Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 4190. We rarely stop to ask what the Holy Spirit is doing at the Lord’s Supper, and I think that is because we have quietly assumed He is not doing much. The bread and the cup are on the table, the words of institution are read, we eat and drink and go home. Yet…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09066 Consubstantiation is the term commonly used to describe the Lutheran view of Christ’s presence in the Lord’s Supper. It represents a middle position between the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation and the memorial view held by Baptists and many evangelicals, and understanding it helps clarify both what Lutherans believe and why the memorial…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09064 The question of whether communion is “just” symbolic often arises from a sense that something deeper ought to be happening at the Lord’s Table than the passing of bread and grape juice. Behind it lies a genuine instinct: if the Lord’s Supper were nothing more than a nostalgic re-enactment, it would be difficult…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09065 Transubstantiation is the Roman Catholic doctrine that the bread and wine of the Eucharist are literally transformed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ during the Mass. It is one of the defining doctrines of Roman Catholicism, formally articulated by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 and reaffirmed at the Council of…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09063 The word “communion” carries a weight that many Christians feel instinctively but struggle to articulate. It appears in our church life as the name for the Lord’s Supper, yet the biblical concept behind it reaches far deeper than a monthly or weekly observance. Understanding what communion actually means requires attention to the language…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09097 Christians have practised communion weekly, monthly, quarterly, and at virtually every other interval imaginable. Some traditions insist on daily observance; others celebrate it only a handful of times per year. The strength of feeling on this question is often inversely proportional to the amount of New Testament evidence available, which is surprisingly thin…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 09094 The phrase “breaking bread” appears at several key points in the New Testament, and its interpretation has significant implications for how churches understand and practise the Lord’s Supper. Was the early church observing a brief, formal ordinance of bread and wine, or were they sharing a full communal meal in which the bread…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09009 The distinction between open and closed communion is one that many churchgoers encounter without fully understanding. It determines who is welcome at the Lord’s Table when a church celebrates the Supper, and the answer a church gives reveals something about how it understands the nature of the church, the ordinances, and the boundaries…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09008 The New Testament commands the church to observe the Lord’s Supper but does not specify how frequently. This has led to considerable variation across Christian traditions, from daily celebration in some Catholic and Orthodox settings to quarterly or even annual observance in some Protestant churches. The absence of a specific command about frequency…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09006 The Lord’s Supper is the second of the two ordinances Jesus gave to His church. It is practised in virtually every Christian tradition, yet the meaning attached to it varies enormously. Roman Catholics believe the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ. Lutherans hold that Christ is physically present…