"The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming" (Southern Baptist "Faith and Message," June 14, 2000).
Was it not in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread that the disciples might catch a fleeting, nearly mystical, glimpse of the Risen Lord (Luke 24:30-31)?
Was Paul lying when he told us that when we partake of the Eucharist, we are partaking of the substantial and quite material presence of Christ Himself: "The blessing-cup, which we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ; and the loaf of bread which we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ" (1 Cor. 10:16)? Does Paul say anything about the Eucharist being a mere symbolic act? Or does he use stark and clearly simple language that suggests a sharing in the material body and blood of Christ?
Do not Paul and the three Synoptic Gospels use equally clear and simple language when they record the words of consecration, "this IS my body"? Is not the simplest, clearest interpretation of the Bible usually the best?
Was Paul misleading us when he severely warned that, "anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily is answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone is to examine himself and only then eat of the bread or drink from the cup, because a person who eats or drinks without recognizing the body is eating and drinking his own condemnation" (1 Cor. 11:27-29)? Does Paul say that we are profaning a symbol, or are we are actually profaning the body of Christ? Does Paul not go on to say that partaking of the Lord's Supper without recognizing that body, upon self-examination, is itself to eat and drink condemnation unto oneself?
2007-07-01
09:47:56
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