Zondervan - Understanding Four Views on the Lords Supper

UNDERSTANDING FOUR VIEWS ON THE LORDS SUPPER

Books in the Counterpoints Series

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Evaluating the Church Growth Movement

Exploring the Worship Spectrum

Remarriage after Divorce in Todays Church

Understanding Four Views on Baptism

Understanding Four Views on the Lords Supper

Who Runs the Church?

Exploring Theology

Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?

Five Views on Apologetics

Five Views on Law and Gospel

Five Views on Sanctification

Four Views on Eternal Security

Four Views on Hell

Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World

Four Views on the Book of Revelation

How Jewish Is Christianity?

Show Them No Mercy

Three Views on Creation and Evolution

Three Views on Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism

Three Views on the Millennium and Beyond

Three Views on the Rapture

Two Views on Women in Ministry

ZONDERVAN

Understanding Four Views on the Lords Supper

Copyright 2007 by John H. Armstrong

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ePub Edition January 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-54275-9

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Moore, Russell, 1971.

Understanding four views on the Lords Supper / Russell D. Moore.

p. cm. (Counterpoints : church life)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-310-26268-8

1. Lords Supper. I. Title.

BV825.3.M66 2007

234'.163 dc22

2007014707

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: NewInternational Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture references marked TNIV are taken from the Holy Bible, Todays New InternationalVersion. TNIV. Copyright 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

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CONTENTS

JOHN H. ARMSTRONG

RUSSELL D. MOORE

I. JOHN HESSELINK

DAVID P. SCAER

THOMAS A. BAIMA

I. JOHN HESSELINK

RUSSELL D. MOORE

DAVID P. SCAER

THOMAS A. BAIMA

DAVID P. SCAER

RUSSELL D. MOORE

I. JOHN HESSELINK

THOMAS A. BAIMA

THOMAS A. BAIMA

RUSSELL D. MOORE

I. JOHN HESSELINK

DAVID P. SCAER

JOHN H. ARMSTRONG

John H. Armstrong

From my earliest remembrance, as I was growing up in an evangelical Christian church, I thought often about the Lords Supper. In front of me every week, in a plain and mostly unadorned sanctuary, were the words of the Lord Jesus, carved into the table below the pulpit: Do This in Remembrance of Me. This meal was not celebrated very often in my home church, but when it was included in our worship, it had a strong attraction for me. I remembering asking my parents, When can I take it? and, What does this mean? Or even, Why do we do this? (I even recall asking, Why do we do this so infrequently?) The answers I got were not entirely satisfactory. But the attraction I felt to this celebration grew even stronger over time. To many of my friends the ceremony seemed somber, but to me it was thrilling, a time filled with hope and joy. I understood that it was vitally important for my life as a Christian, but I had no idea why. I also knew that I wanted to partake of it as a Christian who truly loves the Lord.

How odd it is that we Christians need to be reminded by a simple and recurring meal. We have been redeemed through the precious blood of our Messiah, Jesus, yet we are prone to forget his great act of sacrifice. But our Lord understands perfectly well our weakness and thus made provision for us to come again and again to this table so that we do not forget.

More than five decades later, I am still thinking about this awesome and simple meal. Why is this ceremony so important for Christians? What is the appeal in the taking of bread and wine to remember Christs death in our gathered church meetings? And why is it that this particular meal is still practiced by almost every Christian alive today when Christians have consistently disagreed about its precise meaning for nearly twenty centuries?

Donald Bridge and David Phypers, in a helpful overview of the Lords Supper, describe an imaginary viewer watching a religious channel on television. He sees many sights, sounds, and forms coming from various Christian groups all over the world. In the midst of this wide-ranging diversity, he takes note of the following:

[There] is one thing the oddly different groups do have in common. They all make rather special use of bread and wine. The use they make of it is bewilderingly different, but they all use it. If [this viewer] sticks with the program for a few weeks, he will soon discover that Christians have not only done different things with the bread and wine, but have done terrible things to each other because of it. Men and women have been imprisoned, whipped, pilloried, tortured, and burned alive because of differing opinions about what really happens when Christians eat bread and drink wine and remember their Lord.

All Christians the world over trace their practice of the Lords Supper back to that evening prior to Jesus horrific death when he shared a final meal with his disciples in a large upper room (Luke 22:12). During that meal Jesus said to his followers, first of the bread that he gave to them, This is my body (Matt. 26:26), then later of the cup, which he also gave to them, This is my blood of the covenant (Matt. 26:28). In so doing, Jesus commanded his followers that they should do this in remembrance of me (Luke 22:19). It appears he intended that they would celebrate this meal again and again. This is how the apostle Paul understood the event, since we read that both the bread and the cup should be taken in remembrance of me [Jesus], just as Jesus commanded (1 Cor. 11:24 25).