What saith the Scripture

  DOES THE NEW TESTAMENT SUPPORT THE ROMAN CATHOLIC VIEW OF COMMUNION? By Norman L. Geisler Introduction In the first three Gospels Jesus is represented as saying “this is my body” and “this is my blood” (Mt. 26:26, 28; Mark 14:21, 24; Lk. 22:19, 21) about the bread and wine at the Lord’s Supper.  This is repeated in 1 Corinthians 15:24.  On another occasion Jesus exhorted his disciples to “eat” his “flesh” and “drink” his blood” (John 6:52-58).  Roman Catholics base their doctrine of transubstantiation on these passages, affirming that bread and wine of the Communion are literally transformed into the physical body and blood of Christ, while retaining the outward appearance and characteristics of ordinary bread and wine.  

Sixth Vision: The Flying Scroll Zechariah 5:1–4  5 Again I looked up and saw a flying scroll. 2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits and its width ten cubits.” 3 Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land, for everyone who has stolen, as is forbidden on one side, has gone unpunished, and everyone who has sworn falsely, as is forbidden on the other side, has gone unpunished. 4 I have sent it out, says the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief and the house of anyone who swears falsely by my name, and it shall abide in that house and consume it, both timber and stones.” Job 16:19        19       Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,           and he who testifies for me is on high.         The parallelism now uses the Aramaic word “my advocate”—the one who testifies on my behalf. The word again appears in Gen 31:47 for Laban’s naming of the “heap of witness”

 Galatians 2:11–13 (NRSVue) 11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood self-condemned, 12 for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. 13 And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. Galatians 2:18 (NRSVue) 18 But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. What Peter has first pulled down is the wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles. With his yielding to the party of James he is now building this up again and characterising his previous attitude as παράβασις transgression, and himself as παραβάτης transgressor, violator.  The contrast between “destroy” (καταλύω, katalyō) and “rebuild” (πάλιν οἰκοδομέω, palin oikodomeō) refers most naturally to the law: if Peter, as a Jewish Christian, should try to