Interpreting Communion and Scriptures Unworthily

Transubstantiation and 1 Corinthians 11:27

Regarding "whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord,” a Roman Catholic asks, "How can eating something that isn't Jesus's body make us guilty of a crime against Jesus's body?" 

His assumption is that the bread and wine (or grape juice) must become the literal flesh and blood of Christ in order for taking communion unworthily to be a sin against Christ's flesh and blood.

First, a rhetorical question not founded on logical analysis is not an argument, it is merely a whiny protest. Never accept a question as a substitute for logic.

Second (I can't believe I have to explain this!), when you insult a symbol, you insult the thing it represents.

"Mama" is a word that symbolizes a person, and if I insult "Yo mama...," I insult your mother and may receive a bloody nose for it. There's no question that insulting the symbol insults the thing symbolized. Likewise, if you insult the symbols of Christ's body and blood, you insult Christ's body and blood.

The childishly literal person might object that desecrating a symbol does not physically desecrate its antitype. Irrelevant. In the spiritual dimensions that God occupies, the thought is as real as the physical, so presumptuous sacrilege toward a symbol of Christ's body or blood constitutes a real crime against Christ's body or blood.

You will find dozens of nations wherein insulting the symbols of the state, rulers, or dominant religion can earn you the death penalty. How much more, if you desecrate a symbol of Savior God?

You don't have to be a grammar nazi or to impose Catholic superstition upon the words for the verse to make sense. Just let it say what it says. Unworthily eating symbols of Jesus's body or blood is a crime against Jesus's body.

And unworthily interpreting the scriptures is a crime against the Spirit Who inspired them.


Since I first posted this on Facebook, I cannot claim copyright. I will trust anyone who copies it to give credit where credit is due.