PART 7 CHRIST IN YOU

During the Church Age is there scriptural support that the elements of communion change into the Literal Body and Blood of Christ?

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At Communion, Is the Changing of the Bread and Wine into the Literal Body and Blood of Christ Supported by the Scriptures During the Church Age?

Will any of these Scripture sections taken from the book of Acts, the Epistles, or the book of Revelation provide further insight as to whether the elements of the bread and wine at communion become the literal body and blood of Christ? This dispensation, called the Church Age, is when the Holy Spirit came to indwell those who repented and believed in Christ.

Let’s start by looking at some Scriptures from the book of Acts. What we will attempt to answer has to do with meat and drink.                    

Why were saved Gentiles prohibited from partaking of meats offered to idols, of blood, of things strangled, and from fornication?

 

Suggested Reading: Acts 15:1-30

1 And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.

The elders and apostles of the Jerusalem church sent Paul, Barnabas, Judas, and Silas to read a letter to the churches of Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia informing them that the Gentile believers didn’t need to be circumcised in order to be saved. The background to this was that there were many Christian Jews who believed before a Gentile could become saved, they must first become circumcised, which would signify their conversion to Judaism. Once circumcised, they’d be obligated to keep the entire Mosaic Law. If they followed these steps, their subsequent repentance and belief in Jesus would secure their salvation.

29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

The conclusion that the elders and apostles reached was that a Gentile doesn’t have to be circumcised and neither do they have to keep the law of Moses to be saved. However, there were some conditions that they should abide by. These were that they should abstain from eating meats offered to idols, from committing fornication, from blood, and from eating things strangled. The warning to not engage in fornication would inhibit their spiritual growth. But why were they asked to abstain from eating meats offered to idols, from blood and things strangled?

With respect to not eating meats offered to idols, this had to do with the association of eating meats that were involved with sacrificial animal offerings in pagan worship. The prohibition of blood had to do with not drinking it. And as far as not eating things strangled, this referred to animals killed by strangulation in whose meat the blood wasn’t drained.  

The reasons for these restrictions on blood pertained to the dietary laws of the Mosaic Law, which some Jewish Christians continued to observe. There was nothing wrong with them choosing to do this. However, the early church incorporated group meals, called the agape feasts, where the converts would meet for fellowship. Initially, they were held daily, but later on were changed to meet once a week, when food and drink was to be shared amongst one another. An issue that became contentious was that the Gentiles would bring food and drink that contained blood which caused division. So, a proclamation was made mandating they weren’t allowed to bring anything with blood.

Consuming blood was a serious matter. We could surmise that if the early church had considered bread and wine literally that this would have brought about an explosive disruption. Don’t you think?

We have another book of the Bible to go to, that is 1 Corinthians. Here’s the question we’ll attempt to answer.

If a believer were to knowingly partake of the meat of an animal that was offered in sacrifice to idols, what would this indicate that they were participating in?

 

Suggested Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:14-33

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? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?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.

Eating meats offered in pagan sacrifices was revisited here because many Jewish believers took issue with their fellow Gentile believers who knowingly ate such. Not only did these meats have blood in them, but what was also ascribed to anyone who was partaking of them was the purpose for which they were offered, and that was to worship demons. The Apostle Paul’s recommendation to resolve this issue was threefold: The Gentile believers were to no longer attend the pagan temples; they were to ask no questions when buying meat in the marketplace or when attending a feast held by unbelievers where meat was being offered, and when they participated at a pagan feast, if they were told in advance that the meat had been used in pagan sacrifices, they were to abstain.

As we can see, the focus here wasn’t so much on the dietary laws that some of the Christian Jews continued to obey but on partaking in food and drink that was offered to idols. I don’t know if this provides any further insight into the subject at hand, but it does talk about food and wine being misused.

We have one final group of verses to look at, which are found in the next chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians. Here is the related question.

                                                                                               

What should come to our mind when we partake of the elements of communion?                        

Suggested Reading: 1 Corinthians 11:18-34

20-21; 23-26 When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. 

As we’ve already been informed, the Corinthians held agape/love feasts, which were gatherings of the assembly for the mutual relief (charity) of the poor. On this occasion, when the more affluent members of the church showed up, they decided to eat their food and consume enough wine to get drunk, such that nothing was left for the poor to partake of after they arrived. Subsequently, when the Lord’s Supper was to be observed following the consumption of the communal meal, the poor looked upon it with physical motivation (satisfying one’s hunger and thirst) rather than spiritual inspiration. A solution was soon found that would, hopefully, prevent this from happening again. And that was to provide everyone who attended with food and drink before any consumption was to take place.

27-30; 33 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.

Following the meal, another consideration was examined. And that was before anyone partook of the elements of the Lord’s Supper, they were instructed to examine their motives or state of mind. I’d assume the host would initiate some pronouncement of such along with the possible discipline that might be administered by the Lord including the loss of physical strength through disease or even physical death.

And finally, what appears in summation is what it is that the partaking of the elements of communion should point to, which is “the message of the [Cross,]” that is, the reality of the Lord’s death and also the certainty of His return (until He comes²⁰). Another way of saying this is that partaking of the Lord’s Supper is to bring to remembrance the story of Jesus’ death on the cross.

Well, there you have it. Most of the verses which relate to the topic of communion or bread and wine have been looked at from four dispensations. Has this helped you in coming up with a fuller understanding of this topic? There’s more that will be presented which hopefully will provide you with enough information to make a decisive decision as to whether the elements of the bread and wine are to be taken literally. What we’ll take a look at next are the comments by the church fathers in this regard.

But before we proceed, I’d like to leave you with an article that discusses one of the elements of communion, i.e., wine. Have you ever wondered whether it was alcoholic? I have. Let’s see what this has to say.

 

WHAT WINE WAS USED AT THE LAST SUPPER?

     Few meals from history are more famous than the [biblical] Last Supper. We know who attended, where it took place, and what was eaten. We even know wine was poured, and that made us curious�"what did Jesus drink? Vivino investigated what wine could have been served at the Last Supper.

     To help us understand more about the Last Supper, we turned to Father Daniel Kendall, Professor of Theology and Scripture at the University of San Francisco. To learn more about the ancient winemaking process and wine styles available at the time, we spoke to Dr. Patrick McGovern, Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs the Biomolecular Archaeology Project for Cuisine, Fermented [Beverages,] and Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia and Dr. Sean Myles, an Assistant Professor of Agriculture Genetic Diversity at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. And to help us bring the taste of history into the modern day, we got some help from Joel Anthony Caruso, Vivino Brand Ambassador and one of our favorite wine and spirits experts.

 

Where and When Was the Last Supper?

     To gain historical context, we wanted to establish the time and location for the Last Supper and get an understanding of what drew this group together.

     “The Last Supper most likely took place on the Thursday celebration of Passover, according to three of the four Gospels,” said Father Daniel Kendall, S.J. “The Gospels give a date of around A.D. 30. From the [descriptions,] it was most likely a Seder meal. Since it was and is the most important of Jewish feasts, wine would have been part of the festivities.” Father Kendall assures us: “Unlike John the Baptist, Jesus drank wine.”

     The wine would have been poured alongside traditional Seder fare, which includes: maror or chazeret, a type of bitter herb, charoset, a sweet, [brown] paste of fruits and nuts, karpas, a vegetable (usually parsley or celery) that is dipped into salt water before eating, zeroa, a roasted lamb shank bone or [a] chicken wing, and beitzah, a hard-boiled egg.

     So now we know where, when, and why the Last Supper took place, but we want to understand: What styles of wine, grapes, and winemaking techniques were available?

 

Wine and Winemaking around Jerusalem

     We know little about the popular grape varieties�"or if grape varieties were even a concept�"at the time of the Last Supper. “It’s not until relatively recently in history, about 1,000 years or less, that we have any written evidence of named grape varieties,” said Dr. Myles.

     However, we do have evidence [of] winemaking during the era and the styles of wines people of Jesus’s time would have made and enjoyed. By the night of the Last Supper, the Holy Land already had a long history of winemaking. Scholars believe that part of the Middle East had been making wine since at least 4000 BC. Vintners planted their vines along rocky hillsides and carved out vats in the bedrock to serve as wine presses. Archaeological evidence shows cultures around the area had a variety of pottery vessels to collect and serve wine.

     And what did this wine taste like? While watering down wine was common practice in classical civilization, “In Jerusalem, they had a particular taste for rich, concentrated wines,” said Dr. McGovern.

     In an inland city of Judah, archeologists found a jar with the inscription, “Wine made from black raisins.” Winemakers may have dried out grapes on the vine or on mats in the sun to concentrate the grapes and create a very sweet, thick wine. Elsewhere in the region, archeologists have found jars with inscriptions like “smoked wine” and “very dark wine.”

     Mixing wine with spices, fruits, and especially tree resin was common practice. Winemakers believed that tree resins like myrrh, [frankincense,] and terebinth preserved wine and helped stave off wine spoilage. They also added things like pomegranates, mandrakes, saffron, and cinnamon to enhance the flavor.

     We can conclude that there was a skilled winemaking culture present during the time of the Last Supper and that around Jerusalem, vintners made strong wines, often mixed with tree resins, [spices,] and fruits. How does this style translate into modern-day wine?

 

Recreating the Wine of the Last Supper

     “They may have been drinking something like a modern-day Amarone, though we can’t know for sure,” said Dr. McGovern.

     Winemakers in Northern Italy make Amarone by drying their grapes on straw mats before they press the grapes to make wine. The end result is a sweet, [rich,] and dark wine, much like the wines they enjoyed in the Holy Land during the biblical era. “They may have also mixed in things like pomegranates, [saffron,] and myrrh.”

     Cocktail expert Joel Anthony Caruso says that based on the important agricultural products of the period, a [biblical] mixologist might have started with crushed and rinsed salt-preserved tappuah (apple), myrrh, and debash (honey) and poured in wine that has been treated with pressed rimmon (pomegranate). If a sweet and salty cocktail isn’t your style, he suggests a mix of Amarone with bittersweet Amaro, rye whiskey, and oleo saccharum (simple syrup infused with lemon peel). This will capture the fruity, spiced flavor of [biblical wine but] still please a modern palate.

     In the end, all we can do is make an educated guess based on the historical record. Dr. McGovern said, “We can’t definitively know what was in those cups at the Last Supper.” But he’s willing to keep exploring. He joked,

     “If someone can find me the Holy Grail and send it to my lab, we could analyze it and tell you.” ²¹