Apologetics

Is communion really the body and blood of Christ?

Against the charge that believing communion is truly Christ's body and blood amounts to idolatry, he says there are no quotations from any historical source in the early church denying the real presence: the church had a priesthood in apostolic succession and liturgical texts calling down the Holy Spirit on the bread and wine. His clinching argument is St Paul's warning that some who ate and drank unworthily 'have fallen asleep' — meaning they truly participated in the body and blood of Christ and it killed them because they were unprepared. Of the Protestant cracker and grape juice, he agrees that is not the body and blood of Christ — but says no one can claim that view is the historical teaching of the church.

1 Corinthians 11:30