Francis Chan smashes reduction of Holy Communion to 'just a symbol'
DETROIT (ChurchMilitant.com) - A star evangelical preacher has shocked Protestants after preaching on the Real Presence of Jesus in Holy Communion and rejecting the exclusively symbolic interpretation of the Eucharist.
"I didn't know that for the first 1,500 years of church history
everyone saw it [the Eucharist] as the literal body and blood of
Christ," Francis Chan, megachurch pastor announced to his congregation
at Epiphany.
"And it wasn't till 500 years ago someone popularized a thought that
it's just a symbol and nothing more. I didn't know that!" Chan
exclaimed in his homily.
The pastor lamented the substitution of sermon for sacrament by
Protestant reformers: "For the first time, someone put a pulpit in the
front ... before that, it was always the body and blood of Christ that
was central."
I didn't know that for the first 1,500 years everyone saw Communion as the literal body and blood of Christ.Tweet
Pointing to himself, Chan observed that for 1,500 years it was "never
one guy and his pulpit at the center of the church" but "the body and
blood of Christ."
"I say that because the Church is more divided than at any time in history," he said, in his trademark jeans and checked shirt.
"We are so used to growing up at a time when there are literally over
30,000 denominations," bewailed Chan, attributing Church unity in
church history to the Eucharist:
It wasn't a pulpit where a guy preached after studying in his office by himself for 20 hours. Right now, we've got guys like me ... we go into our room, study, other guys go into their room and study and we all started giving different messages; so many contradicting each other. ... there was something about taking communion out of the center and replacing it with a gifted speaker ... the 'Body' itself needs to be back at the center of the church.
A former Anglican priest and biblical scholar told Church Militant
that his conversion to Catholicism was sparked by a discovery similar to
Chan: "While researching for a sermon series on the Eucharist, I
discovered to my shock that no one (except heretics) ever denied the
Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist for the first 1,500 years!"
He continued:
I offered a reward to anyone who could prove me wrong, discovering how only in the ninth century the monk Ratramnus argued that Jesus is present spiritually but not literally. Only in the 11th century, Berengarius of Tours propounded the proto-Protestant heresy that since Jesus was in Heaven he could not be in the Eucharistic species. But nobody took him seriously until the Protestant revolt.
In his 47-minute sermon, Chan expounds Acts 2:42 stressing how the
early church "devoted" themselves to the "Lord's Supper" and to prayer,
teaching and fellowship. "We are 'devoting' ourselves to other things,
but 'devotion' to communion? That's what's always bothered me, and it
still does, because I don't feel like we're there yet."
Quoting 1 Corinthians 11:27-30, Chan asked his congregation why St.
Paul warns the Corinthians that many of them are sick or have died
because they partook of Communion in an unworthy manner.
Continued
https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/megachurch-evangelical-pastor-preaches-eucharistic-real-presence
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