[Dr. Eckleburg]

Read the link I posted last night by Calvin regarding the Lord's Supper. He was light-years from the RC. It's only revisionism that says otherwise.

Calvin believed, as Presbyterians believe, that the Lord's Supper was more than simply a memorial; he believed that Christ was spiritually present in the sacrament which seems clear from Scripture. How could any Christian deny this?

But in no way did Calvin assert it was anything like what the Romanists believe. Far, far from it.

SHORT TREATISE ON THE SUPPER OF OUR LORD

43. OTHER ABUSES ARISING OUT OF AN IMAGINARY BODILY PRESENCE.

This perverse opinion, after it was once received, engendered numerous other superstitions. First of all comes that carnal adoration which is mere idolatry. For to prostrate ourselves before the bread of the Supper, and worship Jesus Christ as if he were contained in it, is to make an idol of it rather than a sacrament. The command given us is not to adore, but to take and eat. That, therefore, ought not to have been presumptuously attempted...

[HarleyD]

Thanks Dr. E. I noticed your excellent post to A-G after I posted my comment. Unfortunately I'm in a hurry so I'll have to read later. Calvin make so much more sense than some of the things I've been reading lately. ;O)

[HarleyD]

Why Dr. E (if I may call you that), I believe you're going to make a Presbyterian out of me yet. If we could only do something about that infant baptism thing. ;O)

What an excellent article that I couldn't agree with more. I especially liked the part:

We must necessarily be under great trouble and torment of conscience, when we consider who we are, and examine what iS in us. For not one of us can find one particle of righteousness in himself, but on the contrary we are all full of sins and iniquities, so much so that no other party is required to accuse us than our own conscience, no other judge to condemn us. It follows that the wrath of God is kindled against us, and that none can escape eternal death. If we are not asleep and stupified, this horrible thought must be a kind of perpetual hell to vex and torment us. For the judgment of God cannot come into our remembrance without letting us see that our condemnation follows as a consequence.....

We are then already in the gulf, if God does not in mercy draw us out of it. Moreover, what hope of resurrection can we have while considering our flesh, which is only rottenness and corruption? Thus in regard to the soul, as well as the body, we are more than miserable if we remain within ourselves, and this misery cannot but produce great sadness and anguish of soul. Now our heavenly Father, to succour us in this, gives us the Supper as a mirror, in which we may contemplate our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified to take away our faults and offences, and raised again to deliver us from corruption and death, restoring us to a celestial immortality.