Intersting response. I will beleive your saying it is figurative if you show me 1 instance in the early churches where they believed communion and the eucharist were not the real presence - just one exampl before say 400 a.d.
If it is as you say, it should be easy to find many, many examples. For the record I can point to multiple early teachings that the body and blood are the real presence in that time period.
What you can point to are documents that make this claim...Whether they have been forged or not, we don't know...It's public record that many of your church documents that proclaim authority have been forged and some are still being used today...
One good example is the writings of Ignatius, I believe it is...There exist two sets of the same documents from Ignatius...One set says absolutely nothing about Rome or Romish ideas...The other set is full of Rome...It's been suggested by some researchers that Eusibius was the author of the set containing the references to Rome...
Intersting response. I will beleive your saying it is figurative if you show me 1 instance in the early churches where they believed communion and the eucharist were not the real presence - just one exampl before say 400 a.d.
Wouldn't be any such material...But some of the writing of the earliest fathers do not mention the Eucharist...Likely because it didn't exist...If the Eucharistic sacrifice existed, EVERY church father would have focused on it...And like I said, no one knows what has been forged for certain, only that known forgeries exist...