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The New Covenant is the sacrifice of Christ for the forgiveness of sin verses the Old Covenant of living by the law of Moses. The Old and New Covenant is compared in Hebrews Chap 8-9 and was foretold throughout the Old Testament (for example Jeremiah 31:31-33) and explained in the New Testament.

If people want to take Luke 22:20 literally

And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup, which is poured out for you, is the new covenant in My blood.

They would have to say it was the cup that died for our sins.

If people want to take John 6:52-54 litereally,

Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

Then they would have to conclude that Christ was literally referring to cannibalism and their response would be offensive (I hope).

There is nothing mystical about communion. Christ was simply making a point that we must repent to God and accept His death that He paid for the forgiveness of our sins. That is the new covenant. There will not be another covenant. Christ left this sacrament (communion) so that we could proclaim what He has done for us. Communion physically ties us to a direct act of Christ and a way in which we can proclaim Christ. That is a great honor and blessing in itself.

"Scientists" aren't doing that. Those are political players."

You might call them political players. They will call themselves scientists and undoubtedly will correct you if you do not call them "Doctor..."

I'm not sure why Christians make commmunion to be so mysterious or complicated. Paul states (via God)

"In the same way He also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes." 1 Corinthians 11:25-26

To me that is very clear.

You will always have the poor. Christ said so.

The Church's One Foundation

The Church's one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation
By water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her
And for her life He died.

She is from every nation,
Yet one o'er all the earth;
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.

John MacArthur gave an excellent sermon on this yesterday that puts things in perspective. In a nutshell, the scriptures teaches that this world is corrupt and under the influence of Satanic influence. There is NOTHING we are going to do to “influence” this world. Politically or otherwise. The only thing we can do is call people out of this world.

Things don't change because the world is corrupt. Thus the “war on poverty” has been going on for over fifty years with no results under Democrats or Republicans administrations because they are all under the influence of Satanic influence. The world says that they want to stamp out poverty but it hasn't. Christ said you will always have poor, and thus it is so. People want to save the planet but we cannot save the planet because it is headed for destruction. Our scientists are trying to convince us there are more than two genders no matter how mindless this is. God said that He made man and woman, period. The world system is against God. On and on and on....

That isn't to say we shouldn't stand up for what is right. It is only saying that we are not going to influence this world politically nor should we be discouraged when things are falling apart. Things are not going to get better. They are only going to get worst. This is what the scriptures teaches.

It sounds discouraging until one get to the end knowing that God will right all wrongs. This is NOT our homeland. And that is what is most reassuring. The church needs to get about their mission of calling people out of this darkness and into His light.

We might discuss the complexity of the purpose of the Bible, but I think it is fair to say you would agree that the Bible isn’t meant to be a political document.

Could have fit on two stone tablets.

HA! You can't know the redemptive plan until you know that NO one will follow those stone tablets. It took all those pages, all those people, all those examples just to remind us of that simple fact. And still we don't believe it, thinking we can live a good life.

1 Corinthians 10:6 Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they indeed craved them.

Her mother was probably so proud that her daughter got to be held by the President.

Of course, the Bible has always been a political document.

The Bible has NEVER been a political document. There is only ONE purpose of Scripture and that is to convict the world of sin, righteousness and of judgement. It is to call the elect to God and to tell about the judgement that will someday happen. People can't say they haven't been warned.

People have been twisting the Word of God to whatever ends they've wanted since Adam and Eve. It only proves the wickedness of man and validate what God has written.

My wife and I have experienced this first hand with our only son. Once he completed college he wrote us this very nasty email telling us all sorts of things that simply were not true. This came as a complete shock to both of us as we felt we had a wonderful relationship. My son married and he and his wife visited us one in over seven years. And then they spent a few hours with us and went to a wedding. We were used as a bed and breakfast. The most interesting part of this is they go to church and his wife has a degree in Christian counseling.

In the last seven years my wife and I have noticed how children treat their parents. The article numbers are probably on the low side based on just looking at some of the people in our circle. Those who "reconciled" to their children usually give in to their demands. Thus they're used as baby sitters (which is the only way they see the grandchildren) or they accept the berated attitudes heap upon them by their children in order to have a relationship (which is no relationship in my mind). We have decided that we will not pursue a relationship at the cost of our dignity.

Personally I think this is a sign of the end times that we are warned of in scripture.

2 Tim 3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

At no other time in history can I remember such a thing occuring-especially on a global scale. I think it's a darkening of the mind before the final judgement.

Interesting how they make this all sound so legal.

The Catholic Church have two understanding of grace. There is actual grace which you provided the definition for. Then there is the sanctifying grace which you are not mentioning. It is this sanctifying faith which the Catholic Church feels one needs to do in order to maintain their salvation. Thus one has to replenish this grace through the Eucharist, indulgences, and other works defined by the Catholic Church. It is these types of works that Luther rally against and said the Church was in error.

I'm not interested in what other Protestants have to say on the matter no more then what you would feel some liberal Cardinals would have to say on Gay marriage. The only true source of information is from the Holy Scriptures themselves. It plainly states (among other places):

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

We see here that grace is a ONE time act by which WE HAVE BEEN SAVED. There is no "sanctifying" grace nor is there anything that we must do to merit that favor. Nor does it state anywhere that grace comes to us through Baptism as you indicated in your post. God grants us His grace and we respond to HIm through our works. But we don't work to keep His grace.

If we received grace BECAUSE of Baptism are you saying that God does not give grace UNTIL one is Baptized? How one answers that question shows whether they believe in works as a method of salvation. It just underscores my (and Luther's) point.

The trouble with Catholicism is that they cannot understand WHAT God’s grace actually is. They may talk about it but they really don’t have a clue since they cannot distinguish between God’s grace and “man’s free will”. Thus they talk in endless circles never really understanding God’s grace. The Council of Trent dismissed the early church fathers’ writings and divided God’s grace into two parts (actual grace and sanctifying grace). Today the Catholic Church cannot give a simple definition of grace without a lot of gobbly-gook. If you think I’m being a bit harsh, I would call people attention to the Catholic Encyclopedia New Advent and the definition of grace. See if you can read through the definition before giving up half way down.

Protestants (most) simply define God’s grace as “the spontaneous, unmerited gift of the divine favour in the salvation of sinners, and the divine influence operating in man for his regeneration and sanctification.” That’s it. Period. It’s that simple. This btw was how the early church fathers viewed it. Amazing how men muddle up God’s simple words and makes thing far more complex then they need to be. But then, that is what the Pharisees did, isn’t it.

So when these types of articles pop up, it should be made clear that the Catholic Church doesn’t have the foggiest idea of what grace is despite all the talk about it.

Yeah, right! The only reason COVID is (reportedly) increasing is because of the illegals. I’ll believe there’s a crisis when they close the boarders.

It’s all a lie.

The least little thing goes wrong and many Protestants today also question God’s wrath. The real question is “Why is God so loving, gracious, and patience with willfully sinning people who absolutely hate what He stands for?”

The words justification and sanctification have largely fallen out of use in Western culture. Sadly, they are also fading from sight in the Christian church.

Although I think the author is right, but if these terms have faded from a "Christian" church, I would question whether that church is Christian at all. These are fundamental doctrines.

Don’t kid yourself. There are plenty of people who think Biden is doing a wonderful job despite high gas prices, lumber through the roof, illegal immigration explosion, murder rate on the rise, people want to live on welfare rather than work, etc.

But the MSM will keep touting the fake COVID crisis, climate change, and critical race theory until the next election. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

The issue isn't how "good" someone is who ends up in Hell. The issue is whether they love God enough to ask forgiven for their sins and desires to live a righteous life.

As far as someone being born in a remote Chinese village who never heard the word of God, if God wants to open their eyes and ears to hear the truth, then He will find a way.

John 7:17 If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.