Your Bible question was:
> "What is the eucharist?"
The
term “eucharist” is not found in our English Bible. It is Anglicized form of
the Greek word, ‘eucharisteo’ (which means “to give thanks, be thankful” or
thanksgiving). Eucharist is applied by the Catholics and many Protestants to the
Lord’s Supper or Communion. However, the word is not so applied in the New
Testament. The Bible records that the Lord Jesus instituted a memorial of His
body and blood which He commanded His disciples to eat in memory of Him (Matt.
26:26-28; 1 Cor. 11:23-26; 10:16).
As the traditions and creeds of first the Roman Catholic Church and then
Protestantism developed, they changed this simple memorial of Christ’s death we
read about in the New Testament. One of the changes of to call it the Eucharist
and another was to describe it as a sacrament. The Lord’s Supper is never called
a “sacrament” or “The Eucharist” in the Bible – these are human doctrines and
concepts started by men.
We must be careful never to alter the teachings of the New Testament. God is
not pleased with such changes and warns that men lose their souls by doing so
(read Gal. 1:6-10; 2 Jno. 9; Rev. 22:18-19).
The following article provides some additional information about “The Eucharist”
from the Columbia Encyclopedia. If you have further questions please feel free
to write back.
Cordially yours,
Joe Price
INFOPLEASE.COM:
http://www.infoplease.com/ce5/CE017461.html
EUCHARIST
Pronunciation: [yOO´kurist] (key)
[Gr.,=thanksgiving], Christian sacrament that repeats the action of Jesus at his
last supper with his disciples, when he gave them bread, saying, “This is my
body,” and wine, saying, “This is my blood.” (Mat. 26; Mark 14; Luke 22; 1 Cor.
11.) Partaking is called communion. For Roman Catholics the sacrament is a
bloodless reenactment of the crucifixion and therefore an act of sacrifice, but
Protestant Christians reject the idea of the Eucharist as sacrifice. The
performance is called the Eucharistic liturgy; the Roman and Anglo-Catholic
liturgy is the Mass. The official Roman Catholic explanation of the change
taking place in the sacrament, called transubstantiation, is that the substances
of bread and wine are turned miraculously into the substance of Christ himself,
the elements changed retaining only the appearance, taste, etc. (the accidents)
of bread and wine. Catholic doctrine holds that the Godhead is indivisible so
every particle or drop thus changed is wholly identical in substance with the
divinity, body, and blood of the Crucified Savior. The views of the Orthodox
Eastern Church are similar. The Anglican Church has not formally defined the
sacrament. In receiving communion the Christian attains union with Jesus, and
all who partake are mystically united. Traditionally in the Mass (but not in
Eastern liturgies of the Roman Catholic Church) others than the celebrant
received the Host only, a practice that arose from the difficulty of transport
and storage of wine, and perhaps also because wine is more easily spilled and
dropped than bread. In this communion in one kind the believer was held to
receive the same divine whole as the celebrant, who receives both kinds at the
altar. Communion in two kinds was restored in the Roman Catholic Church in the
liturgical renewal proclaimed at the Second Vatican Council. The Roman Catholic
and Orthodox churches set conditions for the reception of communion, which is a
sign of membership; to be “in communion with” means mutual recognition of
membership in the true church. Devotion to the Eucharist (the Blessed Sacrament)
is important in the Roman Catholic Church. The object of the cult of the Blessed
Sacrament is the Host reserved in churches (see benediction and Corpus Christi).
Every leader of the Protestant Reformation attacked the traditional teaching of
the Eucharist. For the communion services in many Protestant churches, see
Lord’s Supper.
______________
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition Copyright ©1993, Columbia University
Press. Licensed from Inso Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Joe R Price
joe@bibleanswer.com
Bible Answers
http://www.bibleanswer.com
Mt. Baker church of Christ
http://www.bibleanswer.com/mtbaker
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