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Why do you use real wine and leavened bread for the Lord’s Supper? |
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Pastor Gene Franklin wrote, “The imagery in the covenant meal is rich in pictures that will help us more deeply understand the grace and mercy of God. The elements themselves speak volumes to the love and generosity of God. Think of the bread, produced by the labor of many, as the result of the mercy of God in sunshine and rain, the miracle of the harvest, the image of the Kingdom of God in the leaven. The wine is always the symbol of joy and of the Holy Spirit, the richness of God’s blessing on the harvest.
Having said that, and thinking of the Old Testament feasts as the foundation of our Supper, I see more clearly now why the early church unanimously used leavened bread to celebrate and why wine is the only substance which could possible represent the blood of Christ. In the providence of God we have come to [the] place where the reformation of the church’s attitude toward the Supper is beginning. We need to see it for what the scriptures plainly tell us it is: our participation in the body and blood of Christ, our communion [fellowship] with God and with each other.”
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