Posted on 05/14/2026 5:06:29 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Well-known Christian pastor Francis Chan is raising questions after comments he made about the history of Holy Communion.
“I didn’t know that for the first 1,500 years of church history, everyone saw it as the literal body and blood of Christ…And it wasn’t until 500 years ago that someone popularized a thought that it’s just a symbol and nothing more. I didn’t know that. I thought, ‘Wow, that’s something to consider.’”
Chan wants the body of Christ -- not the pastor, pulpit or the sermon -- at the center of the church once again in the United States. He said this would unite churches once again, instead of having tens of thousands of denominations.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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Too much baby thrown out with the bathwater as a reaction to Rome.
However a shift is taking place.
There is a trend now among Evangelical churches towards observing liturgical hallmarks like Ash Wednesday and Lent. Advent as well. Less aversion among preachers in citing official “saints.” And a greater emphasis on early Church fathers and practices in seminaries…
Four Reasons Why the Virgin Mary Deserves More Attention Among Protestants (by a Protestant)
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/4378811/posts
Editorial: A plea for the recovery of the sacraments
https://www.midamerica.edu/uploads/files/pdf/journal/11-intro.pdf
“it wasn’t until 500 years ago that someone popularized a thought that it’s just a symbol and nothing more”
That ‘someone’ would be Jean Calvin, the progenitor of the Baptist tradition in the U.S.
According to Nicolaus Hunnius, of all the so-called ‘protestant’ traditions, there are only 2 blood lines; Calvinism and Lutheranism.
Only the [orthodox] Lutherans remain liturgical and Sacramental.
“…there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live” 1 Cor 8:6 and “Is Christ divided?” 1 Cor 1:13
As people we naturally find division but Christ is one. Please for once guys refrain from the reflexive back and forth bashing.
Well said.
The Holy Spirit is the blood of Christ. That is what we are inviting into our bodies during communion.
That’s why I love Jesus’s comments in John 14. I am in my Father and My Father is in Me.
Further down Jesus states that “If I am in you, then My Father that is in Me is also in you.”
That’s what communion is all about. Just as Jesus stated that “My Father and I are One,” we can be One with Jesus and have Our Father in us at the same time.
I use Russian Nesting Dolls to explain and demonstrate this concept, where we are the little doll in the middle, God is the big outer doll, and Jesus is a doll between us and God.
Thus, also in John 14, “No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
The problem is that people do not understand “souls,” how they grow and expand through earthly experiences, until they transcend the physical bodies and fully experience being “One with Jesus and God.” That’s why wounds to the soul are far more dangerous than wounds to the flesh.
Jesus Christ baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and with fire, as stated by John the Baptist in the Gospels (Matthew 3:11, Luke 3:16). This baptism signifies both the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.
Communion is the continuation and reinforcement of Baptism.
I’ve had many visions in the past thirty years of a “New Pentecost” in our future on a far greater scale than Peter experienced, where the Holy Spirit fills the souls of many people on earth at the same time.
Traditions of men.
Hard to believe this guy doesn’t know the difference between transubstantiation and consubstantiation. I would think his congregation might want to evaluate his qualifications.
It was handed down from Jesus Christ through the Apostles. It is a tradition of God, not man. The denial of the Real Presence is a tradition of man.
That ‘someone’ would be Jean Calvin, the progenitor of the Baptist tradition in the U.S.
According to Nicolaus Hunnius, of all the so-called ‘protestant’ traditions, there are only 2 blood lines; Calvinism and Lutheranism.
Only the [orthodox] Lutherans remain liturgical and Sacramental.>>.. some of your history is a bit off. Baptists came from the anabaptists. Calvin was Reformed churches most notably Presbyterian. Moravians were also a part of church history. Most baptists would not consider themselves calvinist. Mostly due to the doctrine of predestination.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/baptism
Francis Chan has been having mental problems for quite some time now. It’s hard to figure out what exactly he believes.
Apathy of Mary? She is a saint, just like any other true believer in Christ. She will be resurrected into glory, just like any other true believer in Christ. Nothing more and nothing less.
Man this Catholic chauvinism and Protestant whatever
Is utterly ridiculous
They hope you'll forget, but if you ever make the mistake of converting you'll be reminded soon and often enough.
The trend toward apostasy is interesting. But it’s believable, considering that in end times there will be a falling away from the faith. Make Scripture take a back seat to made-up stuff.
We went to a church for a while that did man-made rituals like Lent and Advent. It was sort of hilarious. “And now let’s take the Yellow Brick Road to the Fellowship Hall.”
And he'd be wrong in his assertion that "everyone" saw it as the literal body and blood.
“Francis Chan has been having mental problems for quite some time now. It’s hard to figure out what exactly he believes.
Apathy of Mary? She is a saint, just like any other true believer in Christ. She will be resurrected into glory, just like any other true believer in Christ. Nothing more and nothing less.”
Chan is a nut - false prophet like most of the major promoted preachers in the US. Communion is symbolic to remember Christ sacrifice. It does not magically turn into real blood or flesh. The church in Acts understood this. Then the papacy came along and perverted it for their purposes.
This is an old argument on this site. Catholics will never give an inch. Neither will Calvinists. But if everyone would just read Scripture rather than passing on the words and traditions of men - men long dead and rotting in the ground - they might be in a better position to comment rather than push cultists propaganda.
Luther’s Jewish Problem
…The Jews and Their Lies,was written by Luther in 1543, three years before his death. It was closely followed by another antisemitic treatise: Vom Schem Hamphoras (On the Ineffable Name). Oxford University historian Lyndal Roper summarizes the content of these two works in her recent highly acclaimed biography, Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet…
… As a Jewish believer in Jesus, however, Reformation 500 puts me in a strange position. Luther’s gospel service cannot be denied; I myself have benefited from it greatly. But his attitude toward my own race was one of unrestrained hostility. How should I think about such a man? To frame the question more broadly, how should Luther’s antisemitism affect his legacy?…
… Soon after Kristallnacht (when the Nazis destroyed Jewish synagogues and businesses), Bishop Martin Sasse published a tract titled Martin Luther on the Jews: Away with Them! Sasse quoted from Luther’s 1543 writings and argued Luther’s goal was finally being achieved…
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/luthers-jewish-problem/
Hi kvan, most modern Evangelicals in the US do not ascribe to either transubstantiation OR consubstantiation...
If communion is even practiced at all, it’s treated like a symbolic memory exercise. Not divine in any way.
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