Views of baptism and the Lord's Supper
|
TRADITION OF INTERPRETATION |
Baptism "Be baptized and wash away your sins" (Acts 22:16) |
The Lord's Supper "This is my body" |
| Non-sacramental (e.g., Baptist, Assembly of God, most non-denominational churches) |
Merely symbolic of washing away sins and of union with Christ; salvation does not come through baptism; infant baptism is often denied; immersion is often seen as the only proper mode of baptism |
Merely symbolic and commemorative of the blood and body of Christ; salvation does not come through the Lord's Supper; Jesus meant the wine and bread represent his blood and body (this is considered Reformed in a broad sense) |
| Calvinistic (many Presbyterian and Reformed churches, a few of which practice paedocommunion) |
The symbol of salvation is an aid to faith in the gospel, so that forgiveness and union with Christ are received through faith alone |
The symbol of salvation is an aid to faith in the gospel, so that the benefits of Christ's death are received through faith alone; baptism and the Lord's Supper are true sacraments; Jesus meant the wine and bread represent his blood and body |
| Baptism, like the spoken gospel, is God's power for salvation to everyone who believes its promise, so laity should baptize in emergencies |
The blood and body of Christ are literally, but not locally,* present in the wine and bread to aid faith in the gospel, so that the benefits of Christ's death are received through faith alone; Jesus meant the wine and bread really are his blood and body |
|
| Late Roman Catholic |
Baptism removes original sin, even if the one baptized lacks faith |
The wine and bread become the blood and body of Christ, so that they are no longer wine and bread, but should be honored as God; Jesus meant what appear to be the wine and bread really are his blood and body |
*Non-Lutherans who see a local Real Presence in the Lutheran view often call it consubstantiation, rejected by most confessing Lutheran theologians as an attempt to philosophically explain the incomprehensible mystery of the Real Presence, which need not have any more locality than did God when in the ark of the covenant
Each of these four viewpoints on the sacraments must be tested by how well it agrees with Scripture.
Official beliefs of churches
The Book of Concord defines the Lutheran view, and the Westminster Confession of Faith XXVII-XXIX defines the Presbyterian view.
Transubstantiation
For many centuries, Roman Catholicism has been teaching the doctrine of transubstantiation, that the wine and bread of the Mass literally become the blood and body of Christ, so that they are no longer wine and bread. Many teachers of this doctrine appeal to Christ's words about his blood and body recorded in John 6, and claim that the early church also believed it. There are several problems with this view.
First, transubstantiation does not agree with Christ's words of institution: "And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom'" (Matt. 26:27-29). He called what was in the cup "fruit of the vine" even after its consecration, but he could only have called it "blood" had he held to transubstantiation.
[Further study of Christ's discourse in John 6 led to the removal of two paragraphs on May 1, 2005.]
A further problem with transubstantiation is that Paul's words do not allow for it. Paul, followed by Augustine and others, referred to the bread as "bread," even after it was consecrated: he said the bread is the communion of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16). Paul did not say "will be" or "becomes," but he said "is." Consistently, he said the partakers ate bread, not that they ate what merely appears to be bread (11:26-27).
The Protestant Reformers taught that participation in the Roman Catholic Mass is idolatry. Indeed, to honor something that is not God, as if it were God, is to worship an idol. Thus, if what appears to be bread is not really transformed to God, then honoring it as God is a form of idolatry. Even so, it would of course be a grave mistake to infer on the basis of 1 Cor. 6:9 that no Roman Catholic will enter the kingdom of God: the Roman Catholic Church professes the message of forgiveness through Christ, however unclearly or inconsistently.
Questions for study
Is baptism absolutely necessary for salvation, or is faith in the gospel
enough?
John 3:16; Acts 16:31; Eph. 2:8-9; Acts 10:44-47 ("While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles... Then Peter declared, 'Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?'")
Is baptism just a symbol, or does it help saving faith in the gospel?
Acts 2:38-41; 22:16; 1 Peter 3:21 ("Baptism... now saves you...")
Do the bread and wine turn into the body and blood of Christ in such a way that
they are no longer bread and wine?
Matt. 26:27-29; 1 Cor. 11:26-27
Are the bread and wine just symbols, or do they also sustain the faith
by which God imparts eternal life?
See the Lord's Supper from a Reformed perspective.
Should infant children of believers be baptized?
The selectively literalistic methods of Old Testament interpretation
used by Dispensationalists, Anabaptists, and other baptistic Christians lead
them
to disagree with the argument from infant circumcision that the Bible teaches
infant baptism. The redemptive-historical
methods of interpretation used by their Reformed and Lutheran brothers lead
to the conclusion that the Bible does implicitly teach infant baptism. (The
apostles interpreted the Old Testament using a redemptive-historical
approach.) Even apart from considering circumcision, the New Testament
clearly prohibits the exclusion of infant children
of believers from baptism and its benefits.
[Created 6/6/03. Last modified 1/2/06 except for adding and removing hyperlinks on 10/13/07 and 10/20/07. The page was originally written from a Reformed perspective, but now better represents the "late Roman" and Lutheran positions.]
