What Christadelphians believe about ...

The Lord's Supper

When the Lord Jesus gave his last commission to the apostles he said, " Go and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20). Among those things was the observance of the Lord's supper.

Christ appoints it

At his last Passover, Christ said to his disciples, "With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God" (Luke 22:15, 16). And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it, and brake it, 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 covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom" (Matthew 26: 26,29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:13-20; 1 Corinthians 11:27).

From that day to this, wherever there have been any real friends of Christ, they have done this in remembrance of him in hope of the Father's Kingdom.

Apostolic custom

Of those who were baptised on the day of Pentecost, we read: "They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers" (Acts 2:42). Of Paul at Troas we read: "Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them" (Acts 20:7).

A further reference to the customary meeting is found in 1 Corinthians 16:2. Some of the Corinthians had transformed "the Lord's supper" into a disorderly love feast in which "one was hungry and another drunken." Paul rebuked this, and said: "I have received of the Lord that which also I have delivered unto you"; and he rehearsed the Lord's appointment of this supper in "the same night in which he was betrayed," and added, "As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come … Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup " (1 Corinthians 11:17-34). All this concerns a simple weekly remembrance of Christ's death in the hope of his coming again, and performed in the spirit of humble self-examination. Therefore, "Forsake not the assembly" (Hebrews 10:25).

Magic?

There is no Bible justification for the doctrine of transubstantiation, that is, belief that the bread and wine change into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ. When Christ said "This is my body … given … my blood … shed", his body was there and his blood had not as yet been shed. It might as well be said that Christ is literally a "rock" ("that rock was Christ "- 1 Corinthians 10:4) or that "we are literally bread" (1 Corinthians 10:14-17).

Nor is there Bible justification for withholding the wine from the ordinary worshippers. Christ clearly said, "Drink ye all of it."

The Passover in the Kingdom of God

Christ said the Passover should be "fulfilled in the kingdom of God" (Luke 22:16). Then the apostles will eat and drink at his table in his kingdom (verse 30). And in that day when the Lord's throne is in Jerusalem, this shall be the divine order: " In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month ye shall have the passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten. And upon that day shall the Prince (i.e. Christ) prepare for himself, and for all the people of the land, a bullock for a sin-offering" (Ezekiel 45:21-22). Study carefully the last nine chapters of Ezekiel.