THE LORD'S SUPPER

THE DARK YEARS: (AD 400 – AD 1500)

 

When the Emperor Constantine identified himself with the Christian faith early in the fourth century, the whole face of the Christian church changed and many of the problems of our church today may be traced back to Constantine and the ensuing rush of the Roman Empire to enter the Christian Church. The Church was eager to accept the newcomers into their fellowship without clear evidence of individuals’ change of heart from the established heathen religions to real living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The beginnings of an unspiritual clergy helped in its lack of resistance to the changes necessitated by accommodating the mass of new members. Within a few generations the church ceased to be the active body of Christ: it was transformed into a heathen religion, covered only with a thin veneer of Christianity. Its witness died out and it became (in stark contrast to its persecuted origins) a proud, arrogant organisation – a persecutor itself, of others. The evil of the established church of the Roman Empire continued to grow until it reached its zenith in the dark years between 900 AD and 1500 AD.

 

By the end of the fourth century a subtle change had taken place with regard to baptism. The significance of the initiation rites became apparent when applied to the sacrament of baptism. The sacrament of baptism came to be substituted for the spiritual experience of which it is an outward seal. By a ‘secret mystery’ the rite of baptism was thought to confer spiritual grace. From this we see the origin the false doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration which still persists today, even in parts of the Church of England

 

Very soon changes took place with regard to the Lord’s Supper. It too became charged with ‘magical’ significance. Instead of the blessing being in the obedience of participation and in the powerful illustration to the mind of the daily feeding spiritually on the Paschal Lamb, now the blessing was in the actual eating and drinking of the sacramental bread and wine.

 

Other changes, clearly traceable from their heathen influence within the church were in regard to ministerial office, the church buildings, idolatry, the church’s calendar and in respect to the position of Saints in the church, especially the Virgin Mary.

 

By the tenth century, the established church had ceased to be the church of Christ. She had sunk into a worldly and powerful organisation, riddled with idolatry, superstition and immorality. The Pope, or Bishop of Rome, had usurped the place of Christ and claimed headship of the Church. The church had become an instrument of terror to anyone who questioned its disgusting perversions of the gospel. To its everlasting shame it set about the extermination of those isolated groups of biblical Christians who were, during those wilderness years, the true representatives of Christ on earth – the Paulicians, the Albigenses, the Bogomils and Waldensians. The court of the Holy Inquisition was set up in 1210 to enforce submission to Rome and all its detestable demands and practices.

 

The full doctrine of the Mass was formed and enforced in 1209. All were required to believe (on peril of death) that at the moment of consecration the sacramental bread and wine were changed into the very literal flesh and blood of Christ. The Minister, already a Mediator, now became a sacrificing ‘priest’ in the true Old Testament sense of the word. It was supposed that he could, by reciting the mystical Latin formula, recreate God in Christ upon what now became called an altar. He then proceeded to destroy God on the altar, offering a sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead (those in purgatory). Not a shred of this blasphemy is founded on warrant from the Holy Scriptures, but rather, the doctrine is repugnant to the Word of God (see Article 31).

 

It is true that on the eve of the Reformation there were voices within the established church, calling for reforms both in doctrine and practice, there were moves to end the gross immorality which had long existed and there were designs to curb some of the most extravagant departures from doctrinal truth (e.g. indulgences). However, there were no moves to reform the doctrine of the Mass, and it is worth remembering that even today the Church of Rome insists that a change takes place in the sacramental bread and wine at the moment of elevation, and that Christ is received through bread and wine.

 

It was against this dark background that the light of the glorious reformation broke through in the first half of the sixteenth century.