Careless ninks you make a viral podcast.

Welcome back to the Naked Bible Podcast. Today we begin a new topic and with it a

short series on a doctrine that most listeners will have heard of or experienced

firsthand. I think it would be difficult to find anyone who has spent any time

in a Christian church or any denomination who has not heard of the Lord's

supper, also known as communion or the Lord's table. But while most listeners

will have heard of the doctrine before, I'm willing to bet few have really

thought about or perhaps stated more precisely, have ever questioned what

they've been taught about it in light of their own reading of the scriptures.

Now I've worshipped in a variety of traditions and taught theology for

close to 15 years. I'm not kidding when I say that I'm convinced that this

doctrine is one of the least critically examined of all biblical doctrines.

If I made a top 10 list of things churches do without much thinking, this would

be on the list for sure. I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard one of

the following unexamined statements about the Lord's supper. Number one, Jesus

literal body and blood is somehow physically present in the bread and wine or

juice. Now this of course is the Roman Catholic conception of communion or

trans substantiation. That is where the bread and wine are transformed into the

flesh and blood of Jesus at communion. Really? Does the Bible ever say that in

connection with communion? Does Jesus or parts of Jesus really spend time even a

moment in a baked item or a cup or our stomachs? If we're receiving grace, why

does it have to come through our stomachs anyway? Do we expel part of Jesus when

...