The Eucharist

 

 

The Bread

and

The Wine

 

 

Bruce Armstrong

Central Highlands

Congregation of God

 

 

 

Contents

Should We Observe The Eucharist?

What Should We Use for Bread and Wine?

The True Bread from Heaven

The Blood of the Lamb

When Should We Celebrate Eucharist?

Conclusions

 

 

 

And Jeshua (Jesus) said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you that unless you eat the body of the Son of Mankind and you drink His blood, there is no life for you in yourselves.

“But whoever eats from My body and drinks from My blood, there is everlasting life for him, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For My body is truly food, and My blood is truly drink.

“Whoever eats My body and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.  As the Father, the Living One, sent Me, and I am living because of the Father, whoever eats Me will live because of Me.”

John 6:53 to 57

 

Should We Observe The Eucharist?

The Eucharist, sometimes called Communion, is a term which is used in both the Aramaic and Greek manuscripts to describe partaking of the Body and Blood of Jeshua, and it literally means “Thanksgiving.”  But is it necessary to keep it?  Let us see what Jeshua said:

 

And Jeshua said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you that unless you eat the body of the Son of Mankind and you drink His blood, there is no life for you in yourselves.  But whoever eats from My body and drinks from My blood, there is everlasting life for him, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For My body is truly food, and My blood is truly drink.

“Whoever eats My body and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.  As the Father, the Living One, sent Me, and I am living because of the Father, whoever eats Me will live because of Me.”

John 6:53-57

 

Jeshua makes it crystal clear that we can only truly be in communion with Him and His Father Jehovah through partaking of His body and blood, which are taken symbolically in the Eucharist.  And as we can only receive forgiveness and everlasting life through the sacrifice of Jeshua’s body and blood for us, we should be truly thankful for what He and His Father have done.  Unlike others, we have the hope of living forever in incredible bodies in Paradise as the children of Jeshua and Jehovah God.

To sum this up, Eucharist is essential to our salvation, and thus is something that we must participate in.  And as Jeshua’s words and example make clear, Eucharist means that we must take both the bread and the wine, representing both the body and blood of Jeshua.  And as the soul is in the blood,1 taking the wine represents us taking Jeshua’s soul into us.

One other point:  Jeshua tells us to use bread and wine.  Jehovah, as our Creator, has created our earth, the sun, the rain, the grain plants and the grapes.  Without them, we can do nothing.  He has also made us, and it is our job as humans to nurture the plants, harvest their produce, grind the flour and bake it into bread, crush the grapes and ferment the juice to produce wine.  It indicates that there can be no Eucharist without the contribution of our Saviour, but if we make no effort ourselves, our faith is just empty words.

 

 

What Should We Use for Bread and Wine?

However, there is some dispute among Christian denominations as to exactly what we should use in our Eucharist service to represent Jeshua’s body and blood.  His body is variously represented as unleavened bread, leavened bread or even sun-shaped wafers, while the blood can be represented as red wine, red grape juice or even red cordial.  And when should it be offered: every day, every Sabbath, once a month, only on the annual Holy Days, or only on the Last Supper once a year?  Are all of these options valid, or is the Bible specific about what we use and when we should partake of it?

 

 

The True Bread from Heaven

Let’s look at what the Bible says about the Bread of Life:

 

“Do not labour for food which perishes, but for food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Mankind will give you, because God the Father has sealed Him.”

They said to Him, “What should we do, to work the works of God?”

Jeshua answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

They said to Him, “What miracle will You perform, that we may see it and believe in You?  What will You show us?  Our fathers ate manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”2

Jeshua said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you; Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For His bread, God’s bread, is He who comes down from heaven and gives Life to the world.”

They said to Him, “Our Lord, give this bread to us always.”

Jeshua said to them, “I AM! I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to Me will not hunger, and whoever believes in Me will not thirst forever.

John 6:27-35

 

“No man has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He Himself has seen the Father.3  Truly, truly I say to you; that whoever trusts in Me, there is everlasting life for him.

“I AM! I am the bread of life.  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.  But this is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and will not die.

“I AM! I am the living bread, I who have descended from heaven.  And if anyone eats from this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I will give is My body, which I will give for the sake of the Life of the world.”4

The Judeans themselves were arguing with one another, and they were saying, “How can this one give His body to us to eat?”

And Jeshua said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you; that unless you eat the body of the Son of Mankind and you drink His blood, there is no life for you in yourselves.  But whoever eats from My body and drinks from My blood, there is everlasting life for him, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For My body is truly food, and My blood is truly drink.

“Whoever eats My body and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.  As the Father, the Living One, sent Me, and I am living because of the Father, whoever eats Me will live because of Me.  This is the bread which came down from heaven; it is not like the manna your forefathers ate and died.  He who eats this bread will live forever.”

John 6:46-58

 

So we see indeed that the Bread of Life is Jeshua, who has come down to us from Heaven, also making Him the Bread from Heaven.  And so our Eucharist represents His body.  Therefore this is not something for us to do lightly, or with little thought.  Paul warns us about this:

 

For I received from our Lord that which I also handed down to you: that our Lord Jeshua on the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and He blessed and broke it and He said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for yourselves; you shall do this for my memorial.”  Likewise, after they had eaten, He also gave them the cup, and He said, “This cup is the New Covenant in my blood.  Every time that you drink this cup, you shall do it for my memorial.”

For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, it is our Lord’s death you commemorate, until His Coming.  Therefore whoever eats this bread of Lord Jah and drinks from His cup and is unworthy of it will be guilty of the blood of Lord Jah, and of His body.  Because of this, let a person search their soul, and then let them eat of this bread and drink of this cup.  For whoever eats and drinks while unworthy eats and drinks condemnation to his soul for not discerning the body of Lord Jah.  Because of this many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.  But when we are judged to be chastened by our Lord, we are chastened lest we are condemned with the world.

1 Corinthians 11:23-32

 

And the Bible tells us that Jesus was without sin, so symbolically His body was also without sin.  Sin can be represented as leaven:

 

Your boasting is not good.  Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?  Purge the old leaven out of you, that you may be a new lump, since you are unleavened.  For our Passover is the Messiah, who was sacrificed for our sake.

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of bitterness or wickedness, but with the leaven of purity and holiness.

1 Corinthians 5:6-8

 

And He gave us this warning against the leaven of hypocrisy:

 

And when a crowd of people had gathered together, so many that they began to trample one another, Jeshua began saying to His disciples, “First of all, beware of allowing the leaven of the Pharisees into yourselves, which is hypocrisy.

Luke 12:1

 

Putting these verses together, we see that Jeshua warns us that leaven can represent sin, in the last case the sin of hypocrisy.  We are to become unleavened in regards to sin, and instead full of purity and holiness.  As Jeshua is without sin (Hebrews 4:15), in this way his body is unleavened.  We are given examples of this in the Hebrew scriptures:

 

Abraham offered God unleavened bread in Genesis 19:3.

 

When the Israelites ate the flesh of the Passover Lamb in Exodus, they were told to eat it with unleavened bread (Exodus 12:6-13).  This is repeated in Exodus 34:25:

 

“You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven, nor shall the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover be left until morning.

 

As Jeshua is our Passover Lamb (John 1:29, 1 Corinthians 5:7), and the wine of the Eucharist represents His blood, we are NOT to eat leavened bread with it.  Even during the Feast of Weeks, when we offer leavened bread, though that leavened bread can be eaten with lunch, it is not to be eaten during the Eucharist.  Only unleavened bread is acceptable.

Not only that, the unleavened bread is to be broken before we eat it, thus reminding us of how Jeshua’s body was ‘broken’ by the whipping and impalement, resulting in His death, even though none of His bones were broken (Exodus 12:46, John 19:36).

 

So, should His body be represented by a sun-shaped wafer, as the Roman Catholic Church does?  Well, it is typically unleavened, but that is the only way in which their wafers are acceptable.  They are to be kept intact, and are supposedly converted into Jesus’ actual body by five words, but only when pronounced by a Catholic priest:

 

HOC EST ENIM CORPUS MEUM!5

Or in English: This is truly my body!

 

At these words, according to Catholic doctrine, Jesus MUST obey the priest.  He must immediately come down from heaven, be sacrificed yet again and let his body become these wafers.  Catholics must bow before these now transformed wafers, and as they take the wafer, the priest says ‘the Body of Christ’.  They are then required to say ‘Amen’, signifying that they agree that this wafer is now indeed Jesus’s body.  And so the bread of the Eucharist is converted into an idol.

As Charles Chiniquy, an ex-Catholic priest, makes clear in Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, Jesus (Jeshua) has only ever been sacrificed ONCE (Hebrews 9:24-28, Romans 6:10, 1 Peter 3:18), and is now the head of the Church (Ephesians 5:23, Colossians 1:18).  He is the Son of God and our Lord and Master (Luke 1:35, Acts 1:21, Mark 9:38).  He is not a powerless slave compelled to obey any clergy.

The bread and wine symbolise Jeshua’s body and blood and unite us with Him and our brethren, but they are not literally transformed into His body and blood.  Transubstantiation is a pagan myth as shown by Hislop in The Two Babylons and worshipping a ‘magic’ wafer is idolatry.

The reality of the Eucharist is truly astounding.  The transformation does occur, but on a spiritual level, not on a merely physical level.  As we eat the bread and drink the wine our spirits are truly transformed and we are united with Jeshua, His Father, and all our brethren who are servants of the Messiah.

 

 

The Blood of the Lamb

The wine of the Eucharist is clearly intended to represent the blood of God’s Son, which was shed to wash away our sins.

Red wine is of course the most obvious choice, as it has a blood-like colour, and grape wine was made and consumed in Judah throughout Jeshua’s lifetime.

However, some people think it is never permissible to drink alcoholic beverages, not even for the Eucharist, and insist that we should only use a substitute such as grape juice, red cordial or de-alcoholised wine.  Their rejection of alcohol can be due to their knowledge of the very real damage caused by alcoholism and binge drinking.  These are serious issues that go all the way back to the discovery of how to make alcoholic beverages.

Let us start by exploring what the Bible says about alcohol consumption.

First we need some groundwork, as some claim that wine in the Bible does not mean the alcoholic drink we have today, but instead merely refers to grape juice, which may or may not be fermented.  Is this true?

The pivotal verse is Numbers 6:3:

 

“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: “When either a man or woman consecrates an offering to take the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to Jehovah, he shall separate himself from wine and similar drink;6 he shall drink neither vinegar made from wine nor vinegar made from similar drink; neither shall he drink any grape juice, nor eat fresh grapes or raisins.

Numbers 6:2 & 3

 

Here we have three distinct words related to the liquid taken from grapes: juice, wine and vinegar.

 

Juice is translated from מִשְׁרַת mishrah, and comes from the idea of loosening or setting free, referring to releasing the juice from the fruit, and in this verse it specifically means grape juice.

Juice is used only this once in the Bible, but it clearly shows that there IS a distinct word for juice, so when the Bible uses the word for wine, it is indeed wine that it means.

 

Wine is translated from יַיִן yahyin, derived from a root word meaning to effervesce.  Grape juice does, of course, effervesce when it is fermenting.  It is a process in which grape juice and yeast, in the absence of oxygen, produces ethanol and releases carbon dioxide gas, resulting in wine.  Sparkling wines are capped before the wine has finished fermenting, so the trapped gas makes the wine effervesce when the cork is removed.  Red wines are produced by leaving the skins and seeds of red grapes in the fermenting juice for at least a few days, allowing the red pigments to diffuse into the juice.

The Bible also covers the whole process of making wine.  First it has a word for must, which is the crushed grapes in which the juice, seeds and skins are still mixed together.  For juice the must is filtered soon after crushing, but for wine the fermentation can begin in the must, especially when wild yeasts are being used.  The Hebrew word for must is עסיס‎ ‘aciyc, used in Joel 1:5 & 3:18, etc.  It also has a word for wine that is still in the process of fermenting, translated as new wine.  The Hebrew is תירושׁ‎ tiyrowsh, and is used extensively, as in Genesis 27:28 and Numbers 18:12.  These cloudy, sweet, actively fermenting wines are still popular in Germany and the Czech Republic, where they are called federweisser and burčák respectively.  Their alcohol content increases as the fermentation proceeds.

It is this effervescing fermentation process that Jeshua means in Luke 5:37 to 39 (and in Matthew 9:17):

 

“And no one puts new wine into used wineskins lest the new wine bursts the wineskins, and the wine is spilled and the wineskins destroyed.  Instead, they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.

“And no one drinks old wine and immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is delicious.’”

 

As in making sparkling wine, the new wine refers to wine that is still actively fermenting, and the gas produced would create too much pressure for an old wineskin to withstand.  And Jeshua’s comment about how wine matures as it ages is consistent with our knowledge of wine, and is not true of old grape juice.

 

Vinegar is translated from חֹמֶץ‎ chomets, meaning something soured.  Vinegar is essentially wine that has gone off, meaning the alcohol (ethanol) is converted into acetic acid.  This conversion happens when oxygen reacts with the alcohol.  Though vinegar can be made by simply leaving the wine in a cloth-covered, wide-mouthed container for a few months, the process is accelerated by allowing acetobacteria to ‘infect’ the wine.

The Aramaic Peshitta says the same for Numbers 6:3, with its words for juice, wine and vinegar being:

  חלא  חמרא  תרינא .

 

However, when Jeshua institutes the Eucharist, he does not tell us explicitly to use wine, but instead refers to the cup and the product of the vine:

 

And He took a cup, and He gave thanks, and He gave it to them, and He said, “Take, drink from it, all of you.  This is My blood of the New Covenant, which is shed in exchange for the many for their release from sins.

“And I say to you, I will not drink of this product of the vine from this hour until that day when I shall drink it with you anew in the Kingdom of My Father.”

Matthew 26:27-29

 

The word product in Matthew 26:29 is often mistranslated as fruit, and the same word is used in Mark 14:25 and Luke 22:18.  In the Aramaic Peshitta the original word is יַלדָּא yalda, while in the Greek manuscripts the word is γέννημα gennema.  In both cases it means produce, including that begotten, born or grown.  They are not the normal Aramaic nor Greek words for fruit, which are פּׅארֵא֞ feere and καρπός karpos, and are used to refer to the fruit of grape vines in Matthew 21:34, Mark 12:2, etc.  And as in English, there are specific Aramaic and Greek words for grapes, which are עֵנבֵּא֞ `enbe and σταφυλή staphule.  But the words used here in the manuscripts are not the specific words for fruit, grape, grape juice or wine.  They are the more generic words meaning produce, which in the context of something to drink in a cup which has come from a grapevine, could be either grape juice or wine.

And as Jeshua tells us that it represents His blood, it has to be either red juice or red wine.  Are there any scriptures which specify one or the other?  What does the Bible have to say about alcoholic drinks, including wine?

 

Genesis 49:11 connects wine and blood by calling wine the blood of grapes:

 

Binding his donkey to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes.7

 

Matthew 11:18-19 contrast John the Immerser and Jeshua’s attitudes towards wine.

 

“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘There is a demon in him.’  The Son of Mankind came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous person and he drinks wine, and is a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’  But wisdom is justified by its works.”

 

Yes, Matthew 11:18 and Luke 11:15 prove that John the Immerser, like the Nazarines, did not drink wine.

 

On the other hand, we have this as Jeshua’s first miracle in Cana:

 

On the third day there was a wedding feast in Cana, a city of Galilee, and Jeshua’s mother was there.  And Jeshua and His disciples were invited to the wedding feast.

And when the wine was running out, Jeshua’s mother said to Him, “They have no wine.”

Jeshua said to her, “Woman, what is this to you and Me?  My hour has not yet come.”

His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the purification of the Judeans, each holding two or three measures.  Jeshua said to them, “Fill them with water.”  And they filled the waterpots up to the brim.

And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.”  And they took it.

When the master of the feast had tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had filled them with water knew), the master of the feast called to the bridegroom.  And he said to him, “Everyone brings out the good wine first, and when they have been drunk, then that which is inferior; but you have kept the good wine until now.”

This was the first sign that Jeshua did in Cana of Galilee, and He made His glory known; and His disciples believed in Him.

John 2:1-11

 

The Bible shows what we see in the world around us today: wine can be both good and evil, depending on who is drinking it, how much they are drinking, who are they drinking it with and why are they drinking it.  Here are a few more verses on this topic from the Old Covenant:

 

Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High.

Genesis 14:18

 

“With the one lamb shall be one-tenth of an ephah of flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of pressed oil, and one-fourth of a hin of wine as a drink offering.”

Exodus 29:40

 

Then Jehovah spoke to Aaron, saying: “Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tent of the appointed times, lest you die.  It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, that you may distinguish between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean, and that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which Jehovah has spoken to them by the hand of Moses.”

Leviticus 10:8 to 11

 

“All the best of the oil, all the best of the new wine and the grain, their firsts which they offer to Jehovah, I have given them to you.”

Numbers 18:12

 

“And you shall eat before Jehovah your God, in the place where He chooses to make His Name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstlings of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear Jehovah your God always.”

Deuteronomy 14:23

 

He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and vegetation for the service of man, that he may bring forth food from the earth, and wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread which strengthens man’s heart.

Psalm 104:14-15

 

Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.

Ecclesiastes 9:7

 

Who has woe?  Who has sorrow?  Who has contentions?  Who has complaints?  Who has wounds without cause?  Who has redness of eyes?  Those who linger long at the wine, those who go in search of mixed wine.

Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly; at the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper.  Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart will utter perverse things.

Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, or like one who lies at the head of the mast, saying: “They have struck me, but I was not hurt.  They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?”

Proverbs 23:29-35

 

It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink; lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the justice of all the afflicted.

Give strong drink8 to him who is perishing, and wine to those who are bitter in their soul.  Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

Proverbs 31:4-7

 

“Prostitution, wine, and new wine enslave the heart.

Hosea 4:11

 

So we see that wine can be a gift to make us happy, or to give us solace.  But wine is not without its dangers, nor to be drunk without restrictions: Are alcoholics and binge drinkers not slaves to their drink?  And does drinking not make us careless?  Indeed, priests and kings are required to be stone sober when they are on duty.

These themes are expanded in the New Covenant:

 

So, now let us run after peace and after building one another up.  Let us not destroy a servant of God because of food.  For everything is pure, but it is evil for the man who eats it with a stumbling block.

It is good that we do not eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which our brother is subverted.

Romans 14:19-21

 

Because of this, ensure you do not lack intelligence, but understand what is the will of God. Nor shall you be drunk with wine, in which is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit,

Ephesians 5:17-18

 

This is a faithful saying: If a man desires to be an elder, he desires a good work.  But an elder ought to be such that no faults are found in him, and be the husband of one wife, have a vigilant mind, be sober, of good behaviour, love strangers and be a teacher; and he should not transgress with wine, nor his hand be quick to strike, for he should be gentle, not quarrelsome, nor love money;

1 Timothy 3:1-3

 

Likewise Servants must be pure, should not speak two things, nor should they be inclined to much wine, nor love defiled riches, but they should hold the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience.

1 Timothy 3:8-9

 

No longer drink only water, but drink a little wine because of your stomach and because of your ongoing illness.

1 Timothy 5:23

 

Then one of the seven representatives who had the seven vessels came and spoke with me, saying, “Come, follow me.  I will show you the judgement of the prostitute who sits on many waters, for the kings of the earth have fornicated with her.  And all those who dwell on the earth have been drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

Revelation 17:1-2

 

For the works of the flesh are known, which are fornication, impurity, prostitution, idol worship, witchcraft, hatred, contentions, jealousies, rage, insolence, dissensions, schisms, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelries, and all such things.  Those who commit such things, as I told you from the beginning, and now I say again; they will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:19-21

 

The New Covenant expands what was in the Old. Though Paul advises Timothy to drink a little wine as a medicine, and it specifies that elders in Christian congregations should not be given to “much wine”, the implication is that an occasional glass of wine is acceptable.  But it is made clear that drunkenness is a ‘work of the flesh’, and those who practice it ‘will not inherit the Kingdom of God.’

Paul places a further restriction on wine when he says: “It is good that we do not eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which our brother is subverted.”  The context makes it clear that we are not to eat meat offered to idols, as it may lead to a weaker brother becoming involved in idol worship.  The wine is more complex.  It can refer to wine offered to idols, but can also refer to drinking wine with or in front of brethren who have problems with alcohol.  We certainly do not want to encourage them to drink and thus lay a stumbling block before them.  As Paul says:

 

You cannot drink the cup of our Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of our Lord’s table and of the table of demons.  Or do we provoke our Lord to jealousy?  Are we stronger than He?

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful; all things are lawful for me, but all things do not edify.

Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.

1 Corinthians 10:21 to 24

 

So wine is something that as Christians we need to treat with great caution.  And if we personally have a drinking problem, we should never touch it.  And if we are with someone who does haveor even might havea drinking problem, we should not drink alcohol with them or before them.  We do not, ever, want to be this person:

 

“Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbour, attaching them to your bottle, even to make them drunk, that you may look on their nakedness!  You are filled with shame instead of glory.  You also; drink and be exposed as uncircumcised!  The cup of Jehovah’s right hand will be turned against you, and utter shame will be on your glory.

Habakkuk 2:15-16

 

Now, what do we drink at Eucharist?  In the light of all the above, normally it should be red wine, as that is what Jehovah God specified in the Old Covenant.  But if we have someone among us with a drinking problem, we should instead consider using dealcoholized red wine or red grape juice.  But red cordial, as it is not from the grape vine, is not an option.

 

 

When Should We Celebrate Eucharist?

There is one indisputable time to celebrate Eucharist.  The Bible says:

 

And He (Jeshua) took bread, and He gave thanks and He broke it and He gave it to them.  And He said “This is My body which will be given for your sakes; you shall do this for My memorial.”

Luke 22:19

 

Paul repeats this in 1 Corinthians 11:24-26:

 

He blessed and broke it and He said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for yourselves; you shall do this for my memorial.”  Likewise, after they had eaten, He also gave them the cup, and He said, “This cup is the New Covenant in my blood.  Every time that you drink this cup, you shall do it for my memorial.

For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, it is our Lord’s death you commemorate, until His Coming.

 

The Aramaic words for both memorial and commemorate are used.  As we are to commemorate Jeshua’s impalement and death that occurred on the Passover, we are therefore commanded to remember Jeshua’s sacrifice on the Passover every year.  Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23 tell us when the Passover falls, which is on the fourteenth day of the First New Moon each year.  However, He instituted Eucharist at the Last Supper on the evening beginning the Passover.  Therefore we observe Eucharist, including the washing of each other’s feet, at the time of the Last Supper every year.9  Some churches, such as United Church of God and Jehovah’s Witnesses, only observe Eucharist this one time each year.

However, Paul does not limit taking Eucharist to once per year by saying “each year”, but instead says “every time . . . we commemorate our Lord’s death.”  So, what could these other times be?  And when is Eucharist not to be observed?  Note that the Bible does not command us to observe Eucharist on Good Friday, Easter Monday, etc, which are not Biblical holy days, but merely man-made substitutes.  (See God’s Holy Days for Christians and  God’s Calendar and the Sign of Jonah.)

A secondand very importanttime is almost immediately after someone has committed their life to Jeshua, and confirmed this by being immersed in water and prayed over.  The Eucharist taken then powerfully symbolises that person being united with Jeshua, both in body and blood.  Indeed, Jeshua says that unless we eat his flesh and drink His blood, we have no life in us (John 6:53).  And the Eucharist should be taken together with those who helped lead that person to Jehovah, reinforcing the truth that through Jeshua we are all one body.

In addition to the two occasions above, we take Eucharist on every annual holy day except Atonement (See Leviticus 23, Numbers 29 and our Holy Day Service Transcripts).  Each of these special days are part of God’s Plan of Salvation, and Eucharist reminds each of us that we can only be saved from the death we deserve through Jeshua’s self-sacrifice on our behalf, and it renews our relationship with Him.

These are the times that we observe Eucharist.  It is frequent enough to remind us of our need and love for Jeshua, and infrequent enough to make each occasion, and each Holy Day, special and fresh.10

 

 

Conclusions

The Eucharist, our Thanksgiving to Jehovah God and Jeshua the Messiah, is necessary for the forgiving of our sins, granting us everlasting life and uniting us with Jeshua, Jehovah and all our brethren.

The bread that we use to represent Jeshua’s body must be unleavened bread, which is broken before we eat it.

The product that we use to represent Jeshua’s blood, which was shed to wash away our sins, must be prepared from grapes.  It is preferably red wine, but if there are people among us with drinking problems, red grape juice or dealcoholized red wine can be used.

We observe Eucharist during the Last Supper, after a new believer is immersed, and on each Annual Holy Day except Atonement.

The ceremony we use is given in our Last Supper Service transcript.

 

 

 

Central Highlands Congregation of God

Copyright © 2021, 2022, 2024

Revised 26th of March

 

Published by

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Scripture quotations are taken from the Central Highlands Congregation of God version.

 

 

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Publications

The Holy Bible - CHCoG Version - This translation from the original Hebrew and Aramaic is accurate and readable, giving a clear understanding of God’s message to you and showing how the New and Old Covenants are interlocked.

Everlasting Life is God’s Gift - Does the Bible teach that you have everlasting life?  If not, how can you receive God’s gift of immortality as His child?

What is God’s Name? - How can we know what God’s Name is and how to Pronounce it?  Does the Bible teach us to use God’s Name?

Books of Moses - Fact or Fiction Series - Are the miracles recorded in Genesis and Exodus our true history?  Do the facts support Special Creation or the Big Bang & Evolution scenarios?  What about the Flood, Babel and the Exodus?

The Ten Commandments - What are God’s Ten Commandments?  How do they guide us in our relationships with God, our family and our neighbours?  Shows how obedience to Jehovah’s Instructions would result in true civilization.

Sex, God and Families - Pamphlet exposing the dangers of sexual immorality and outlining the benefits of following God’s sexual principles.

Eastern Meditation and Jeshua the Messiah - Recounts the experiences of a CHCoG member who became a Christian while practising Eastern Meditation.

God’s Calendar and the Sign of Jonah - Shows how God’s Calendar reveals that Jeshua (Jesus) truly kept the Sign of Jonah, His proof that He is the Messiah.

The Sabbath in Scripture - Has God’s Seventh-day Sabbath been ‘done away with’?  What does the Sabbath mean, and does God want us to keep it?

Spirit, Soul and Body - Take a deeper look at the Bible’s teachings about the composition of human beings and the roles of our soul and spirit.

Jeshua the Messiah: Is He the Son of God or Part of a Trinity? - Explores the relationships between God the Father, our Lord Jeshua, the Holy Spirit and us.

Unclean Animals and Food - What does the Bible teach about unclean animals?  Does the New Covenant allow us to eat unclean meat?

Radiocarbon Dating - Shows how changes in normal and radioactive carbon levels can drastically alter radiocarbon dates.  Not heavily technical.

Rome’s Challenge: Why do Protestants Keep Sunday? - This Roman Catholic article proves there is no scriptural basis for changing the seventh-day Sabbath to Sunday, and shows that the Roman Catholic church made the change.

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Calculated Biblical Calendar - Calculates dates of Annual Holy Days, Crucifixion, Flood, Creation: allows you to test the new moon visibility locally.

Radiocarbon Dating - Calculates the effects that changes in the geomagnetic field and radiocarbon/carbon ratios, etc, on radioactive dating.

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Endnotes

 

1 See Leviticus 17:11

2 Nehemiah 9:15, Exodus 16:15

3 As in the footnote to John 1:18, Jeshua means that He is the only human who has seen God the Father in His full glory, for Jeshua knew Him before He took on His human form.

4 Titus 2:14

5 During the 1970s, it was declared acceptable for them to use the local language instead of Latin.

6 ‘Similar drink’ likely refers to all other fermented alcoholic drinks, whether made from apples, pears, other fruits or sprouted grains.

7 The context says that the donkey belongs to Shiloh, and it is very easy to see that this Shiloh is in fact Jeshua the Messiah.

8 ‘Strong drink’ likely refers to fortified wines, and distilled products like brandy, whisky and vodka with high alcoholic content.  There is some evidence that distillation was known from about 2000 BCE.  There are no scriptures that endorse any other use of ‘strong drink’.

9 Most churches that observe Eucharist on the date of the Last Supper include foot washing as part of that ceremony.  SDA’s practise foot washing every time they keep Eucharist.  Almost no one else observes foot washing, even though Jeshua clearly commands it (John 13:3 to 17).

10 Other churches have other ideas.  As examples, Seventh-Day Adventists take the Eucharist four times a year, but never on the actual date of the Last Supper, nor on any other Biblical Holy Day, instead creating their own unauthorised dates.  Other churches have Eucharist once a month, others every Sabbath (or Sunday), yet others every day.  Though these traditions differ from ours, some of them are not without justification.  In addition to the special Annual Holy Day offerings, the Mosaic Instructions also included special offerings on every New Moon (and thus monthly—Numbers 28:11 to 15 & 29:6) and on Sabbath every week (Numbers 28:9-10) in addition to the normal daily offerings (Numbers 28:1 to 8).  Many of these events involved bread and wine offerings in addition to the animal sacrifice.