Crumbs from the Table

The following post is a response to an article by John Stevens published in "Foundations" in 2015, and currently featured on the Affinity website. This is not intended as a personal attack on John Stevens, who is National Director of the FIEC, and a lovely Christian man and brother. The purpose of the blog post below is to stand for the historic Reformation teaching on the Lord's Supper in response to what I consider to be a novel view which is not supported by the Bible.  The Lord's Supper, the monthly or weekly celebration of the bread and the cup, has always been at the heart of the Christian faith and church life. Instituted by Christ himself, the Lord's Supper has been practised by Christians across the world and by all traditions (with very few exceptions) for over twenty centuries.   Today, for the first time, I came across a theological/Biblical articulation of what I will call the "communal meal" view of the Lord's Supper. My source for this...

Ulrich Zwingli (d. 1531), like his contemporary Martin Luther (d. 1546), was a courageous reformer of the church, to whom Protestant Christians owe a debt of gratitude. He began his reform at Zurich in 1519 by preaching through the gospel of Matthew, reviving the practice of Chrysostom of consecutive Bible exposition. Zwingli simplified the worship of the church, purging it of unbiblical elements, and limiting it to what God had expressly commanded. In his theology, Zwingli exalted God's sovereign will in providence and salvation, and affirmed the chasmic difference between Creator and created. Zurich became a hub from where the Reformation spread out to other cities such as Berne, Strasburg and Geneva.   On one point, however, Zwingli was deficient, namely in respect of baptism and the Lord's Supper.   Zwingli's paradigm for understanding the sacraments was the Latin word sacramentum , equivalent to the German word "Eid". This referred to a soldier's oath of ...