephesians 2:14-16. One flock means one table. If there is "one flock and one shepherd," why is there not one meal? ### Response 5 **JW says:** "Some of the rising partaker numbers are people who are mentally or emotionally confused — the Watchtower has acknowledged that." **Counter:** The Watchtower has indeed said this — and the response itself is revealing. When the partaker numbers were declining, the doctrine was confirmed. When they began to rise, the rising partakers were reframed as 'mistaken' or 'mentally unwell'. Notice the structure: no possible data point can falsify the claim. Rising numbers do not falsify it (those people are confused). Declining numbers confirm it. That is not how a genuine empirical fact works. It is how a doctrine that needs to be true regardless of evidence works. And consider what that does to a partaker who, in good conscience, has come to believe Jesus' invitation in Matthew 26:27 applies to them: they are quietly tracked by elders, removed from the official count in some cases, and described as confused — for obeying Jesus' direct command to "drink from it, all of you". The mechanism deserves to be named plainly. Your local elders watch who partakes and write it down. They then decide which partakers are "credible" and which to exclude before reporting upward. The 24,576 figure for 2025 is the count after that filtering. The raw number of people who actually ate and drank is unknown — even to the Governing Body — because the count is censored at the congregation level before it ever leaves. ### Response 6 **JW says:** "We still benefit from Jesus' sacrifice even without partaking — we show our appreciation by attending." **Counter:** But Jesus did not say "attend this in remembrance of me." He said "DO this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19) — and the "this" is eating the bread and drinking the cup. 1 Corinthians 11:26 says "as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." The proclamation IS the eating and drinking. Watching others eat while you pass it along untouched is not what Jesus commanded. It is the opposite of what he commanded. ### Response 7 **JW says:** "Only the anointed 144,000 are meant to partake; the early Christians understood the emblems were not for everyone." **Counter:** The earliest description we have outside the New Testament says the opposite. Around AD 155, Justin Martyr wrote that after the thanksgiving "the deacons give to each of those present to partake of the bread and wine... and to those who are absent they carry away a portion" (First Apology, ch. 65). Everyone present partook, and a portion was even carried to those who could not attend. The only limit Justin names is faith and baptism (ch. 66) — believing what Christ taught and being baptised — never membership of a heavenly 144,000 class. The historic Christian table was for all believers together; the two-tier Memorial where almost no one partakes is a modern arrangement, not the early church's practice. ## What to Avoid Do not mock or belittle the Memorial — it is the most sacred observance in the JW calendar, and many Witnesses attend with genuine reverence. Do not say "your religion starves you." Instead, express sincere curiosity about the practice and let the Scriptures create the tension. Avoid getting drawn into a debate about whether the 144,000 is literal or symbolic (that is argument 012-one-flock). Stay focused on the simple question: "Did Jesus restrict who may eat and drink?" ## Homework Before the next Memorial, read Matthew 26:26-28, John 6:53-58, and 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 in your own New World Translation. As you read, ask yourself: does Jesus restrict who may partake? Does Paul? Then, when the bread and wine are passed to you, ask yourself honestly: "Am I disobeying Jesus by not eating and drinking when he said 'do this' and 'drink from it, all of you'?" ## Next Moves - [The Mediator Restriction](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/mediator-restriction.md) - [You Must Be Born Again](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/born-again.md) - [One Flock / Great Crowd in Heaven](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/one-flock.md)