And the Lord’s Supper?

It’s the same drill as the post for Friday when we talk about the Lord’s Supper or Communion: I defer to Heiser’s analysis to ask the right questions and clarify the Bible passages most people refer to for the ritual.

1. The Lord’s Supper and the Gospels, Part 1
2. The Lord’s Supper and the Gospels, Part 2
3. The Lord’s Supper and 1 Corinthians 8-11, Part 1
4. The Lord’s Supper and 1 Corinthians 8-11, Part 2

The substance is that Jesus said we were to celebrate Him, and we do that best by observing what He said at the Last Supper in declaring His One Law: Love each other as He loves us. Everything Paul wrote about it reinforces this concept. The whole point is that this form of communion ritual must be communion in the Holy Spirit.

Historical evidence indicates that most early churches engaged in a love feast in conjunction with the communion ritual. It’s obvious that Corinth did based on Paul’s letters. A love feast is based on the Old Testament observance in which those who had plenty always brought extra and made it a point to share with those who didn’t. Nobody went away empty, and everyone had enough wine or other celebratory beverage to be joyful (i.e., buzzed but not drunk).

There are people who shouldn’t consume alcoholic beverages, to include recovering alcoholics and folks taking certain meds (like me). However, the whole temperance movement was actually a British middle-class thing that started in England under the guise of left-wing militant religious groups like the Salvation Army and some Baptists. You didn’t know that the today’s Baptists were rooted in social leftism? Temperance is most definitely not biblical. I’m fine with serving wine at communion.

Indeed, just about any combination of grain/bread and fermented beverage is fine. Jesus selected from the traditional Seder meal wine and unleavened bread. If you grow up in Iowa, maybe cornbread and apple cider fit better. (Hold the salt on mine; I have to live with a low-sodium diet.) The point was never the food itself, but the participation with God and His family household.