Guys:
Can anyone cite the Bible verse that says that the Eucharist in the Lords supper is symbolic? Catholics believe it is literally Christ's body and blood. Protestants say it is a symbol. Can anyone show where the Bible says it is a symbol?
The so-called eucharist is nowhere to be found in scripture in any shape or form. Before his death, Jesus was celebrating the Jewish Passover meal which was celebrated ONCE a year. It was to celebrate their deliverance from captivity in Egypt. Jesus words were indicating that their deliverance was now going to come through him because he was the Messiah.
When he said to do this in remembrance of me he was saying any future Passover meals were to celebrate his messiahship. Because they were Jews, before and after his death and resurrection, it would have been foreign to have a ritual every week, month or one that was not a meal.
As the New Testament church was known as "The Way" and a sect of Judaism, they did not stop being Jews, that is why they continued to meet in the temple.
The other passage that is totally misinterpreted is Paul's dissertation to the Corinthian Church.
In 1 Corinthians 11:20 it talks about not eating the Lord's supper. The word supper means dinner, the chief meal. There is no indication it means a religious ceremony involving a biscuit and sip of wine.
In 1Co 11:21 it says "For in eating every one taketh before [the] other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken."
Can anyone tell me how you get drunk on a sip of wine?
It is obvious if you care to see it that Paul was instructing the Corinthian church about their behaviour in the evening meal. It was obvious that the people brought food and wine for everyone to share but some were ignoring others and eating and drinking their own food and drink rather than sharing it. Some were even getting drunk as a result.
Verse 22 indicates that some who came could not contribute to the meal for various reasons that is why sharing was so essential. In doing what they were doing, they were shaming those who could not contribute.
And in verse 29 when it talks about the Lord's body, it is referring to the body of Christ, not the Lord's physical body and when it talks about eating and drinking it shows it was referring to a meal, not a religious ritual. By ignoring the Lord's body (the church) they were eating and drinking damnation to themselves.
The end result in some cases as we see in verse 30 is sickness and death. So do tell me, how is a person going to end up like this eating a cracker and a sip of wine before someone else or without regard to someone else?
In verse 33 it talks about coming together to eat. That word means to eat meat.
Paul finishes up by saying if you are hungry, eat at home before you come to the meal. This means that the whole chapter is about conduct for the church during a communal meal, where everyone who could shared their provisions with each other and if you couldn't you were still welcome as there would be enough for everyone and you did not eat on your own at the meal just because you brought something or were hungry. You waited till everyone was present and could enjoy the meal together regardless.
Those who are rusted onto religious ritual have chosen to ignore two-thirds of what this chapter is saying in favour of putting their own slant on it to give the church authority over the people.
In church history studies it is a known fact that when the Roman Catholic Church dominated, they introduced this eucharist thing and said it had to have a priest in charge of it because of the mysterious aspect of it which they invented so they could control the masses (pun intended).
I could say a lot more as I have done a thorough study of life in the New Testament church, consulting over 40 authors on the subject, including catholic, but that will suffice for the time being until everyone who disagrees with me usually without any evidence whatsoever come out of the woodwork.
