TEXT:
Revelation 2:24-25 24 But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. 25 But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.
1 Corinthians 10:16-21 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 17 For we being man are one bread, and one body: for e are all partakers of that one bread. 18 Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? 19 What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? 20 But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. 22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
II. Communion as a Sacrament or Ordinance
If the word "sacrament" is used to define a formal religious act used as "a symbol or memorial to a spiritual reality," it could be called a "sacrament"
If the word "sacrament" is meant to indicate a "sacrifice," wherein the Lord's death is repeated over and over again (as a formal religious act or as a sign instituted by Jesus Christ), then it is false to call it a "sacrament."
The Lord's Supper is an ORDINANCE of the NT Church
This simply infers "an act of arranging something ordained or decreed by Deity, a prescribed usage, a practice, or a ceremony."
However, it must be understood that to the Roman Catholic
This belief lies at the very heart of Catholicism
The single most traumatic aspect of the separation from the Catholic church lies in people's new concept of Holy Communion.
Mary, Penance, Priests, Etc. Easy to let go of but there is a longer struggle and a greater psychological dependence on the Blessed Sacrament
Roman Catholic doctrine says (without equivocation) that when Jesus Christ, on the night preceding His crucifixion, said, "This is my body" (mat. 26:@6), the bread He was holding literally became His physical body.
When He took the cup and said, "This is my blood" (Mat. 26:28) He meant that the cup no longer contained wine, it suddenly contained His blood (which does cause some conflict with Acts 15:20 in which the New Testament church is forbidden to imbibe blood).
And, when Christ added the words, "This do in remembrance of me" (Lk. 22:19), He was actually ordaining the apostles as priests eternally to reoffer this sacrifice - or at least so says the Roman Catholic church.
This esoteric sacrifice was to be a recreation of His suffering and death on Calvary, perpetually repeated within His church until he should come again.
III. THE DOCTRINE OF TRANSUBSTANTIATION
the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation states that the priest is endowed with the power to transforms bread and wine into the literal body and blood of Christ.
The Roman Catholic Catechism of Christian Doctrine says: "The Holy Mass is one and the same sacrifice with that of the Cross inasmuch as Christ, who offered Himself, a bleeding victim, on the Cross to His Heavenly Father, continues to offer Himself in the unbloody manner on the altar, through he ministry of His priest."
In the First Century, as described in the New Testament, Holy Communion was a meal of fellowship eaten as a memorial to the Death of Christ and a symbol of unity among Christians - both with each other and with Christ.
In the Second Century it began to shift toward a ceremony, in which Christ was present in some undefined form. This was not yet the eventual Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation - which was a development of the Middle Ages - but it was a beginning in this unfortunate direction.
By the Third Century the idea of sacrifice began to intrude, whereby Christ's body ad blood were mysteriously produced by an ordained priest for the gratification and benefit of both the living and the dead.
By the fourth century it was held that either when the words of the Last Supper were repeated...or when the Holy Spirit was invoked on the bread and wine...a change took place. It was felt right to venerate the bread and wine as representing Jesus visibly."
The seven churches were chosen by the Holy Spirit! And portray the entirety of the church age.
Ephesus
Smyrna
Pergamos
Thyatira
Sardis
Philadelphia
Laodicea
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