What is really the Lords Supper and its significance to the new convert?

The last evening that our Lord was with his disciples (the day we would term Thursday) was the opening night of the fourteenth of Nisan (first month of the Jewish calendar).  This would be the last meal that our Lord would eat with his 12 disciples before his crucifixion.  It was so important that he spoke of it in Luke 22:15: “And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer:” Jesus knew that he would not be able to eat the Passover meal on the next evening because by then he would have been offered up as a sacrifice (crucified).  He became the Passover lamb for the world as it says in 1 Corinthians 5:7,  “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.”  In the scriptures below Jesus gives a new command to his disciples.

Jesus Institutes the Lord’s Supper (Matt. 26:26-29)

“Now as they were eating (the Passover), Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Our Lord took bread and brake it as he explained that it represented his body that would be broken for them.  He then gave it to his disciples to eat with a gentle command “do it in remembrance of me” and likewise after supper he took the cup, gave thanks  and explained that it symbolized his blood that would be shed for them. 

We know that there is no power in merely eating bread and drinking wine as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, but it is the remembering of the sacrifice he willingly made not only on our behalf but on behalf of the whole world.  The significance to the new convert is to remember that we as disciples are to celebrate the memorial of Jesus’ death.  When we annually commemorate his sacrifice, we should do it with those of the Christian faith who with heartfelt love and appreciation for the greatest sacrifice known to man, give thanks in memorial to our Lord. 

Why is Catholicism so different to Christianity? Who invented Catholicism?

First, it is necessary to state in the strongest words, that any criticisms of religious systems focuses only on the departure of that system’s belief and practice from Biblical principles.  We are concerned with systems and their errors.  Principle—always.  People—never.  There are saintly people in all church systems including Catholicism and the earnest desire of every Christian would be that reasoned dialogue based on scripture would change erring beliefs. Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Theresa of Calcutta embraced all of Catholicism’s most serious doctrinal errors.  At the same time, she was a very special and blessed soul who used every bit of strength she had in her tiny frame to show God’s love and Christ’s humility to some of the poorest and most destitute of humanity.

No single person invented any church system, particularly Catholicism, which is quite diverse.  Over the centuries, the errors that would amalgamate as Catholicism accumulated.  They continue to accumulate to this day.  

Let us consider just one example to illustrate a process that took place many times.  The Memorial or “remembrance” of our Lord is set forth in Luke 22:19 “And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.”  This solemn, yet simple act of once-per-year “remembrance” of our Lord’s death (1 Corinthians 11:23) should be in the minds and hearts of every single Christian as we approach the Passover season, mistakenly called Easter.  Our Lord’s one sacrifice, given one time at such great cost is more than sufficient to satisfy justice for Adam’s transgression.

The solemn, yet simple act of “remembrance” we are asked to keep was transformed into a re-created sacrifice of the actual blood and body of Christ.  No one may perform this miracle but Catholic-authorized “priests”—a term never used once for any church servants in the New Testament—and the priest is sacrificing the son of God afresh on an “altar.” The solemn warning of Hebrews 6:6, “…they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” seems entirely to have been cast aside.  The Lord’s Supper eventually was called the “mass” and this “sacrifice” could take place as often during the day as wanted.  

The beginnings were slow, Ignatius of Antioch (~35-108 A.D.) overlaps the apostolic period and may be one of the false teachers warned against by the Apostle John (1 John 4:1).  Ignatius speaks about “God existing in flesh…even Jesus Christ our Lord.” And then he writes “It is not lawful to baptize or give communion without the consent of the bishop.”  Thus he promotes both false doctrine on the Lord’s Memorial while elevating the clergy which also is harmful and wrong.   Justin Martyr (~100-165 A.D.) from what today is called Nabulus, Israel. He is the first one to speak of “transmutation” clearly abandoning the proper meaning of the Memorial service.  It took nearly one thousand years before the Catholic doctrine of the “transubstantiation” was officially adopted with all the wrinkles worked out.

The challenge for the early church was that the simple justice of Christ’s ransom got re-interpreted through the eyes of gentile belief unfamiliar with the principles of the Jewish law and teachings of the Jewish prophets.  The conflict between the Jewish system of belief and the gentile system of belief came early on for the church.  To make things worse, two costly and very bloody wars (69-72 A.D. and 131-135 A.D.) pitted the Jews in Israel against the full might of the Roman Empire.   Both wars ended disastrously for the Jews, further enlarging the gulf between Judaism and Christianity.  The gentile converts felt encouraged by this perceived Divine judgment against the Jews to re-interpret scripture through their gentile systems of belief.  Sometimes this was done unknowingly while at other times this was done very openly.  For example, Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo in North Africa (354-430 A.D. this is “St. Augustine”) was the author of the City of God which is important because during the Middle Ages after the Bible, this was the next most widely read book.  In City of God, Book 18, Chapter 23 spends the whole chapter on the Erythrean Sibyl— a pagan prophetess from the time of the Trojan War — who “wrote some things that clearly concern Christ.”  To the early church this unhappy mixture seemed like “true drink” and this heady brew along with other error and centuries of ferment led to what is recognized today as Catholicism in all its diversity.  

Where is Jesus now physically or spiritually? What scriptures support this?

This can be a confusing subject as is evident from the following scriptures: John 14:2-3 “In my Father's house are many mansions…I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.  Compare with Matthew 28:20, “lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”  The question then becomes how can he be both “with us” and gone “preparing a place for us” at the same time?

Even more confounding, Revelation 1:7 states that when Jesus returns “every eye shall see him.” Yet the angels that were present when Jesus left in the cloud told the disciples they should not stand there gazing into the sky… saying that Jesus would return in the same manner as they saw him leave. (Acts 1:11)  Since only a few saw him leave, only a few would see him return. This concept is reaffirmed in 1 Thessalonians 5:2. Our Lord would return “like a thief in the night” meaning quietly, unobserved by the masses, but known to the watchers. 

The purpose of our Lord’s second advent is that He comes to establish His kingdom. When people “see” this evil order being demolished, they will eventually recognize that it is Jesus who is destroying the old to establish His rule. “…upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Luke 21:25-27.

Mankind will not see Jesus with their literal eyes: “Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me,” John 14:19.  How do we see Jesus? Christians see Jesus through His directions in our hearts and lives. By faith, we come to realize, “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose,” Romans 8:28. In the same way, eventually “every eye will see him” not with the physical eye, but with the eyes of their understanding.

Both physically and spiritually Jesus is in heaven, and he will still be there after his return, just like he is always at the right hand of the father… Think more of his return as when he begins to do a different work than when he was away.  The different work is well stated in Acts 15:14-16, “…God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up.” This makes it clear then that He has returnedbecause we see the ruins of Israel being set up. (This is a citation of Amos 9:11-15.)