There is no distortion of the meanings of the liturgical service (the Divine Mass) and its salvific effects compared to what you read in the writings of some Christian groups, especially the Baptists. This is what we will take care to explain in the following.
In his book “The Doctrine and Message of the Baptists,” Herschel Hobbs believes: “The church in the New Testament had two obligations, namely baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and they were performed according to this order (Acts 2:41 and 42). Both of these obligations have a symbolic, not a sacramental, sacred meaning” (p. 133; see also: Finley M. Graham, Systematic Theology, pp. 223 and 295; J. M. Carroll, History of the Baptist Churches, p. 18). Hobbes specializes in the Secret Supper, specifying “the two elements that were used in it,” saying: “They were unleavened bread and the product of the vine” (M.N., p. 139; see also: Awad Simeon, The Priesthood, p. 149). He explains “the product of the vine” as: “It is pure grape juice, untainted by any fermentation” (Herschel Hobbs, M.N., p. 140). He denies that sacrifices provide those who participate in them with “any effectiveness for salvation,” indicating that Baptists: “believe that the two elements symbolically depict the body and blood of Christ” (M.N., pages 140 and 141), and that the believer should take the bread and the cup “in remembrance of me” ( M.N., p. 141; also: Billy Graham, The World is Burning, p. 158), and to perform this “obligation” at “specified periods throughout his life” (Herschel Hobbs, M.N., p. 141; also: Finley M. Graham, M.N., pp. 303 and 304). And Robert A. Baker with his claims, and adds: “The opinion that says that Christ offers a sacrifice whenever the Supper is served directly contradicts the Bible’s statement that Christ died once (Romans 6:10; Hebrews 7:27)” (Biography of the Baptists in History, pages 27 and 28; also: Awad Simeon (Priesthood, pages 32 and 80).
This is, in general, the summary of Baptist teachings regarding the sacrament of thanksgiving. However, the distorted characteristics appear by describing the divine service as a “magical mystery,” and not a “means of grace,” or “the way to obtain forgiveness of sins,” or “eternal life,” and that the mystery of service is the basis that “diverted attention from the heart to the stomach” ( Robert A. Baker, M.N., page 17, see also: pages 27 and 33; and Awad Samaan, M.N., pages 251 and 252, 371-379). This is confirmed by Baker, who rejects the impossibility of sacrifices, and believes that they were introduced with the pagans who converted to Christianity. We read: “Most of the converts to Christianity in the first centuries were adult pagans. (…). Therefore, the leaders of the new religion were elected from Gentile men, most of whom had grown up in the embrace of paganism. Unconsciously, they transferred some pagan views and customs with them to Christianity. There is no doubt that it was their interpretation of the Christian obligations on the basis of their previous superstitious and materialistic surroundings that quickly changed the obligations of baptism and the Lord’s Supper from two symbolic spiritual obligations to two magical sacraments” (M.N., page 22; see also: Awad Samaan, M.N., Pages 246-250, and 259-269). Others of them believe that “Thomas Aquinas’ dual method of relying on reason and then on faith introduced strange philosophical principles into the Christian faith, and did not adopt the New Testament’s biblical standards to measure every faith doctrine.” An example of this is “the doctrine of transubstantiation,” that is, the transformation of the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper into the very body and blood of Christ. Aquinas borrowed this principle from the philosophy of Aristotle” (The Biblical Position, No. 3). This doctrine was approved, in the year 1215, by Pope Innocent III, at the Lateran Council (The Biblical Position, No. 8; No. 14; J. M., Carroll, M. N., p. 59).
It would take many volumes to respond to these allegations. But we will try to refute some of them in the remainder of this article (1).
We will divide our response into five points:
- 1) Service in the New Testament
- 2) Do this in remembrance of me
- 3) Impossibility
- 4) The effectiveness of salvation
- 5) The meaning that Christ died once
We have chosen these five points to avoid repeating what we said in our response to the Seventh-day Adventists. (2)Thus, to show the violation of these unfair teachings in new ways.
1) Service in the New Testament
Space does not allow us to speak at length on this point. But some constants are useful in clarifying the error of those we respond to, and refuting their claims.
The core of the Baptists' distortion is that they attribute to the New Testament what it did not say. Divine service, according to them, is a “symbol,” and this word definitely did not appear in it as a description of divine service or any other sacrament. If we return to the arrangement, which Hobbes assumes is contained in (Acts 2:41 and 42), we find no evidence for their claims. If what he meant by order is that the baptized believers are the ones who participate in the Lord’s Supper (meaning that baptism comes before the sacrament of thanksgiving), then this is our approach, even though we differ greatly from the Baptists in their teaching about these two sacraments, and we and them hardly have points in common. For us, dinner is a sacrament, not in the sense of abominable magic, which they call the service out of ignorance. But in the sense that the Holy Spirit, who leads the Church and fulfills its mysteries (Romans 15:16), is the one who transfers the bread and wine to the body and blood of Christ, and gives believers to taste “now and here” the food of “eternal life” (see: John 6; the funny thing is that instead Simeon, in his book “The Priesthood,” interprets the Lord’s saying in John 6:54, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day,” by saying: Christ “does not speak about the Lord’s Supper, but about faith in his person.” (page 253-254). In our reading of the New Testament, we find that the Lord made this service a taste of the last table, which is a anticipation of the Kingdom of God (Matthew 26: 29; Mark 14: 25; Luke 22: 16-18 and 29-30). This is the Lord's assurance. Accordingly, we build every sound education that distances all symbolism from service. This is because the symbol contradicts the truth that Jesus revealed through his death and resurrection. Service is an acceptance of God the Father’s plan that extends us to the coming (1 Corinthians 11:26), or the coming falls upon us in the realm of this existence.
2) Do this in remembrance of me
This phrase, which Jesus uttered on the day of his founding, “the mystery of thanksgiving” (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24), does not mean remembering a past event, or returning in mind to what happened in the upper room of Zion. Biblically, remembrance is synonymous with continuous immediacy (see, for example: Exodus 12:14, 13:9; Deuteronomy 16:3). This means that the Lord, in this commandment, did not want His Church to merely mention what happened. But, also, to participate in it whenever they meet, and to receive its blessings in the space of their meeting, as long as it takes place, “now and here,” for the sake of her salvation. This is what the Baptists contradict by emptying the remembrance of its meaning. They diminish the meaning revealed by the Lord Jesus and whose blessings the Church lives around, gathered around his blessed body and blood. That is, they diminish “that Christ transformed, in the Last Supper, the end into a beginning, and the Old Testament into a new.” All the verses of the New Testament, which linked the table and the kingdom (including: Matthew 26: 29; Mark 14: 25; Luke 22: 16-18 and 29-30), are the basis of the meaning of remembrance. Whoever carefully follows the prayers of sanctification in the Orthodox service will not miss that we remember the entire divine plan, including the second coming of Christ. This means that, in service, we do not sit exclusively at a temporal table (even though it takes place at a specific time and place). But we sit around God's final table. Baptists, if they read well the Gospel verses mentioned in this passage, will not doubt that this meaning is the intention of the book.
3) Impossibility
Baptists identify, even partially, with Martin Luther's (1483-1546) rejection of the impossibility of sacrifices, or their “manifestation,” by invoking and descending upon the Holy Spirit, the body and blood of Christ, as stated in the ministry of Saint Basil the Great. Luther was a German monk who rejected some of the doctrines of the Latin Church, broke away from it, and was excommunicated by Pope Leo X on 6/15/1520. We find that a quick return to his teaching, related to the sacrament of thanksgiving, helps us clarify some of the Baptists’ sayings in this context. This does not prevent us from pointing out, before, that Baptists mistake Luther for many reasons, including, in our topic, his consideration that the Lord’s Supper is a sacrament, and that Christ presents “through the bread his true body, and through the wine his true blood (his true presence),” and others. However, they went along with him by rejecting the impossibility. In fact, Luther, in the context of his rejection of Catholic theology, especially the concept of “transubstantiation” or “transubstantiation” (meaning that what is transformed in the Eucharist is only the essence of the bread and wine, while the forms of bread and wine remain as they are), used, to avoid... Because he used the word transubstantiation, three letters (in, with, under, in, with, under), to express the union of the body and blood of Christ with the bread and wine of the Eucharist), so that, according to him, the essence of the bread and wine are not transformed, but rather the essence of the body and blood of Christ is added to them. Orthodox theology rejects this and that teaching for many reasons. We will explain some of them in our direct response to the Baptists.
The first confirmation, for us, is that “transfiguration” (or better “manifestation” as we indicated above) did not enter the Church under pagan influence, and is not magic, or the product of the thirteenth century, even though the Scholastic school is behind the concept of “fundamental transformation.” This is a violation of the truth and a falsification of history. The transubstantiation is confirmed by the Lord in the Last Supper, and is confirmed by the New Testament, which revealed that the apostles, in their first meeting, on the day of Pentecost, broke bread (Acts 2:42). What is the meaning of this? It means that the Holy Spirit descending on them is the one who guided them to this service, which gives them certainty that the living Lord is in their midst and in them. That is, it is the Spirit itself that achieves the service, and “manifests” the body and blood of Christ in the bread and wine. This is what the Apostle Peter confirmed in his first letter, saying: “That you may offer spiritual sacrifices that God may accept through Jesus Christ” (2:5).
The Eucharist, which was established in the Last Supper, was fulfilled in Pentecost, that is, it was completed in the Spirit and became “spiritual.” This is what the Church seeks to accomplish in every service it conducts. In the same context, it must be said that the Church realized, through the action of the divine Spirit, what no mind can comprehend and no logic can hold, which is that the Spirit that gives it the true body and blood of Christ also makes it the Church in this realm of existence. Orthodox theology, based on the teachings of the New Testament, revealed that the offerings presented to God the Father accept them with His Spirit, and return them to those who offer them, so that they too become the body of Christ. This is what the Apostle Paul confirmed in more than one place: “Since there is one bread, even though we are many, we are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17); And also: “So I will serve Christ Jesus among the Gentiles and serve the gospel of God in a priestly service, so that the Gentiles will become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:16; see also: Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 20, 27; Ephesians 2:16, 4:12; Colossians 3:15). What is transformed, in the service, is not only the bread and wine, but the scattered people, whom God brings together and brings together by His grace, they also become the Church of God.
The problem with Baptists, who use the Holy Books and claim that they are the sole source of their teachings, is that they project preconceived ideas onto them. That is, their problem is that they do not draw inspiration for their teachings from books, but rather they pick up ideas that were rejected in history, adopt them, and consider that they alone are the truth, and that everything other than them is wrong. And deviation.
Before entering 4) The effectiveness of salvation; 5) The meaning that Christ died onceIt must be emphasized, first of all, that there is, in fact, no fundamental difference between the meaning of these two points. For there is no possible salvation that is not based on God’s life-giving plan (Ephesians 5:2). But we have separated them in order to understand the same meaning from two angles that do not differ in any way.
4) The effectiveness of salvation
Baptists know that one of the disciples of the Apostles, Saint Ignatius of Antioch, said about Holy Communion: It is “the medicine of immortality” (Robert A. Baker, Biographies of Baptists in History, p. 25). His full statement is: “You break the one loaf of bread, which is a medicine for immortality, an offering prepared to preserve us from death and secure for us eternal life in Christ” (His Epistle to the Ephesians 20:2). Those who have read their writings know that this statement bothers them greatly because, in their opinion, it is alien to the biblical meaning. Yes, Baptists acknowledge that God is the Savior of the world, and that He saved us not only by what He said, but also by the blood of His Son, which He shed on the cross out of love for us. Their fault is not here. Their mistake is that they deny that offering sacrifices to participants has “any effectiveness for salvation.” They know that the verses that speak of God’s love and His Son bearing our sins are the backbone of the New Testament. However, did not Christ say to his disciples: “This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, shed for the assembly of people for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28). Did he speak symbolically, or did he include the meaning of the sacrifices of his eternal redemption? Christ was not having fun at his last supper! Rather, he was aware of everything that would happen to him. He spoke from his awareness, which indicates his complete acceptance of his Father’s will (Matthew 26:42). We do not claim that Baptists do not understand this. But they decided to contradict him! The careful reader is not unaware of the Lord’s confirmation, in the Gospel of John, that His given body gives eternal life (6: 22-58). Is there any other salvation, or other effectiveness of salvation that can provide what the Church’s sacraments provide? This same affirmation is the document of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, whose statement is recorded above, and is the document of the Church in every generation.
5) The meaning that Christ died once
We could have responded to their statement: “The opinion that says that Christ offers a sacrifice every time the Supper is served directly contradicts the Bible’s statement that Christ died once,” by saying: Bring one text in which orthodox Christianity said that, in divine service, it “sacrifices” the Son of God a second time. ! But we promised to clarify the meaning of the phrase “that Christ died once.”
It is known, to begin with, that this phrase, or its content, was mentioned in the New Testament in more than one place (Romans 6:10; Hebrews 7:27; 9:26 and 28; 10:2 and 10; 1 Peter 3:18). It is unbelievable that the Holy Church turned a blind eye to these verses altogether, and built the theology of divine service on what contradicts them. So, in service, she has a purpose. It has no purpose other than what the Son of God intended in completing “the plan for us.” Paul, in his words about this secret, said: “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). Whoever follows the text of the service in the Orthodox Church will not doubt that it understood that Christ Himself is “the one who brings, the one who offers, the one who receives, and the one who distributes” (compare with 1 Peter 2:5). What happens is not done by human ability, nor does it happen within the limits of time. But, in precise words, it “transcends time without eliminating it.” The gathered church, which regains the encounter with the Lord and His apostles at the Last Supper, does not sacrifice Christ a second time. Rather, she believes that Christ himself revives, with her and in her, what he established in the upper room of Zion. Christ is the Savior of the world. This does not mean that he is the savior of those who were in his time, but rather of all people in every time and place. This, in secret, is revealed by the Spirit as being accomplished, “now and here,” for those whom God has brought together in “the meeting of eternity.” The united believers declare their acceptance of “the death of the Lord” in their meeting, and in every meeting. Fahim does not doubt that the divine service, in the theology of the Orthodox Church, is a single service that cannot be repeated (this means that the sacrifice of Christ is not repeated), even though it takes place on every Sunday and holiday. It is one service whose blessings are accepted by those who share the life-giving death of the Lord and His glorious resurrection every time they meet. The theology of service is based on a single saving event, and does not add anything to it. Thus, every believer brought together by this encounter is able to repeat with Paul: “I was crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:19, 20). That is, to say that Christ, who gave life to the world, gave life to me personally, and gives me life, now and always, with his blood. The divine service brings together eternity and eternity at the same time, and carries its participants to the hotbed of glory, which is the Cross of the Lord, in which Christ declared His love once and for all eternity.
These three responses, which we published sequentially, summarize some of what the Orthodox Church teaches, which understood, under the guidance of the living Spirit, what those who scooped the turbid water of history did not understand, and left the living water flowing abundantly in the regions of the sacred mysteries.
(1) For more information, see the following sections in Al-Shabaka: “The Library, Faith and Beliefs, Heresies and Heresies”... (Al-Shabaka)
(2) Find it at Network library>> Heresies and heresies>> Our position on the Seventh-day Adventists… (the network)