Taken from the book The Hidden Mysteries of The Lord’s Table by Mark. G. Nolan
When I first started researching for this book, I was staggered at just how many Church institutions have been conditioned to use the words symbol, symbolic, emblems, and elements when referring to The Lord’s Table. These terms were never used by the early Church, but it is a well-established and unquestioned practice in most Churches today.
When a Pastor or Minister proclaims the Communion bread and wine to be symbolic, what is he declaring the bread and wine to be? What does it mean to be symbolic? Why is it so important, and does it really matter to me as a Christian if I regard the bread and wine as being symbolic?
We can begin by asking, did Jesus, Peter, James, Paul or perhaps Jude use any of the terminology that is used today at the Lords Table? The fact is we cannot find any of these words used in the whole of the new testament.
The presentation of the bread and wine as symbols of the body and blood of Jesus contrasts starkly with the very words of Jesus,
“Most assuredly, I say to 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 him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.”
(John 6:53-55)
Jesus promised in John 6 after feeding the multitudes that
“Whosoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day”.
(John 6:54)
Later, at the intimate gathering with His disciples at the Last Supper, Jesus clearly taught that the bread is his flesh.
“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”
(Matthew 26:26-28)
How then can anyone deny what Jesus clearly declared the bread to be, his flesh? Jesus said that the bread that he held up after it had received the blessing, was His flesh. Just imagine yourself sitting amongst the disciples during this meal, with Jesus on-looking, then Jesus holds up the bread and says “this is my body.” Would you dare to say to Him that it’s not His body, it’s just a symbol? I think not, so why are so many doing this today?
It is most likely that the disciples didn’t understand what Jesus meant, but they did not seek to alter or reinterpret the words of their Master to make them acceptable, rather they accepted what He said by faith. When St Paul tells of this meal in his letter to the Corinthians, the words of Jesus are retold the same as in the gospel of Luke 22:19-20, showing that there was consistency within the early Church leaders regarding the acceptance of the words of Jesus. Paul had not described the bread as being symbolic, but the way that Jesus had said, as being His body.
The Lord Jesus at The Last Supper,
“And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”
(Luke 22:19-20)
The Apostle Paul writing on
“For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”
(I Corinthians 11:23-26)
“Take eat this is my body.”
(1 Corinthians 11:24)
“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not thecommunion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”
(1Corinthians 10:16)
Let’s look at what else The Lord Jesus said about eating and drinking His body and blood.
“Take eat this is my body.”
(Mark 14:22)
“This is my body which is given for you.”
(Luke 22:19)
“If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
(John 6:51)
“Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
(John 6:54)
“For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.”
(John 6:55)
“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”
(John 6:56)
The Lord never used the words symbol, emblems, or elements at His Table, so why should we? If we are just eating the bread as being merely symbolic, then we are not eating the Body of Christ by faith or the eternal spiritual life that it contains. Without faith, we are just eating ordinary bread, and the same applies to the wine. No spiritual life means a powerless Church and spiritual death.
To my understanding, the true Church of Jesus Christ is literally starving to death due to not discerning The Lord’s body and blood.
SYMBOL
If neither Jesus nor His disciples used such terminologies at the Communion Table, how did it become common practice within the Church?
The word symbol, or symbolum, was first recorded in reference to The Lord’s Table in the third century and originates in a letter written around AD390 to Pope Siricus by Ambrose who was from the Council of Milan, giving it credence in the Catholic circles with the title Symbolum Apostolicum, the Catholic Creed to the Apostles.
This terminology was not what is now known as the Apostles Creed, but a statement much shorter. Oh, how I hate the fact that the word symbolic used in a statement made centuries earlier by a Catholic priest has infiltrated its way down through the centuries and is found in the terminology and language which is still used today whilst at the Table of the Lord by the true body of Christ in our times, in our Church. How can we as born-again Christians use what is a clear Catholic terminology in our Church services of today?
WHAT EXACTLY IS THE DICTIONARY DEFINITION OF A SYMBOL?
The Oxford Living Dictionaries says,
1. A mark or character used as a conventional representation of an object, function, or process, e.g. the letter or letters standing for a chemical element or a character in musical notation. ‘the symbol r in Figure 5 represents a gene which is ineffective’
‘The chemical symbol for helium is He’
1.1 A shape or sign used to represent something such as an organization, e.g. a red cross or a Star of David.
‘the Red Cross symbol’
‘the Star of David, the Jewish symbol’
2. A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.
‘The limousine was another symbol of his wealth and authority.’
One thing regarding the definition of symbolic which literally leapt off the page when I read it is found in paragraph 2, “Something else.” To symbolise any object is to render that object as something else other than that object. A symbol can be a picture or a figure of something, but it’s not that something, whatever it is. It is a lifeless reference pointing to the true, but is of no actual use in itself.
For instance, the Star of David is a symbol of the Nation of Israel, but it is not Israel itself. Symbols are not tangible; they are merely for the purpose of reference. Consequently, by symbolising the flesh of Christ, it becomes a mere representation of His flesh and therefore becomes something else other than His flesh.
What are we regarding the bread and wine on the Table as when we eat and drink of it? Jesus never declared the bread to be a symbol or anything else but His body.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”
(John 6:53)
Jesus said,
“This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
(1 Corinthians 11:25)
Unfortunately, many Christians deny the Spiritual presence of The Lord in the bread and the wine and render it as something else, other than what Jesus declared it to be (His body and His blood.)
Jesus said,
“Take eat this is my body.”
(Mark 14:22)
I believe the Church has been influenced by Satan to use false unscriptural terminologies when referring to the Lord’s Table. He wants to keep believers as far away from the truth as possible, knowing that the body and blood of Yahoshua are the source of all eternal spiritual life and power.
I believe the enemy has perverted the truth of the Word of God and brought in the most damming heresy to be propagated in the born-again Church of today, and as a result many unsuspecting Christians are bringing sickness and ultimately death and damnation on themselves because they have neglected the clear teaching of Jesus.
Many people are ignorantly partaking of the Lord’s Table in an unworthy manner, by denying the real Spiritual presence of the Lord in the bread and wine through a lack of knowledge and unbelief, refusing to accept the written Word which the Lord Jesus clearly stated and taught.
“…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
(John 6:53)
How and why are they partaking of the Lord’s Table in an unworthy manner? The answer is by the denial of the real Spiritual presence of the Lord Jesus in the blessed bread and wine.
Jesus said,
“If you do not eat my body and drink my blood you have no life in you.”
(John 6:53)
If we do not recognize the sacred bread for what it is, Christ’s body through faith when consecrated and blessed, then it remains to us just bread for our physical bodies, not the source of life and resurrection power.
The Lord Jesus is saying one thing, and Bible Colleges and so-called theologians and Pastors are saying another, and this is one of the things that troubled me so much in my early walk.
I believe the born-again Church of today has become a powerless Church in general when it comes down to healing the sick, raising the dead and casting out demons, particularly in Evangelical circles in the West.
There is often a distinct lack or complete absence of the manifestation of Holy Spirit healing power because of unbelief. But thank God there are some Spirit-filled congregations that allow the Holy Spirit to have the pre-eminence in their Churches.
To symbolise the body and blood of Jesus is one of the most serious and deadly errors to infiltrate its way into many communion services of today, but thanks be to God, not all.
Jesus said,
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”
(John 6:53)
Therefore, if we are not eating the bread as His body, then we are not eating His body at all, and if we do not eat His body as His body, then we have no life in us. These are the words of the Lord.
If we are partaking of His body as a meaningless symbol, then we will not receive the life-giving nourishment it contains, then we will literally starve to death spiritually. We become guilty of the body and the blood of Jesus. I can’t imagine a more blasphemous way in which to eat and drink at the Lord’s Table than to deny the body and the blood through unbelief and as a result, eat and drink damnation to themselves. This is what Paul referred to as a damnable heresy.
I would like to pose a very serious question at this point. Are you eating the flesh of Jesus or just a symbol of His flesh? According to scripture, to partake of the body of Jesus as a mere symbolic gesture renders it useless to the eater, because Jesus didn’t say while holding up the bread “this is a symbol of My body.” No, He said
“Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
(John 6:54)
Another question to consider, does a symbol of His body contain eternal life? Thirdly, are you drinking the communion wine as the blood of Jesus?
TERMINOLOGY GONE WRONG
Where did this heresy of symbolism come from? The first century Church never used such terminology when referring to the bread and wine as anything other than the body and blood of Jesus.
Epistle to the Philadelphians, chapter 3. Ignatius says,
Take heed, then, to have but one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to show forth the unity of His blood; one altar; as there is one bishop, along with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants . . .
The word eucharist didn’t sit well with me when I first read it, because through my lack of knowledge I associated the word Eucharist with Catholicism. In my ignorance, I thought that the word was Latin. To my relief the word Eucharist is a Greek word which simply means, “giving thanks.” Ignatius’ (real name Theophilus) would have used the term Eucharist in its original form, before the devil twisted its meaning as the Catholics have done by making an idol of it., and no idolater will enter the kingdom of heaven, (Rev 22:15).
Ignatius, as the Catholics prefer to call him, (Lit, the God bearer) was the Bishop of Antioch and a disciple of John. He was a born-again Christian, born from above through the Holy Spirit, The Almighty having made him a saint long before the Catholic Church canonized him as one of their own saints and martyrs, though he had nothing to do with Catholicism. In fact, Theophilus had no association with the false cult of Catholicism.
How did this poisonous terminology infiltrate into our Communion services? The Roman Catholic Church has influenced and impregnated some of its poisonous dogmas into the Church of England, and the C of E has then seduced the true born-again Church into accepting some of the language used in their liturgies.
The C of E didn’t want to be associated with the Catholic teaching of transubstantiation, whereby the wafer supposedly transforms miraculously into the actual physical flesh and blood of Christ Himself. During the Mass, the Catholic Priest commands Jesus to come down from Heaven to physically metamorphosise Himself into the wafer and the wine, supposedly turning the wafer into His actual flesh, and the wine into His actual blood.
To avoid this Catholic heresy of transubstantiation, the C of E came up with an alternative to what is tantamount to cannibalism. Their solution was another man-made invention of Con substantiation which literally means “with the substance.” con, meaning “with” and substantiation meaning “substance” in the Greek language.
But again, this damnable heresy is not what Christ clearly taught. This false interpretation of scripture once again denies the actual spiritual presence. So, on one hand we have the Catholics believing that the Eucharist is Christ’s actual flesh, and on the other hand we have the C of E claiming that the substance is not the flesh of Christ, it is only with the body of Christ, or as one might say, along-side the body of Christ.
If a man stands, leaning against a tree, no man in his right mind would consider that man to be the tree. No, that’s ridiculous. The tree remains the tree, and the man remains the man. The man does not represent the tree. And so, it is with the bread and wine. The bread is not “with” the body of Christ, as con substantiation falsely teaches.
However, the consecrated and blessed bread IS the body of Christ through faith. It doesn’t represent His body; it IS His body. It is spiritual food as Christ clearly taught when He said,
“For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.”
(John 6:55)
It clearly wasn’t just meat for the body, His body is food for the soul. Why do so many Bible colleges teach that the blood and body of Christ is symbolic? I believe they have been handed down a fundamental false interpretation of the Lord’s teaching of His Table through misguided teachers as warned by Jesus in Matt:24 and 2 Peter 2, who have brought in damnable heresies.
After years of being taught a certain theological teaching, and hearing that same teaching repeatedly for years by so-called renowned Bible scholars, that teaching whether it is true or not, becomes so firmly rooted in our mind-set that it’s virtually impossible to be convinced to the contrary, unless the Holy Spirit reveals the truth teaches differently.
If one man teaches one wrong point of theology for three years and then his students go on to teach that same one wrong point of theology for another three years, how many teachers would you have in just twelve years’ time propagating the same wrong theology? A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
I urge you dear reader to seek the truth for yourself and not to dismiss anything without the Lord’s confirmation first. I would strongly recommend seeking the Lord Jesus by prayer and fasting for a fresh revelation of truth concerning the Lord’s Supper. After all, don’t take any man’s word for it, especially my own. Search the scriptures daily to see if what I am saying is revealed truth, as the Bereans did in Paul’s time.
“These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.”
(Acts 17:11)
Jesus said there would be many deceivers in the last days.
“And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.”
(Matthew 24:4)
Peter also said many would bring in damnable heresies in the last days.
“But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.”
(2 Peter 2:1)
Is it not the case that if we only receive the sanctified bread as being a mere symbol, are we not denying the Lord Himself? Denying the flesh of the Saviour by reducing it to a worthless symbolic gesture, is to deny what The Lord Jesus said from His own lips.
“Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life.”
(John 6:54)
But what if you do not believe the bread to be His body, and the wine to be His blood? Then are you not denying the Lords Words?
My sincere intention is not to sound flippant, or condescending in any way, and if that is how I come across then please forgive me. The point that I am trying to make is that whatever came out from the lips of Jesus was and is, and will remain the truth. His word is eternal, and forever recorded in Heaven, and endures for eternity.
There are many severe warnings in scripture that are conveniently overlooked. We are truly living in those last days of apostasy. But I believe the Lord will restore all biblical truth to His elect by exposing the false teachings that are being propagated mainly through Bible Colleges, and some TV, so-called, evangelists who are fleecing the sheep. We cannot put our trust in any man no matter how eloquent or anointed he may seem.
One scripture the Holy Spirit would not let me forget is found in Jeremiah which reads:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord.”
(Jeremiah 17:5)
We need to stop listening to man’s interpretation of scripture and get back to asking the Lord to reveal the truth to us through His Spirit, who leads us into all truth.
Taken from the book The Hidden Mysteries of The Lord’s Table by Mark. G. Nolan
LIFE ON THE ALTAR 