Attempting to provide a succinct summary of what the Westminster Confession of Faith has to say on the subject of the Lord's Supper, especially within the broader context of its treatment of sacraments as a whole, is a daunting prospect. Nevertheless, a few observations can be made with safety:
1. Regular participation in the Lord's Supper ("as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup") is a right, a privilege, and a duty of the Christian who truly places faith in Christ. This is one important means by which God feeds and sustains the Body of Christ.
2. Jesus Christ is specially present in the Lord's Supper in a unique way, but not in the way considered by Roman Catholics or Lutherans. And the memorialists have missed something very significant (multiple meanings intended).
3. There is a reason, worked out in history, why so much of the conflict between biblical Christians and Roman Catholicism has centered upon the Supper. Faithful Protestant forebears paid the ultimate earthly price to defend their Christian views from wrong-headed fanatics and partisans. We disgrace their memory when we lightly dismiss the differences that are still very much in evidence.
4. Similarly, a light view of the Supper disregards the great danger in which unworthy participants place themselves. The Church must regain right thinking on the Supper so that the blessings abound and the curses are forefended.
Tomorrow: Biblical government of the church.
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