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Many of the WMS members and former members believe that the bread and wine in the New Testament Passover celebration is transformed into the body and blood of Christ. When members leave, they are usually perplexed that only the Catholics (and Orthodox christians) professes the real presence of His Body and Blood in ‘the Eucharist.’ The problem for the former WMS member is they still believe this can only be celebrated once a year on the Hebrew calendar’s celebration of Passover.
But is this a valid assumption? We know that first Christians celebrated the Eucharist EVERY Sunday. We know this from early Christian writings like St. Justin Martyr and the Didache. But were the early Christians in error? Does their practice fit with the Biblical pattern?
The first Christians referred to the commemoration of the Lord’s Supper as, “the breaking of the bread.” After the Last Supper, Christ “broke the bread” again on the day of His Resurrection.
“And it came to pass, whilst he was at table with them, he took bread, and blessed, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him: and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to the other: Was not our heart burning within us, whilst he spoke in this way, and opened to us the scriptures? And rising up, the same hour, they went back to Jerusalem: and they found the eleven gathered together, and those that were staying with them, Saying: The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way; and how they knew him in the breaking of the bread.” Luke 24:30-35
Read that last line again. “they knew him in the breaking of the bread.” There is the real presence, again, on Easter Sunday.
The scriptures also testify that the first Christians kept the memorial of the Last Supper, or “breaking of the bread” on more than just Sundays.
“And they were persevering in the doctrine of the apostles, and in the communication of the breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: many wonders also and signs were done by the apostles in Jerusalem, and there was great fear in all. And all they that believed, were together, and had all things common. Their possessions and goods they sold, and divided them to all, according as every one had need. And continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they took their meat with gladness and simplicity of heart; Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord increased daily together such as should be saved.” Acts 2:42-47
The first converts at Pentecost concerned themselves with the teaching of the Apostles, “the breaking of the bread,” and prayer. We also read in verse 46 that they “broke the bread” daily.
In I Corinthians, Saint Paul indicates that the memorial of the Lord’s Supper was kept regularly, not just once a year.
“For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord, until he come.” I Corinthians 11:26
Notice that he says, “as often as” you do this. He did not say, “each year” or “when the Passover is celebrated.” Nowhere in Saint Paul’s writing on the breaking of the bread does he indicate that it is only kept on the feast of Passover.
But what about when God said that passover would be a perpetual memorial? Shouldn’t it be observed forever?
“This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.” Exodus 12:14
This is the same reason groups like the WMS and SDA worship on Saturday, rejecting Sunday worship.
“Let the children of Israel keep the sabbath, and celebrate it in their generations. It is an everlasting covenant. Between me and the children of Israel, and a perpetual sign. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and in the seventh he ceased from work.” Exodus 31:16-17
But these aren’t the only verses in which God establishes observances with the Jewish people that are to be “perpetual” or “continual,” “throughout generations” or “in their generations.”
Using the same type of language, among many other things, the Lord also established, animal sacrifices, grain offerings, incense offerings, offerings of the first fruits of harvest and dough, and the ritual washings of priests.
See Exodus 29:39-42, Lev 6:15-18; 23:13-14, Exodus 30:8, Numbers 15:21, Exodus 30:21
There is no church or sect that practices all of these things today, but the WMS and similar groups insist on some of them, even though God used the same strong language for all of them. Do they have the mark of the beast for not making offerings of incense?
Also consider what God required on the sabbath:
“See that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, and for this reason on the sixth day he giveth you a double provision: let each man stay at home, and let none go forth out of his place the seventh day.” Exodus 16:29
The WMS don’t stay home on the Sabbath. They go to church. So do Seventh Day adventists. So they aren’t keeping the Sabbath the way God enjoined on the Jews. Also notice that in scripture the first Christians did not stay home on the sabbath day.
God established certain practices for the Jews to be practiced perpetually “during their generations.” But the age or generation of the Jews has passed us by. They missed their visitation from the Lord. Now is the age of the Gentiles. It is a new generation, with a New Covenant, and new practices. Luke 21:24, Romans 11:25
When the Jews rejected Christ, they ceased to possess the true religion. The Bride of Christ, the Church, became the true religion. The temple sacrifices and all the practices of the Jewish nation had become empty and meaningless. They were rites whose meaning and purpose had been fulfilled once and for all in Christ, and were now practiced by an apostate nation.
So that the apostate Jewish nation could no longer boast, he destroyed their religion. He allowed the Romans to conquer Israel, destroy the temple, and destroy the records of Jewish lineage required for a valid priesthood. The temple was necessary for things like burnt offerings and incense offerings, which God had said were established as a perpetual rememberance, or for all generations. God took these things away, replaced by a new Christian religion.
Christ foretold the destruction of Jerusalem would take place before that generation passed away. For the Jews a generation was forty years, and forty years later the Romans destroyed the temple. Christ had warned the Christians to flee when these things were happening. He warned; “But pray that your flight be not in the winter, or on the sabbath.”
If the Christians were still following the sabbath, Christ would be telling them to break the law by leaving their homes on a sabbath day. He couldn’t have been doing that. Jerusalem was filled with marauders and persecutors of the Christian religion at that time. If they were seen fleeing on a sabbath day it would give them away as Christians and they would be in even greater danger.
The generation of the Jews as the people of God has come to a close. Now Christ and His body are the true people of God;
“Where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free. But Christ is all, and in all.” Colossians 3:11
The practices and miracles of the Old Covenant were all signs pointing to Christ, who has fulfilled them all once and for all. They are perpetual insofar as they have forever found their fulfillment in him. Christians are no longer bound by the law, but are bound by all the commands of Christ.
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