DOES THE NEW TESTAMENT SUPPORT

 DOES THE NEW TESTAMENT SUPPORT THE ROMAN CATHOLIC VIEW OF COMMUNION? https://normangeisler.com/does-the-nt-support-the-rc-view-of-communion/ Inthe first three Gospels Jesus is represented as saying “this is my body” and “this is my blood” (Mt. 26:26, 28; Mark 14:21, 24; Lk. 22:19, 21) -------------------------------------- In John6:53–57,Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, 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, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food andmy blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven.Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Upon hearing these words, many of Jesus’ followers said, “This is a hard teaching” (verse 60), and many of them actually stopped following Him that day (verse 66). Jesus’ graphic imagery about eating His flesh and drinking His blood is indeed puzzling at first. Context will help us understand what He is saying. As we consider everything thatJesus said and did in John6,the meaning of His words becomes clearer. Earlierin the chapter, Jesus fedthe 5,000 (John6:1–13).The next day, the same multitudes continued to follow Him, seeking another meal. Jesus pointed out their short-sightedness: they were only seeking physical bread, but there was something more important: “Food that endures to eternal life, which the Son ofMan will give you” (verse 27). At this point, Jesus attempts to turn their perspective away from physical sustenance to their true need, which was spiritual. Thiscontrast between physical foodand spiritual foodsets the stage for Jesus’ statement that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood. Jesus explains that it is not physical bread that the world needs, but spiritual bread. Jesus three times identifies Himself as that spiritual bread (John6:35, 48, 51).And twice He emphasizes faith (aspiritual action) as the key to salvation: “My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life” (verse 40); and “Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life” (verse 47). Jesusthen compares and contrasts Himself to the manna thatIsrael had eaten in the time of Moses: “Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die” (John6:49–50).Like manna, Jesus came down from heaven; and, like manna, Jesus gives life. Unlike manna, the life Jesus gives lasts for eternity (verse 58). In this way, Jesus is greater than Moses (see Hebrews3:3). Havingestablished His metaphor (and the fact that He is speaking of faith inHim), Jesus presses the symbolism even further: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh. . . . I tell you the truth, unless you eatthe flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. . . . My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my bloodremains in me, and I in him. . . . Anyone who feeds on me will live because of me” (John6:51–56, NLT). Toprevent being misconstrued, Jesus specifies that He has been speaking metaphorically: “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life” (John6:63).Those who misunderstood Jesus and were offended by His talk about eating His flesh and drinking His blood were stuck in a physical mindset, ignoring the things of the Spirit. They were concerned with getting another physical meal, so Jesus uses the realm ofthe physical to teach a vital spiritual truth. Those who couldn’t make the jump from the physical to the spiritual turned their backs on Jesus and walked away (verse 66). Atthe LastSupper,Jesus gives a similar message and one that complements His words in John6—whenthe disciples gather to break bread and drink the cup, they “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1Corinthians 11:26).In fact, Jesus said that the bread broken at the table is His body, and the cup they drink is the new covenant in His blood, shed for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew26:26–28).Their act of eating and drinking was to be a symbol of their faith in Christ. Just as physical food gives earthly life, Christ’s sacrifice on the cross gives heavenly life. Somepeople believe that the bread and wine of communion are somehow transformed into Jesus’ actual flesh and blood, or that Jesus somehow imbues these substances with His real presence. These ideas, called transubstantiation (professedby the Catholic and Orthodox churches) and consubstantiation (heldby Lutherans), ignore Jesus’ statement that “the flesh counts for nothing” (John6:63).The majority of Protestants understand that Jesus was speaking metaphorically about His flesh and blood and hold that the bread and wine are symbolic of the spiritual bond created with Christ through faith. Inthe wilderness testing, the devil tempts Jesus with bread, and Jesus answers, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew4:4,quoting Deuteronomy8:3).The implication is that the bread is God’s Word and that is what sustains us. Jesus is called the Word of God who came to earth and was made flesh (John1:14).The Word of God is also the Breadof Life (John6:48). The bookof Hebrews referencesthe way that God uses the physical things of this earth as a way to help us understand and apply spiritual truth. Hebrews8:5 saysthat some tangible things are “a copy and shadow of what is in heaven,” and that chapter explains how the Old Covenant, so concerned with physical rites and ceremonies, was replaced by the New Covenant in which God’s laws are written on our hearts (verse 10;cf. Jeremiah31:33). Hebrews9:1–2 says, “The first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand and the table with its consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place.” According to Hebrews8:5,the consecrated bread, or the “breadof the Presence,” was a physical representationof a spiritual concept,namely, the actual presence of God being continually with us today. The physical tent of meeting has been replaced by a spiritual temple of God (1Corinthians 3:16),and the physical bread of the Presence has become the spiritual bread that abides within us through the Holy Spirit. WhenJesus said we must “eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood” (John6:53),He spoke, as He often did, in parabolic terms. We must receive Him by faith (John1:12). “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew5:6).We understand that we need physical food and drink; Jesus wants us to understand that we also need spiritual food and drink—and that is what His sacrifice provides. ------------------------------------- Whyis the real presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper such a controversial issue? TheHoly Communion is an important way to understand and continue to acknowledge Christ's act.This sacrifice is the basis of the Christian worldview and should not be downplayed. The Lord's supper signifies the New Covenant with Jesus Christ being the sacrificial lamb for humanity (1 Corinthians 5:7). The “real presence” of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Lord’s Supper is a doctrine of Roman Catholicism (and some other Christian denominations) that teaches that, instead of being symbolic rites, communion and baptism areopportunities for the real presence of God to appear. In the case of communion, they believe once the priest has blessed the wine and the bread, the wine becomes Jesus’ blood and the bread becomes His flesh. They cannot explain how, but they believe this transformation(called transubstantiation)allows God to spiritually nourish the partaker to better serve Him and to be Christ to the lost world. Thisconcept is hard even for Roman Catholics to fully explain. They believe that Jesus instituted communion as a way of allowing believers to participate in the ongoing sacrifice of the cross. Once the bread and wine are blessed, Christ’s crucifixion is presentedagain to those in attendance. The ceremony somehow perpetuates the ever-present crucifixion. Even when the service (or Mass) is completed, the leftover bread is kept and venerated in thanks to God for providing the transformation and the nourishment. Thereare two major problems with this line of thought. First, there is no way that a ceremony can recreate Jesus’ crucifixion. Several places in the New Testament claim Jesus’ death was “once for all” (Romans6:10; Hebrews7:27, 9:12, 10:10; 1Peter 3:18).There is no mention that the act of the crucifixion, which occurred within the confines of a linear timeline, is somehow free of that timeline to be as eternal as God Himself. The results of that act are certainly timeless, as it was that act that allowedeven those before Jesus’ time to be saved. But we have no way of participating in an act that occurred nearly two thousand years ago, except in the symbolic sense. Thatis the great controversy of the belief of the real presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper. But on a practical level, the bread does not become flesh. The wine does not become blood. And no amount of belief is going to make it so. The more urgent issue isthe false belief that God’s blessing and nourishment come through that bread and wine. Roman Catholicism teaches that liturgy (taken from the Greek for “work”) is the conduit through which God provides blessing and salvation. Essentially, in addition to placingthe priest between the congregants and God, they also place the bread and wine between themselves and God. They believe they are blessed because of their obedience in taking communion, and that blessing literally streams from God through the bread and wineand into their souls. Thisis not what Jesus taught. He said, “I am the bread of life” and “It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John6:48, 63).Jesus is the bread of life, but He is also the Word (John1:1).The bread that nourishes is the Word of God (Matthew4:4),not a wafer somehow transformed into the flesh of Jesus. The idea that we have to go through a human ceremony to receive that spiritual nourishment is the type of belief Jesus came to abolish. His death tore the veil in the temple, giving us the ability tohave a direct relationship with God (Hebrews4:16).That veil was not replaced by the act of blessing and eating bread and wine.