Section Eight: the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper
To the Christians the Lord’s Supper is
pieces of bread plus a cup of wine. A Christian believes that the bread he
eats will change into the flesh of Christ although it still tastes as
bread; and the cup of wine will change into the blood of Christ although
it still tastes as wine. Belief in this is inevitable albeit it does not
agree with reality. This supper is not confined to a certain time; it is
eaten on Easter Day or on any other times but it must be eaten in the
church; therefore, “people should be notified two weeks prior to its
date.”
The Protestant sect does not accept the claim that bread and wine change
into the flesh and blood of Christ, but takes this as a symbol of what
happened to Christ (peace be upon him) and as a relic of his crucifixion
for the good of human beings. Matthew relates that Jesus (peace be upon
him) broke bread into pieces and gave it to the disciples, and said:
“Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and
gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the
New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”
“This event (the Lord’s Supper) in its
entirety is not mentioned in John. This is amazing, for the Lord’s Supper
is one of the most significant beliefs and rituals of the church! John,
the author of the Gospel, was among the Disciples who attended that
supper. Why did he not mention it then?”
Shaikh Rahmatullah al-Hindi discredits
this doctrine, which Catholics strongly believe in, saying: “If what you
allege of eating the flesh of Christ and drinking his blood in the Lord’s
Supper were true, you would be worse and more wicket than the Jews, for
the Jews tortured and tormented him once but they did not eat his flesh or
drink his blood or crush his bones…! In contrast, you slaughter him
everyday in various places and break his bones into pieces on every
occasion.”
If that was really what Christ wanted, as you allege, why do the
Protestants not believe in it since the Gospel states it on behalf of
Jesus? In reality, the notion of the Lord’s Supper was an attractive
notion in the ancient heathen world, for they believed that whoever ate of
the corpse of the dead god and drank of his blood would become immortal.
For instance, “Ancient Egyptians used to worship the god Osiris and they
would make a body of wheat dough representing him and then eat it as a
sanctified sacrifice, thinking that they would receive power from the body
and blood of Osiris.
The grains symbolized Osiris, the bread
made from wheat was a sacred meal and the beer that was fermented barley
juice was a sacred drink. They believed that the bread and the beer were
the body and blood of Osiris literally and not figuratively.
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