Is communion symbolic or literal?

[Ken Jones]

Is communion symbolic or literal?

 

[Tatilina]

Is communion symbolic or literal?

It’s symbolic and we love doing communion here! I very much enjoy partaking in communion, the church I was going to did fresh sourdough bread. The church I’m going to now is non-denominational and they use crackers, I don’t mind either way because it is what it symbolizes that is important. Partaking in communion is commanded by God and passover is the time to do this in remembrance of him.

Matthew 26:26-30

26While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

27Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

30When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

I strongly believe that all believers should be partaking in the Lord’s last super indefinitely. We also celebrate passover and not easter, but we do wait for the valentines chocolates and easter chocolates go on a huge sale afterwards and then we grab our favourites and throw them all in the deep freezer. I love the walt disney hollow chocolate disney characters because they actually use natural ingredients to actually make real milk chocolate and not with milk ingredients. Um, sorry about that lt was a bit off track, my apologies

 

[Honey]

What aspect of communion are you asking about when asking if it is literal?

 

[for_his_glory]

I say it's both symbolic and literal. Symbolic in the wine and the bread and literal of what it represents.

Paul gives directions regarding the Lord’s Supper in 1Corinthians 11:23-29. Some have misunderstood verse 26, which says: "As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup," and interpret it to say "take it as often as you please" But it does not say that!

It says "as often" as we observe it, "ye do show the LORD’S DEATH till He come." And Jesus commanded, "This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me." (Verse 25.) We do it in remembrance of THE LORD’S DEATH - a memorial of His death. And memorials of momentous occasions always are observed annually, once a year, on the ANNIVERSARY of the event they commemorate.

Jesus instituted this New Testament ordinance ON THE EVE OF HIS DEATH. It was the 14th Abib, March/April Hebrew Lunar calendar. He was our Passover, sacrificed for us and He was sacrificed on the same exact day of the year that the Passover lambs always had been slain! As the Old Testament Passover commemorated Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, a type of sin, so the New Testament Lord’s Supper is a continuation of the Passover with different emblems commemorates Jesus' death, and our deliverance from sin.

I can't remember where I got this as a resource as back in the day I never listed the website.

 

[LovethroughDove]

John 6:35 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

Matthew 4:4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

These verses show that the "bread"is symbolic. We feed our Spiritual bodies with the truth that comes from the word of God. Jesus is the literal Word that became flesh. Meaning, he "is" the Word manifested in a person. We feed on every word that "comes from the mouth of God".

Matthew 9:17 "Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do , the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

John 3:3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

So, when we are born again we can drink from the blood of the new covenant. Symbolic.

Hebrews 8:13 By calling this covenant "new", he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

 

[Jim Parker]

Is communion symbolic or literal?

Did Jesus say "This is my body" (Mat 26:26) and "This is my blood" (Mar 26:28) or did he say "this is the SYMBOL of my body and the SYMBOL of my blood."?
Did Jesus say; "“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." (Jhn 6:53-4)
Or did He say, "Unless you SYMBOLICALLY eat and SYMBOLICALLY drink"?

The Church, from the earliest days, has consistently taught that it is to be taken literally. The bread IS His flesh and the wine IS His blood.

Ignatius of Antioch (30-107 A. D. A disciple of the apostle John and Bishop of Antioch) in his Epistle to the Smyrnaens, Ch. VII: “Let Us Stand Aloof from Such Heretics” states; “They (the heretics) abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins,..”

Ignatius was taught by the John, the beloved disciple of Christ and, in this statement, he affirms the teaching of the apostles and Christ that the bread is Christ’s body.

Justin Martyr, the church’s first apologist, wrote in the first half of the 2nd century in his “The First Apology of Justin”, in Chapter LXVI.—Of the Eucharist. In it he reports what he was taught as a new Christian by the church. That would mean that the teaching he received was already established in the church. It is part of the teaching of the apostles who taught what they learned from Jesus. It is God’s inspired teaching to the church by His Son, through the apostles to the church.


“And this food is called among us Eucaristiva [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, “This do ye in remembrance of Me, this is My body; ”and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, “This is My blood; ”and gave it to them alone.”

Further early references:

IRENAEUS, Against Heresies (175-185 AD)
Book IV;
Chapter XVIII.—Concerning Sacrifices and Oblations, and Those Who Truly Offer Them.

4…………..But how can they be consistent with themselves, [when they say] that the bread over which thanks have been given is the body of their Lord, and the cup His blood, if they do not call Himself the Son of the Creator of the world, that is, His Word, through whom the wood fructifies, and the fountains gush forth, and the earth gives “first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.”

5. Then, again, how can they say that the flesh, which is nourished with the body of the Lord and with His blood, goes to corruption, and does not partake of life? Let them, therefore, either alter their opinion, or cease from offering the things just mentioned. But our opinion is in accordance with the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn establishes our opinion. For we offer to Him His own, announcing consistently the fellowship and union of the flesh and Spirit. For as the bread, which is produced from the earth, when it receives the invocation of God, is no longer common bread, but the Eucharist, consisting of two realities, earthly and heavenly; so also our bodies, when they receive the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the hope of the resurrection to eternity.

Chapter XXXIII.—Whosoever Confesses that One God is the Author of Both Testaments, and Diligently Reads the Scriptures in Company with the Presbyters of the Church, is a True Spiritual Disciple; And He Will Rightly Understand and Interpret All that the Prophets Have Declared Respecting Christ and the Liberty of the New Testament.

2. Moreover, he shall also examine the doctrine of Marcion, [inquiring] how he holds that there are two gods, separated from each other by an infinite distance. Or how can he be good who draws away men that do not belong to him from him who made them, and calls them into his own kingdom? And why is his goodness, which does not save all [thus], defective? Also, why does he, indeed, seem to be good as respects men, but most unjust with regard to him who made men, inasmuch as he deprives him of his possessions? Moreover, how could the Lord, with any justice, if He belonged to another father, have acknowledged the bread to be His body, while He took it from that creation to which we belong, and affirmed the mixed cup to be His blood? And why did He acknowledge Himself to be the Son of man, if He had not gone through that birth which belongs to a human being? How, too, could He forgive us those sins for which we are answerable to our Maker and God? And how, again, supposing that He was not flesh, but was a man merely in appearance, could He have been crucified, and could blood and water have issued from His pierced side? What body, moreover, was it that those who buried Him consigned to the tomb? And what was that which rose again from the dead?

BOOK V,
Chapter. II When Christ Visited Us in His Grace, He Did Not Come to What Did Not Belong to Him: Also, by Shedding His True Blood for Us, and Exhibiting to Us His True Flesh in the Eucharist, He Conferred Upon Our Flesh the Capacity of Salvation.

2 “He (Jesus) has acknowledged the cup (which is a part of the creation) as His own blood, from which He bedews our blood; and the bread (also a part of the creation) He has established as His own body, from which He gives increase to our bodies.”

3. When, therefore, the mingled cup and the manufactured bread receives the Word of God, and the Eucharist of the blood and the body of Christ is made, from which things the substance of our flesh is increased and supported, how can they affirm that the flesh is incapable of receiving the gift of God, which is life eternal, which [flesh] is nourished from the body and blood of the Lord, and is a member of Him?—even as the blessed Paul declares in his Epistle to the Ephesians, that “we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.” He does not speak these words of some spiritual and invisible man, for a spirit has not bones nor flesh; but [he refers to] that dispensation [by which the Lord became] an actual man, consisting of flesh, and nerves, and bones,—that [flesh] which is nourished by the cup which is His blood, and receives increase from the bread which is His body.

Chapter XXXVII.

Those who have become acquainted with the secondary (i.e., under Christ) constitutions of’ the apostles, are aware that the Lord instituted a new oblation in the new covenant, according to [the declaration of] Malachi the prophet. For, “from the rising of the sun even to the setting my name has been glorified among the Gentiles, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice; ” as John also declares in the Apocalypse: “The incense is the prayers of the saints.” Then again, Paul exhorts us “to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” And again, “Let us offer the sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of the lips.” Now those oblations are not according to the law, the handwriting of which the Lord took away from the midst by cancelling it; but they are according to the Spirit, for we must worship God “in spirit and in truth.” And therefore the oblation of the Eucharist is not a carnal one, but a spiritual; and in this respect it is pure. For we make an oblation to God of the bread and the cup of blessing, giving Him thanks in that He has commanded the earth to bring forth these fruits for our nourishment. And then, when we have perfected the oblation, we invoke the Holy Spirit, that He may exhibit this sacrifice, both the bread the body of Christ, and the cup the blood of Christ, in order that the receivers of these antitypes may obtain remission of sins and life eternal.

Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 225 AD); On Prayer, Chapter XIX: Of Stations.

Similarly, too, touching the days of Stations, most think that they must not be present at the sacrificial prayers, on the ground that the Station must be dissolved by reception of the Lord’s Body. Does, then, the Eucharist cancel a service devoted to God, or bind it more to God? Will not your Station be more solemn if you have withal stood at God’s altar? When the Lord’s Body has been received and reserved each point is secured, both the participation of the sacrifice and the discharge of duty. If the “Station” has received its name from the example of military life—for we withal are God’s military —of course no gladness or sadness chanting to the camp abolishes the “stations” of the soldiers: for gladness will carry out discipline more willingly, sadness more carefully.

Hope this helps answer your question.


Iakov the fool

 

[for_his_glory]

Matthew 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. 27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; 28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. 29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

1 Corinthians 11:23 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: 24 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. 25 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. 26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. 27 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. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

Communion for those who confess Christ as Lord and Savior who are worthy to partake of it do so in remembrance of the literal sacrifice of the flesh that was ripped and torn apart from the body of Christ and blood of Christ that was shed for the remission of sin. The bread is a symbol of the literal flesh of Christ that was torn apart as He broke and the wine being a symbol of the literal of Christ blood.

 

[Jim Parker]

The bread is a symbol of the literal flesh of Christ that was torn apart as He broke and the wine being a symbol of the literal of Christ blood.

That is a modern innovation dating back less the 500 years and arises from those in rebellion against the Roman church. It was over this issue that Luther broke with Zwingli who took a "symbolic" view and wanted to go to war with any and all Catholic kingdoms.

The entire Church, from the first century, taught that the bread was the REAL (not symbolic) body of Christ and the wine was the REAL (not symbolic) blood of Christ.
Jesus said:
Jhn 6:53-57 NKJV
“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.
He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me."


Not once did He suggest that anything he said was symbolic.
And if it is symbolic then so also is having eternal life and being raised up on the last day symbolic.
And one can only "symbolically" abide in Christ and he in you if this whole passage is "symbolic" and Jesus didn't really mean it.

 

[chessman]

no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined.

Now that preaches!

Only believers in the truth that have been washed of sins and regenerated and who are living in Christ (already) should partake.

Any idea who came up with the idea that partaking brought men into living in Christ?

Seems they got the order backwards, no?

 

[ezra]

Is communion symbolic or literal?

both the literal is taking it serious in the manner it should be taken .
1 Corinthians 11:25

“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.

27Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

28But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

29For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body...no one is worthy but it is best to get things squared with the Lord first before partaking . in other words have a good prayer with the Lord i john 1:7 &9

 

[Willie T]

It is Symbolic.

 

[Jim Parker]

It is Symbolic.

Then so is eternal life and the resurrection.

 

[eddif]

Ok here we go.
I Corinthians 11:25 kjv
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.

So the cup is in his blood. To get him inside you is:
Revelation 3:20 kjv
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

So communion occurs inside the (individual) believer who has opened the door.

Got to love metaphysics, and meta is a Greek Word.

Mississippi redneks just can think strange.
eddif

 

[MCoop]

Is communion symbolic or literal?

It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the FLESH profiteth nothing: THE WORDS I SPEAK UNTO YOU, THEY ARE SPIRIT, and they are life. John 6:63. They are symbolic

 

[eddif]

Do this in rememberance.

Remember what?
I am on the inside of you. The spirit is unseen, but the external communion reminds you and others of the reality of the quickining spirit is in you.

Practice the spiritual gifts - gifted to you. That others may see that God is amoung you of a truth.
I Corinthians 14:26

eddif

 

[Willie T]

Then so is eternal life and the resurrection.

Well, if you think you are actually drinking warm, thick, gooey blood and cutting up a man's flesh & skin and chewing on it.... more power to you. I know I am drinking juice that a company called Welch's made, and eating a thin doughy wafer manufactured in Tampa Florida and delivered by truck.

 

[for_his_glory]

That is a modern innovation dating back less the 500 years and arises from those in rebellion against the Roman church. It was over this issue that Luther broke with Zwingli who took a "symbolic" view and wanted to go to war with any and all Catholic kingdoms.

The entire Church, from the first century, taught that the bread was the REAL (not symbolic) body of Christ and the wine was the REAL (not symbolic) blood of Christ.
Jesus said:
Jhn 6:53-57 NKJV
“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.
He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me."


Not once did He suggest that anything he said was symbolic.
And if it is symbolic then so also is having eternal life and being raised up on the last day symbolic.
And one can only "symbolically" abide in Christ and he in you if this whole passage is "symbolic" and Jesus didn't really mean it.

I don't care what the Catholics teach nor what Luther taught the bread and the wine I go to the store to buy and use in communion is only bread and wine that is literal of the bread Christ used to represent His body and the wine He used to represent His blood He shed. How does bread and wine miraculously turn into actual flesh and blood and who in their right mind would eat flesh and blood unless one is a cannibal.

 

[for_his_glory]

Now that preaches!

Only believers in the truth that have been washed of sins and regenerated and who are living in Christ (already) should partake.

Any idea who came up with the idea that partaking brought men into living in Christ?

Seems they got the order backwards, no?

1 Corinthians 11:27 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. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

We are to examine ourselves that we by faith believe in Christ and His finished works on the cross before we partake. Many are unworthy as they do not discern the finished works of the cross.

 

[for_his_glory]

That is a modern innovation dating back less the 500 years and arises from those in rebellion against the Roman church. It was over this issue that Luther broke with Zwingli who took a "symbolic" view and wanted to go to war with any and all Catholic kingdoms.

The entire Church, from the first century, taught that the bread was the REAL (not symbolic) body of Christ and the wine was the REAL (not symbolic) blood of Christ.
Jesus said:
Jhn 6:53-57 NKJV
“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.
He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me."


Not once did He suggest that anything he said was symbolic.
And if it is symbolic then so also is having eternal life and being raised up on the last day symbolic.
And one can only "symbolically" abide in Christ and he in you if this whole passage is "symbolic" and Jesus didn't really mean it.

Eternal life and walking with Christ is real, the bread and wine I buy at the grocery store is real, but only representive of the body and the blood of Jesus, not literally being flesh and blood that we eat and drink. but representative.

 

[Willie T]

Nor do I dwell on a bloody body hanging on a tree like the Catholics (and now the Baptists) celebrate by displaying Crucifixes all over their church buildings.

What is "the body of Christ?" I think the Bible tells me it is the group of Christians I meet with. And it is them, I should be considering as I think of why Christ sacrificed for all of us. I "examine myself", not to see if I feel guilty enough to eat the wafer.... but to see if I am considering my brothers and sisters, and if they have everything they need.

Nor do I think anyone drops dead because they don't go through the proper and approved methods of doing that eating. Have ANY of the people that you feel take communion more lightly than you think they should, EVER dropped dead from doing so? No, of course they haven't. But, you also know that people starve to death throughout our nation every day (not to mention the whole world) because we Christians are not really caring too much about them as we sit in our churches and take that Communion, and then neglect going to do something to keep them alive by feeding them meat and potatoes.

THOSE are the people the Bible says have died because (AS IT STATES RIGHT THERE) we thought about ourselves and our stomachs first, and ignored the needs of the poor and hungry. (Go read it...... How they were chastised for making Communion a private feast.)