Lost in History
Jesus came to earth to give us the greatest inheritance one could imagine: His very life within us. Just as the Father sent Him, He wanted us to be sent, doing even greater signs and wonders than He had done while on earth. He wanted the supernatural reality and power of His kingdom to be manifested in us. For this, He trained His disciples to appropriate for themselves all that he had conquered for us. His Apostles understood it. They not only lived it, but they taught it in such a way that the whole first century church moved in this might. God’s impact on earth was visible in unprecedented ways. His love and His power filled every Christian. Jesus was visible in each believer, and therefore, the book of Acts was being written in the midst of awesome manifestations of the Spirit of God. Today we read about that glorious church and yearn for what they had. However, those days seem so distant. We still wonder where are the keys that opened the doors to so much power and love, and the keys to our real inheritance. The key is hidden in the great legacy Jesus left us: the mystery of Communion. Unlike our practice today, the breaking of bread was much more than merely a ritual for the early Christians. We need to realize that everything we need is contained in that one act of Communion. That is, if we are able to properly understand it. And they continued steadfastly in the Apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles. Acts 2:42-43 The Apostles obviously taught them to persevere in these truths, and due to this, the fear of God and His holiness prevailed in the Church, producing so many signs and wonders. God is speaking again today what He had revealed to those early believers, because the unity among the brethren, holiness and wonders need to be restored. The Spirit of Religion Destroyed the Life The early church had the pure essence of life. The Holy Spirit came upon them so powerfully that everything that Jesus was came alive in the believers. They lived a spiritual reality and a dependence upon the Holy Spirit rarely seen today. But this was lost little by little. The subtle spontaneity characterizing the life hidden in this mystery became something mechanical, contaminated by religion. What was once alive gradually became a ritual. With the death of the founding fathers of the Church, many revelations were forgotten. Traditions and the ways of men began to spring up in the Church like weeds and thistles. The Sacrament throughout History With the death of the Church patriarchs, the Church lost its spirituality. It lost its dependence upon the Holy Sprit as the fountain of all divine knowledge, and it began to depend upon men. Because of the scarcity of apostolic writings and ancient testaments, obviously due to the nonexistence of the printing press, religious men of the times turned the Church into a ritualistic system. In the 4 th century, it was further contaminated by the Roman Empire when Emperor Constantine fused Roman paganism and Christianity. In the 9 th century, controversy began over Communion. Unfortunately, this occurred during a time of great darkness when magic and superstition were prevalent. These influences filtered into the Church. Radertus introduced mysticism and the supernatural of his time to the Church, bringing to Rome the theory of transubstantiation. He taught that when the words of the Eucharist were spoken, the elements literally changed into the body and blood of Christ. Ratramnus, who held the Augustinian position that the Lord’s presence was merely spiritual, radically opposed Radertus. Against great opposition, transubstantiation became official in the Fourth Council of 1215, and Saint Augustine’s theology lost the battle. The theories of Radertus originated in Egyptian rituals, such as those performed to the god Osiris in the Temple of Amon-Ra thousands of years before Christ. In this ceremony, the priest would invoke the spirit of Osiris with the sound of a bell, raising his arms toward a flaming star with five points. When the clear liquid in the cup of consecration changed to pink, they would know that their god had manifested himself. This was one of the topics of greatest controversy in the period of the reformation of the 16 th century. In the Council of Trent (1545 – 1563), it was added that the bread and the wine must be worshipped, as they were equivalent to God Himself. This belief is still held today in the Roman Catholic Church. Different opinions emerged in an effort to discover the truth about this key Christian doctrine, creating conflict among the reformers. Although there were differing positions, all of them opposed transubstantiation. Martin Luther, leader of the German Reformation, wrote in “ The Babylonian Captivity of the Church” : “It is an error that opposes Scripture, goes against reason, is contrary to our senses of sight, smell, taste and touch. It destroys the true meaning of this sacrament and leads to great superstition and idolatry.” He also criticized the Church for denying the people access to the Communion chalice and for teaching that Communion is a sacrifice offered to God. Here the priest offers to God the very body and blood of Christ, repeating the atoning sacrifice of our Lord, but without the shedding of blood. The true sacrament of the altar, Luther states, is God’s promise of the forgiveness of sins. This promise is provided for with the death of His Son. Since it is a promise, access to God is not obtained by works or by our efforts to please Him, but by faith. In 1524, Luther began his attack on the doctrine of transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the altar, founding his argument on Scriptures: But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once unto the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Hebrews 9:11-12 Though he remained in firm opposition to these doctrines, he always agreed with Saint Augustine that during Communion the believer truly receives the body and blood of Christ. Among the contemporaries of Luther was Ulrich Zwingli, who led part of the Swiss Reformation. He came from a humanistic background, which caused him to differ in his theology from the German reformer. Zwingli removed the presence of God from Communion, stating that it was simply a symbolic act during which Christ was totally absent. Calvin’s position fell between those of Luther and Zwingli. He maintained that there was a genuine receiving of the body and blood of Jesus during Communion, but that it occurred at the spiritual level. Like Luther, Calvin believed that the elements of Communion were signs of Christ’s presence, opposing Zwingli who believed Christ to be absent. Luther and Calvin maintained that Christ was present, nourishing the believers with His body and His blood. The Calvinist position is the one largely held by the Evangelical church, as well as the one with the greatest acceptance among contemporary Catholic and Lutheran theologians. This position states: Holy Communion is a ritual instituted by Jesus in which bread is broken and the fruit of the vine is drunk in an act of thanksgiving for the atoning sacrifice of Christ. In this sacramental act, the Holy Spirit blesses Communion with the body and blood of Jesus, in anticipation of our future salvation. Due to these declarations, what we have today is a ritual. We have a religious act that has virtually no effect on believers. It’s a formality that is performed periodically in our churches. It’s a “must do” sacrament that has completely lost the essence of what it meant to the early church. God is calling us to go back to the beginning, to seek Him in order to find what it was that He left us by way of inheritance. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. Acts 3:20-21 Today’s Church is beautiful and has powerful anointing, but falls short in the most important areas. It lacks brotherly love, the supernatural power and life of God manifested in every believer, and the fear of God that leads to true holiness. Without these three things we are just tinkling cymbals, clouds without water blown to and fro. We are the lovely façade of an empty building. The sound emanating from the Church today is ambiguous. We preach that we have a personal relationship with Christ, but the vast majority of Christians has only a mental concept of Him, without really knowing Him. We preach about His great love and power, while the Church is fragmented and divided throughout the world, filled with gossip and destruction. It is full of sick, indebted people, and for the most part is in financial need. We preach that we love Him, the majority of believers does not seem to find keeping His commandments important. However, Jesus did say, “He that loveth me keepeth my commandments.” Why? One question begs to be answered: If we are supposed to have everything, why don’t we really have it? The early church walked in a profound love for one another. In Jerusalem, they became of one heart and one soul, so much so that they held everything in common. They had so much power that it amazed everyone. It was irrefutable that the supernatural presence of God manifested among them. The fear of God sustained their holy lives. For this reason the heavens were manifested in their midst. They saw angels. They were supernaturally transported from one place to another and witnessed extraordinary miracles. The sound they produced was real. They lived what they spoke and it shook the entire world. The reason they reached this level is that they understood the Holy Communion in a living, powerful way. For them it was not just a ritual, but an intimate union of the Spirit of Christ with the Spirit of Man. Through numerous years of taking Communion as they took it and through a life similar to the way they lived, I found the most important element of the legacy of Christ. In these pages it is my desire to give you what He has given to me so that you may reach the fulfillment of your Christian life.