Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig.

Today, the Doctrine of the Church, Part 9.

For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonable faith.org.

We've been talking about the Lord's Supper, and last time we surveyed biblical data concerning the Lord's Supper. And last time we surveyed biblical data concerning the Lord's

Supper. Now, obviously, there are different interpretations of these passages on the part

of different confessions within Christendom. Some understand the Lord's Supper in a sacramental sense. They hold that these passages

indicate that the Lord's Supper is in some sense a special means of God's grace. Others, however,

think of the Lord's Supper merely as a sort of memorial meal that is done in remembrance of Christ and his death.

So let's look today at some of the various theological interpretations of the practice of the Lord's Supper.

First, the strongest, and I think we can say,

the most radical interpretation of the Lord's Supper,

is the doctrine of transubstantiation.

This doctrine is taught in the Roman Catholic Church.

According to the doctrine of transubstantiation,

the wine and the bread consecrated by the priest are actually turned into the body and blood of Christ.

Now, you might say, well, it certainly doesn't look that way. If you were to

analyze these elements chemically, it's just bread and wine. It's not blood in human flesh that is

there. But here, Catholic theologians have distinguished

along the lines of classical Aristotelian metaphysics

between a substance and its accidents, or contingent properties.

The substance of a thing is the thing itself. For example, I am essentially a human being,

but I have a certain weight, a certain skin color, a certain number of hairs on my head, a certain height. And these are all

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