Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Doctrine of the Real Absence!

I am glad to see several comments on my last post. We need to recover an appreciation for the ordinances. Too much of the conversation that has taken place in the past about the ordinances has stressed what they don’t do. That is we have devoted too much of our time arguing that the Church of Christ say too much happens at baptism and Catholics and Lutherans say too much happens in communion. Well, I differ with these groups, but we must work on understanding what these practices positively do mean.

Here is a winsome and wise quote from Millard Erickson (elder statesman of Baptist theology) on this point:

Out of a zeal to avoid the conception that Jesus is present in some sort of magical way, certain Baptists among others have sometimes gone to such extremes as to give the impression that the one place where Jesus most assuredly is not to be found is the Lord’s Supper. This is what one Baptist leader termed ‘the doctrine of the real absence’ of Jesus Christ. (Christian Theology [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books], 1123)

1 comment:

toms blog ID said...

Ray,
I found your take interesting. That Baptist's have avoided the Lord's Supper and Baptism because of what other religious groups have proclaimed about them. On Baptism, Do you feel that the Churches of Christ presented their views on Baptism in such a way to make Baptist's abandon a high view of baptism? Or was it more of we just don't want to be like someone else.
If it is the former then it is truly a sad situation that a Biblical example has been diminished because of Churches of Christ input towards others on Baptism, causing others to go the opposite way I would think they intended. As a member of the COC I pray that was not the case but if so I can only hope people will see past the messenger and see the message of Baptism being the opportunity to physically take part in the Death, Burial, and Resurrection, and how it was not separated in most instances from conversion in the bible.
God Bless
Tom Ward