One of the old saws when I was training for the ministry, was that Cranmer had the shape of the Communion service all wrong. This assertion was, of course, based on a 1945 book called The Shape of the Liturgy by an Anglican Benedictine called Gregory Dix. Leaving aside the fact that Dix rejected Cranmer’s theology of the Eucharist, one of his goals in writing was to get rid of the Cranmerian style of liturgy in favor of one based on Patristic models. This has the result that Dix and Cranmer’s liturgical shapes are animated by very different considerations.
Dix’s approach is primarily historical. He traces the development of the Eucharistic liturgy in the first millennium, and then organizes the pieces according to the late Patristic shape, restoring the Prayer of the Church, returning the Pax to its presumed Patristic position, but leaving later additions, such as the Creed, intact.[1] This works fine historically, but one does have to be completely clear that it is an approach that treats the liturgy as an historical artifact, not as a liturgical, catechetical, and theological tool.
Cranmer’s approach to the liturgy was primarily theological. He asked himself the question “how can the liturgy of the Lord’s Supper be made to express Evangelical theology?” This caused him to reorder the Mass so that it proceeds through the classic stages of the Evangelical experience of God’s Saving Grace. Thus, Cranmer’s liturgy begins with Law, so after the Collect for Purity ‒ which is culled from the Sarum Missal and serves the office of the classic Reformed Prayer for Illumination ‒ he provides the opportunity both to hear the Law, and for self-examination through the Decalogue. Cranmer placed the Commandments where the Kyrie and Gloria had stood in the mediaeval Mass, adapting the former as a response to each of the commandments. The inspiration for this move came from Bucer’s Strassburg rite,[2] but Cranmer turns it into a Litany.[3]
Having heard the Law, examined their lives and consciences, and hopefully having been stirred to an awareness of their sin, the congregation is then offered the Gospel. This is done in the form of the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel followed by the Nicene Creed, and the preaching of the Word. This is intended to both promote repentance and a desire for amendment of life which is expressed in the next three elements of the liturgy ‒ almsgiving, prayer to God, and confession. This is the most traditional part of the service because Cranmer’s alterations to the traditional sequence of Collects, Epistles, and Gospels were judiciously made, and limited in scope. The archbishop and his assistants placed the Prayer for the Church Militant at the end of this section so that when the Lord’s Supper was not celebrated, it would still be possible to celebrate a complete Liturgy of the Word.
Like all Reformation-era liturgies, there is an explanation of what the Lord’s Supper means inserted into the liturgy. In some Lutheran rites this occurs immediately before the Lord’s Prayer and the Words of Institution, but in the Reformed rites it is a little earlier. Cranmer’s position between the Prayer for Church and the General Confession is the least jarring as it serves the purpose of both providing an explanation of the benefits of the sacrament (the long exhortation) and fences the Table (the short exhortation, or introduction to the General Confession). The General Confession, Absolution, and Comfortable Words then follow leaving the communicants ready for the liturgy of the Lord’s Supper. Cranmer makes a rare stylistic error in reversing Bucer’s order of Word first, then Absolution, but that really is a secondary consideration.
The Eucharistic liturgy proper is remarkably traditional in that Cranmer retains the Sursum Corda, Preface, and Sanctus, then the “Canon” itself consists of the Prayer of Humble Access, a Prayer of Consecration which consists of little more than a brief prayer asking that the communicants might receive the benefits of the sacrament and the Words of Institution. The action is then paused to allow for the communion of the faithful, and then the “Canon” concludes with the Lord’s Prayer and either the Prayer of Oblation, which emphasized the gift of Christ and our self-offering, or the Prayer of Thanksgiving. Cranmer strengthens the element of thanksgiving at the end of the service by moving the Gloria in Excelsis to this point, and the Eucharist concludes with the Blessings.
We can see Cranmer’s Evangelical theology at work from the Law ‒ Gospel ‒ Faith ‒ Repentance ‒ Communion ‒ Thanksgiving shape he adopted for the Lord’s Supper. Whilst not historically correct, it is Evangelical theology put into liturgical form. If we are serious about our adherence to the theology of the English Reformation, we need to maintain the use of a Eucharistic liturgy which maintains Cranmer’s liturgical shape as it underscores the teaching of the Bible, Articles, and Catechism about not just the Eucharist, but also justification and sanctification. Although it is fashionable among some Evangelicals to trash the 1928 BCP, that Liturgy retains Cranmer’s Law-Gospel-Repentance-Sacrament-Thanksgiving shape – which is why its use as written is anathema to some Anglo-Catholics. Thus, although the 1928 Communion Office could be improved in one or two aspects, it does respect the theological orientation of the English Reformation.
Notes
- Dix’s shape is that of the mid-sixth century before the loss of the opening Litany, of which the Kyrie eleison is a relic, and the Prayer for the Church, which still appeared in the form of the Solemn Collects on Good Friday in the Tridentine Rite. ↑
- Bucer’s Strassburg Liturgy in a stripped-down form provided the model for Calvin’s 1542 service for the French-speaking congregation in Strassburg. Elements of that service subsequently found their way into the Eucharistic service of the Genevan Church. ↑
- Cranmer had an independent streak even when incorporating other theologians’ ideas into his own system. ↑
'Cranmer Versus Dix on the Eucharist' have 5 comments
July 19, 2023 @ 4:41 pm PWH
Thank you for publishing this! Many modern Anglicans seem to be completely unaware of these things, or they never talk about them, which is almost as bad.
July 21, 2023 @ 9:11 am GR
Being aware and not speaking of them is far, far worse and is one of those things to be included in the repenting of the \”things we have left undone\” portion of the mass. One of my best received sermons was one on how the organization of the liturgy of the year and then the mass is structured to call to mind those theological and symbolic elements found in Scripture and the acts of God in the history on behalf of His Chosen People.
July 22, 2023 @ 5:04 pm Fr. Mark Perkins
Thanks for this brief and enlightening piece. Granted Dix was primarily interested in historical retrieval, but what would be the theological logic of Dix’s order (aka the ~6th-century order)?
One modest critique: is it actually accurate to say that Cranmer’s Eucharistic order was “not historically correct” if he wasn’t trying to reproduce a historical artifact in the first place?
And one mostly unrelated comment: if Dix’s approach risks turning the liturgy into a museum piece, is there not the same risk in various and sundry attempts to “freeze” the liturgy at a certain prior date? I’m on the record as being a general fan of the 1662 (https://www.earthaltar.org/post/can-these-bones-live), at least versus the post-1928 revisions, but I do think those of us opposed to the liturgical renewal revisions risk turning ourselves into museum-piece antiquarians, particularly Americans who reject the entire American prayer book tradition.
September 30, 2023 @ 8:26 pm Hudson Barton
I never noticed it before, but Robinson seems to be correct that Cranmer did not follow Bucer’s liturgy in placing the Absolution before the Comfortable Words. He should have reversed the order not because of Bucer but because we rely upon God’s promise in His Word rather than a Minister’s words of absolution. I have to disagree with Robinson however when he says that Cranmer’s error here was merely “stylistic”.
February 22, 2025 @ 1:44 pm Doug
THE REPUDIATION…..OF EUCHARIST
Thus the partaking of the bread, which the scriptures do report that ‘we are all that one bread ‘, 1Corinthians 10:17, is manifest in doing what Jesus did which is reasonable service to the one true God . So the body that Jesus gave in sacrifice was the will of his flesh and the lusts thereof. Now every believer that follows his pattern is partaker of the same bread. That is the bread of life, to do the will of God. Drinking the blood is explained in this: we are all made to drink into that one Spirit, 1Corinthians 12:13. See the /’S’ is capitalized. The Spirit that we all drink into is the Holy Ghost by which every believer is changed from their old man to the new man by the faith of Christ Jesus. The blood of the New Covenant is signified by this Baptism alone, the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, and signified in scripture here: 1 John 5:7,8. The three that are mentioned in the respective verses are mentioned concurrently and respectively. Holy Ghost corresponds to Blood. Hence the baptism of the Holy Ghost is the blood by which believers are covered. New creature, New blood. No longer after the fallen man, the first Adam wherein that Generation, that manufacture, so to speak, fell. But a new man, a new generation, a new manufacture, a new product by the power of God. That is the blood of the New Covenant. So to eat that bread is to put away the inordinate works of the flesh, and to drink that blood is by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Yes, Jesus put it figuratively because the Old Covenant was still of force, the New Covenant would not be in effect until the death of Jesus, Hebrews 9:16,17. The dedication of the New Covenant was fifty days after Christ’s death. That dedication was the giving of the Holy Ghost by God for to dwell in men on the day of pentecost. The temple being the body of Christ. Every believer chosen in him from before the world was, 2 Timothy 1:9, are that temple, 1Corinthians3:17. On that day, the day of pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given unto men, Acts Ch 2, was the sacrifice of the putting away of the works of the flesh accomplished by God which, when manifest in every believer would be their reasonable service. By this, the new meat offering unto the Lord being accomplished on the behalf of those other members, chosen in him from before the foundation of the world, it followed that which was written in Leviticus 23:16, but to be made manifest as every believer that was to come did come, and those that are yet to come. That is the establishing of a better tabernacle, built upon that spiritual rock, Jesus Christ wherein each member is enabled to keep Sabbath by ceasing from their own works, as God did, on the seventh day, Hebrews 4:10 every member in Christ Jesus are are given the power, Hebrews 4:12, Galatians 5:16, to cease from their own ways, from their own thoughts, and from their own speech, Isaiah 58:13, and do the will of God as also Christ Jesus did who is Lord of the Sabbath, Mark 2:28.in this the people of God keep the Sabbath rest: By resting from their own works. In this the people of God keep Sabbath, by simply doing the will of God, obeying His voice as Jesus did, and does, even now
Again the new meat offering was the promise of God that every believer would be able to offer himself a living sacrifice. The sacrifice is spiritual not carnal. Under the law it was carnal, but under the blood of the New Covenant there were no carnal ordinances given for men to observe. The offerings are of obedience to the voice of God, and sacrifices of praise and thanks giving, every day, every hour, every minute, every second, IT IS LIVED. And it is lived unto God, as Jesus lived, and now lives unto God, Romans 6:10, Hebrews 7 :25. As it is also written; As he is, so are we in this world, 1John 4:17. That is without sin. Every believer is part of the same sacrifice, without sin, From the moment of conversion by the baptism of, and the walking in, the Holy Spirit of the Living God. This is God’s plan from before the foundation of the world.
Now, the first sacrifice, that of Jesus Christ was initiated at the start of being his own baptism in the Holy Ghost and took some thirty three years to bring to fruition, that is, to the fulness of the bearing of the fruit of that sacrifice culminating at a time when he was still alive and said these words; It is finished, John 19:30
The second sacrifice, or second meat offering, was the sealing of the surety of the promise of God to sanctify unto Himself, Romans 8:30, the rest of the body, Ephesians 5:30, by the promise of the Holy Ghost being given unto men, Acts 1:4,5. Each of the called, and chosen and, elect in Christ now having their respective part of the same sacrifice, initiated by the baptism of the same Holy Spirit that sanctified Christ Jesus, and finish their course, as Jesus did, culminating in their fruit being accepted at the same time as Jesus, while still alive, as they have finished their course and remained faithful to the end of their lives. Exemplified by Paul when he said; I have finished my course, 2Timothy 4:7, same as Jesus expressed when he said these words: it is finished.
And so, effectively, the two sacrificial events, being one and the same in purpose, is accomplished fifty days apart satisfying the requirement described in the law in Leviticus 23:16, a prophetic utterance by God himself, hidden in the writings of the text of the law laid down by Moses.
And so effectively, Christ Jesus Gave His body, that is, the works of the flesh of it, as a living sacrifice as he lived unto God in that body. And every believer makes that same sacrifice, in their turn, by giving up the lusts of their flesh and living unto God in yielding their members as servants unto righteousness, Romans 12:1, and being sealed unto the day of redemption with that Holy Spirit of promise, Ephesians 1:13, and walking, as Jesus walked, 1John 2:6, in full and complete obedience to what they know is right in the sight of God, 1Timothy1:19, with all clear conscience. And it can only be done by the power of God in the believer as God and Christ Jesus dwell in them. That is how God made it to be. And that is how it is.
HOW IS IT THAT YOU EAT THE BODY OF CHRIST WHEN YOU ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST ? OF HIS BONE AND OF HIS FLESH ? Ephesians 5:30, IF SO BE THAT YOU HAVE THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. EVERY MEMBER OF THE BODY OF CHRIST WERE SACRIFICED TOGETHER WITH HIM, BEING IN HIM FROM BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD. THE MANIFESTATION OF THE OBEDIENCE TO GOD AS THEY ARE BORN INTO THIS WORLD AND RECEIVE THE SPIRIT THAT JESUS SAID HE WOULD SEND, THE HOLY GHOST. NOW THE SCRIPTURE SAYS THAT IF ANY MAN HAVE NOT THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST HE IS NONE OF HIS, Romans 8:9. THEY THAT HAVE THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST ARE HAVING COMMUNION WITH GOD AND CHRIST JESUS EVERY MOMENT WITHOUT CEASING.. THOSE THAT DO NOT HAVE THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST EAT AND DRINK WHAT THEY THINK IS THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST BECAUSE THEY CAN’T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THAT WHICH IS NATURAL AND THAT WHICH IS SPIRITUAL BECAUSE GOD IS NOT WITH THEM.
YOU WHO PRIDE YOURSELVES ON REASON, REASON THIS: WHY DO THE RIGHTEOUS HAVE TO EAT LITERAL FLESH AND BLOOD TO BE RIGHTEOUS, BUT THE WICKED EAT NO LITERAL FLESH AND BLOOD TO BE WICKED? THOUGH THE SCRIPTURES SAY THAT THE WICKED DO EAT THE BREAD OF WICKEDNESS (Proverbs 4:17, 9:17). DID YOU NOT HEAR JESUS SAY; BEWARE OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE PHARISEES, (Matthew 6:11,12),NOT SPEAKING OF LITERAL BREAD BUT OF SPIRITUAL CONDUCT OF LIFE. DID YOU NOT HEAR PAUL SAY THAT MALICE AND WICKEDNESS IS THAT SPIRITUAL EVIL BREAD?(1Corinthians 5:8) AND THAT BREAD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IS IN SINCERITY, TRUTH, AND HOLINESS IN CHRISTIAN CONDUCT? THE BREAD IS SPOKEN OF IN CONDUCT OF UPRIGHT BEHAVIOR,WALKING IN THE HOLY GHOST (Galatians 4:22-24), NOT RITUAL.
{{ Now for those who would wrongly say that the bread of wickedness is speaking of animals, or other foods, sacrificed unto other gods the answer is this: the rulers of Kingdoms that knew not God had their spiritual advisors around them all the time. The soothsayers, astrologers, magicians. These sorcerers fed the rulers their portion of unrighteousness in unGodliness. The cause for which it is written; do not eat the kings dainty meat. This is speaking also of false doctrines idolaters who trust on spirits that are not God, neither were sent by Him. Read: Proverbs Ch. 23 and specifically verses 3 and 6. The bread of wickedness is deceitful meat, or false counsel. But the bread of righteousness in truth is what is being spoken of by Jesus in Luke 12:42 }}
WHO ARE THESE IMPOSTERS WHO SAY THAT MEN HAVE TO EAT THE LITERAL BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST? GARGOYLES AND VAMPIRES BELONG ON THEIR HOUSES WHO BELIEVE SUCH FABLES FOR IT IS FITTING THAT THOSE THAT BELIEVE SUCH LIES SHOULD ADORN THEIR PLACES OF WORSHIP WITH IMAGES OF THOSE LIES.
THE CARNAL MIND CANNOT PLEASE GOD, SEE: ROMANS 8:5-11
THESE PUT CARNAL FOR SPIRITUAL AND THAT WHICH IS SPIRITUAL FOR CARNAL AND IN SO DOING, PUT LIGHT FOR DARKNESS AND DARKNESS FOR LIGHT, THAT PUT EVIL FOR GOOD AND GOOD FOR EVIL, ISAIAH 5:20, BUT AS NATURAL BRUTE BEASTS THAT ARE MADE TO BE TAKEN AND DESTROYED, 2PETER 2:12, SWIFT DESTRUCTION SHALL COME UPON THEM FOR THEIR DAMNABLE HERESIES 2PETER 2:1. WAIT FOR IT, HABAKKUK 2:3.
THIS BRINGS ABOUT THE SAYING: A BODY THOU HAST PREPARED ME. Psalms 40:6,7, Hebrew 10:5. CHRIST JESUS, THE HEAD OF THE BODY, AND EVERY MEMBER IN HIM, ARE THAT BODY, Colossians 1:18. AND SO, AS THE SCRIPTURE SAYS, WE ALL ARE THAT ONE BREAD. AS JESUS IS THAT BREAD OF LIFE, SO EVERY BELIEVER ARE ALSO BECOME THAT BREAD OF LIFE, 1Corinthians 19:17, BY THE SAME BAPTISM, THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST, Acts 10:38, THE MAIN DRIVE OF THIS MESSAGE. THE BAPTISM OF, AND SUBSEQUENT OBEDIENCE TO, THE SPIRIT OF GOD, WHERE THE RIGHTEOUS SIN NOT, Ezekiel 3:21. IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS IN THEM. THAT IS THE GIFT OF GOD. A WAFER AND A CUP OF JUICE CAN’T DO THAT. IT’S NOT A CONTINUAL SACRIFICE. THE GIFT OF GOD IS IN YOU, AS LONG AS YOU DON’T THROW IT AWAY BY DISOBEDIENCE. NOW IF YOU THROW IT AWAY, YOU CAN’T DO IT AGAIN, Hebrews 6:4-6. GOD HATES A FICKLE SPOUSE WHO DESPISES HIS SON..
Tradition runs deep, but that is the downfall, not being able to admit you were wrong. Repentance takes being able to admit you were wrong. And it is not because I’m right that I’m saying this to you. It is because God is right that I’m saying this to you. I take direction from Him. He doesn’t take direction from me.
There is no closer relationship with God and His son Jesus Christ than to have them dwell in you by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Having them live inside the believer is spiritual. And that is communion with God and with the Lord Jesus Christ. That is where they, and you, and every true faithful believer walking in the obedience of the son of God, all become one. Natural rituals are of no avail. Paul made this clear in Romans 14:17 saying the kingdom of heaven is not in meat and drink…., and again in 1 Corinthians ch. 10 saying that the children of Israel did all eat that same spiritual meat and drink that same spiritual drink for they followed that same spiritual rock , and that rock was Christ. Paul made it clear, the eating and the drinking is spiritual. It was only shown by Christ Jesus as an allegory because the disciples who had not been given the Holy Ghost yet would not have been able to lay hold on the principle, not yet being led of God and not yet walking in the Holy Spirit. Jesus said my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, John 4:34. A meat that they, to that point, knew not of, not yet having the understanding given them by the baptism of the Holy Ghost , John 4:32, John 7:39. And it is the meat of every member who are of that same body to do the will of the one who was sent, even Christ. We are all that one bread in every spiritual way, 1Corinthians 10:17. By the time Paul got to 1Corinthians Ch 11, he made clear in verse 20 that they were not, and could not eat the Lord’s supper in this way. And then went on to express the ability that God gives men to judge themselves. That is what is at issue, 1Corinthians 11:31. The ability for a man to be able to judge himself is only given of God by obedience in receiving His Holy Spirit and walking as Jesus did the same. By this principle only, is a man able to hold his own life up to the light of the truth with a clean conscience . By performing their reasonable service of obeying the voice of the one true God, and the Spirit by which He speaks from the mouths of His able ministers, and not hearkening to those who are only skilled in deceit, and who are not led of the Spirit of God.
Now here in this place in the message , secular knowledge is drawn from as one of the scantly to be found uses of mans recorded knowledge to get bearing on fact, as continues:
So, the ancient sea people of Mesopotamia offered fish unto a female god named Ashtoreth. This is how they had communion with that god. See: SACRIFICE-RITUAL, OFFERINGS, BLOOD. Britannica. And SEE: METAPHYSICS OF THE EUCHARIST as an internet search for those who are capable of doing this type of research, but being careful to see information that is not supported by ‘Church’ money as these are just mere propaganda. MARK THIS: There are many different fables of what happens to the Eucharist that has been transubstantiated after it has exceeded it use intended. All of these endings are physical, natural endings. But the Church philosophers say that the initial change of the elements of the bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ is performed spiritually by the priest and the power of God. It is against all right principles, from even a philosophical standpoint , that anything that has a spiritual beginning is brought to a perfected end in a carnal natural way such as the digestive process or simply washing the leftover ‘Christ’ down a drain that goes into the ground and not into the sewer, so the unused sacrament is reburied. WHAT? The very belief that what you have begun in the Spirit, can now be made perfect by the flesh is in opposition to scripture. Look at Galatians 3:3 which says the same. Now , in this passage , Paul was expressing the fault of the Galatians for hearkening to Jews who said that Christians had to be circumcised. Doesn’t the same principle apply to the false doctrine of eating and drinking the literal body and blood? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? The Lord Jesus Christ himself said; It is the Spirit that quickens, the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life, John 6:63. For anyone who is able to take a look to see the abomination committed here they should look. Some say , well the transubstantiation only lasts about fifteen minutes. But the Catholic Answer Catholic Encyclopedia say that in the early ‘Church’ the preparation of the ‘Eucharist’ was done days in advance and also could be used to travel to places where participants who were not able to attend mass could have their wafer and cup. Making things up as you go along is called charlatanism. It is not sound doctrine, in any way, on a spiritual level. When did the priest undo what he did on a spiritual level before the ‘Eucharist’ is expelled by the body, or the unused portions of the sacrament is disposed of another way. This is witchcraft and is confusion, from a philosophical and or logical perspective, starting a philosophical posit on a spiritual premise only to have it end in an ambiguous and not clearly defined natural sense is unsound principle, and is evidence of the unsoundness of the minds that developed this perverse doctrine. Paul said what it is. Offering anything unto God alone , other than praises and obedience to God’s voice is idolatry. This Paul made clear when he rebuked the Corinthians with this saying : To us there is but one God, the Father, ‘OF’ who are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, ‘BY’ whom are all things, and we ’BY’ him, 1Corinthians 8:6.
This he said making clear the distinguishing of the persons of God and the Lord Jesus Christ as two distinct individuals, using the separate terminology, /‘OF’/ and /‘BY’/. And in so saying Paul was correcting the Corinthians for their offerings which were after the manner of the heathen, In taking the bread and the cup literally. And that , making Jesus out to be God was an affront to the one who made Jesus, even God. Communion with God and with the Lord Jesus Christ any other way than by the two dwelling in the believer by the filling of the Holy Ghost, Ephesian 5:18, is preaching another Jesus.
Paul said, let those that preach another gospel be accursed, 2Corinthians 11:4, and those that love not the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 16:22. So be it.
So, they say that transubstantiation occurs because all things are possible with God. True, there is nothing that the living God cannot do. But there are some things that God will not do. God will not commit sacrilege in desecrating the body of His son and offering of inordinate offerings. God will not perform witchcraft. God will not sin. My Lord said to abstain from all appearance of evil.
Protestant churches say: Well, we don’t do it that way, its a memorial. We don’t believe in the actual presence of the body and blood in the bread and the cup. So, the answer to that is this: what right minded person would eat the dung that comes out of a man? If someone who bakes a loaf of bread puts even the smallest amount of that dung into a loaf of bread then that that whole loaf is defiled. One cannot say: because it is such a small amount it is OK. If you knew about it would you eat it? That is why Jesus said: to beware of the leaven (doctrine) of the pharisees. And also the warning; a little leaven leaven’s the whole lump. Eating and drinking is not what is meant to show forth the Lord’s death till he comes, as is wrongly mistaken to be said in 1Corinthians 11:26. But abiding faithful in Christ Jesus is the permanent, continual showing forth of the believers respect for the New Covenant performed by obedience to the righteousness of God every day, every hour, every minute, every second to the best of the believers ability, with a clear conscience. Now you are washed, Paul said, now you are clean, Jesus said, by the word which I have spoken to you. Any form of the false doctrine that is embraced I any way is idolatry. My little children keep yourselves from idols
Why didn’t they believe Jesus when he said: Man doesn’t live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God? Matthew 4:4, Deuteronomy 8:3. It is God who put His words into the mouth of His son, Deuteronomy 18:18, it is God that utters the Word, Jeremiah 10:13. It is God who spoke the Word. The Word didn’t speak itself. It is God who made His Word flesh, Galatians 4:4. The manifestation of God in that flesh is by the living God dwelling in the believer, of whom Jesus was the first believer to believe God, Hebrews 5:7. And so every believer whois baptized in, and walking in the Holy Spirit of the living God, God is manifested in their flesh also because they are of the same body with His son Jesus Christ
Why didn’t they believe Jesus then he said: My Father is greater than I, John 14:28. For example; when they say they need artificial intelligence, is it because they have insufficient intelligence of their own to be able to arrive at sound conclusions? That is evidence of needing God, not a device that you will be able to blame your shortcomings on. Their heathen doctrine likewise comes up short. It is ancient heathen belief that if you eat the god’s flesh, in ritual, you will become the god.
Will we have them shove their heathen dung down our throats, in a figure, or will we consume the pure word of life that proceeds out of the mouth of God?
Their tradition is false, it is made up, who say that Jesus is God and you must eat God.
Now understanding on this that has not, up to this point been stated so plainly and is thusly given in this that is now to be said: It has been established, and the scriptures bear out, how that God created the evil and the good. And how that God did set before the children both good and evil in order to give them freedom to choose which they would go after. It is stated in the scripture of truth how that God, because of the obstinacy and hardness of heart of the children, He also, for the price of forsaking Him he gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances by which they could not live, so written in the book of Ezekiel 20:25. Nothing is said of how many, or at what intervals these statutes that were not good would be given. The Word of God is spiritually discerned all the way through to the last page of scripture. Even the allegorical signs that the Lord Jesus gave, such as the washing of feet were part of the things that were set before the people, even while Jesus was yet under the law. As it is written; A testament is not of force until the death of the testator, the choices given were to discern those who would obey the truth from those that would be taken in the snares. Did God do this? Yes God did this. Because He knows those that are His from those that are not. Exemplified by these sayings of the Lord Jesus Christ when he said these words: For this peoples heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, an should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them, Matthew 12:15. And also this saying: He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them, John 12:40. And David wrote: Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. Now moreover, this brings into effect the verse spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ, with full explanation already given, when he said to the disciples: unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables. This the Lord of glory said in dividing those who would be the heirs of eternal life, chosen in him from before the world was, from the unbelievers who, as vessels created unto destruction would pervert the way of truth not being able to discern that which is Spiritual from that which is carnal, natural ritual. The heathen had rituals. The people of God worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
So true faithful believers do as they are told, because they know that God is not an oppressor but His intention is in helping them to find the way of life.
To be sure, God is truly glorified in that Jesus died on the cross. And the things surrounding that event were foretold by God. In this thing is God glorified, in that He foretold the events. And it happened exactly as He said that it would. As it is written; it is God alone that is able to declare the end from the starting point, ( Isaiah 46:9,10 ) and perform it ( Isaiah 48:3-8 ), and He watches over His word to perform it, ( Jeremiah 1:12 ).
Being a partaker of the Grace of God is Not in Jesus death, it is in that he lived unto God, defying the flesh and the sinful nature of it and thus defying satan and his power over the fallen creature. This Jesus did by receiving the Spirit of life from God. And it is done no other way. Yielding to the Spirit of God is the sacrifice that believers are instructed to emulate. As it is written; Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin, ( Hebrews 12:4. )
Therefore salvation is attained by obedience to God, not by trusting in a piece of wood or metal or stone or carnal bloodshed. For you are saved by the work of God on the inward man, not by an outward show. This is what Jesus did. And this is what every believer does, who are faithful with God as was His firstborn son. Jesus was not too good for anything. He came to this Earth in an expendable vessel as every man. If any thing has befallen any man, or if any man is instructed to do any thing, it is because it befell Jesus first and it is because he also was instructed in the same way first. The battle between the will of the flesh and the will of the Spirit of God in the believer described by Paul in Romans Ch. 7, Christ Jesus endured that same battle. If it is not so then why did Paul do something that the Lord Jesus did not do? Why did Paul describe something that is not typical of the entire body of Christ, of whom Jesus is the head? Jesus said follow me . Did Paul take another path that Jesus did not take? God forbid. Paul walked as Jesus walked, without sin, despite the will of his flesh. And did so the same way that Christ Jesus overcame the world, by the power of God in him, the power of the Holy Ghost.
Now the Lord Jesus Christ was rejected by some of his own disciples about the matter of eating his flesh and drinking his blood in John chapter 6. They did not perceive the saying of Jesus when he told them; what and if you shall see the son of man ascend up where he was before ( John 6:62 ). He said this, meaning that it would be impossible for the disciples to eat his carnal body and drink his carnal blood. Simply put, he was rather saying to consume his word and get it in your heart where it can prosper you by giving life unto the believer. He said in other places that he also consumed that which he heard from his Father and did always that which pleased Him. This is the eating and drinking, not of carnal substances, but of the will of God. God forbid that I should be saved by a wafer and some juice or wine and not by obedience to God’s voice. For said he; My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, ( John 4:34 ), and it is written, obedience is better than sacrifice, ( 1 Samuel 15:22. )
Will you, upon learning that Jesus’ baptism in, and obedience to, the Holy Spirit of the living God being where and how you were saved, and not at Calvary, make you also to depart from him? God forbid. The hand writing of ordinances that were nailed to the cross at Calvary, ( Colossians 2:14 ) signified the end of the law and the bringing in of the new covenant. All things that the scriptures spoke of. When Jesus said that he came to fulfill the law, ( Matthew 5:17 ), it meant that the law had an end. And when Jesus said; it is finished, ( John 19:30 ), that meant that he finished the work that God sent him to do. And his death at Calvary meant the New Covenant became of force, as the scripture says; in order for a covenant to be of force there has to be the testators death, ( Hebrews 9:16,17 ).
Simply put, what was nailed to the cross was the law, not sin. Sin was already buried, by faith and the operation of God by His own Holy Spirit, in the first resurrection, which is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The Gift of God whereby men are saved. If the body of sins was not spiritually destroyed until Jesus died physically on the literal tree or until he was placed in the sepulcher then Jesus went to Calvary as a sinner. But since we know that isn’t true, then if the fallen sin nature is put away by baptism for all men then it was so with Jesus also. He was the first, and had been free from sin for about three years from the time that he was baptized in the Holy Ghost by God. By the time that Jesus went to the cross of his physical death, your salvation had already been wrought by his own obedience to God in his death unto sin, The same baptism whereby all believers are saved. And Jesus lived the example and taught every believer to do the same, and so the words of the Apostles agree. There is no other way to put sin out of your life but by being buried with Christ Jesus in the same baptism that he was baptized with, and then live it and walk it the way that he did, by the power of God.
There is no need of citing the scriptures over again. But if need be we will cite the scriptures as many times as it takes, and many more scriptures as revelation comes, according to the will of God, to bring those that should come to the same blessed hope.
The literal cross made men free from the law, ( Ephesians 2:10 through 3:9 ), where Jew and Gentile may both walk in peace with God, the enmity that was between them, the law, was removed, ( Romans 10:4, 2 Corinthians 3:13, Hebrews 7:18,19. ) On the other hand, the spiritual crossing out of satan’s power by the obedience of Christ Jesus to God, made men free from sin, ( Romans 6:22 ), that is, walking in a state of being, without which no man shall see the kingdom of God. That is why Jesus said; take up the cross and follow me. ( Luke 14:27. ) But this spiritual cross that he spoke of is in a figure of holiness by the power of God, wherein the believer now walks without sin, as Jesus walked from the time of his baptism in the Holy Ghost. Those that yet walk in their sins shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Those that say that it can’t be done are just simply denying the power of God and are jealous of those who walk in truth, as it is written; jealousy is cruel as the grave, ( Song of Solomon 8:6 )
So, when were the nations sprinkled? When were they washed? It is the Spirit that quickens. And the work is in the inward man, performed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as it is written; Create in me a clean heart O God; and renew a right spirit within me, ( Psalms 51:10 ) The word create used here signifies the new creature, and the word renew signifies the renewing of the mind. All workings of God by His Spirit reconciling the fallen creature unto God because of sin. All things are created new, that God alone may be glorified for that which He alone is able to do. That which believers are told to do, Jesus Christ the son of God did it first.
Finally, 1 Peter 2:24 says: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by who’s stripes you were healed. ** This deserves expansion lest the adversary should find occasion to take advantage of a lack of understanding. “Who his own self bare our sins”. In that he bare our sins, bare means ‘carried our sins’. “On the tree” footnotes in the best manuscripts say “to” the tree for “on the tree”. If Christ Jesus carried our sins to the tree with himself what is it then that he had been carrying them all along during the course of his regeneration after his baptism in the Holy Spirit. ( Isaiah 53 & Chapter ). And the purpose of him carrying our sins is confirmed in the next phrase; “That we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness”. ( One of the main points of this letter ) And this, so that the completion of what God sent him to do, he would keep it unto the end, even the death of the literal cross, ( Philippians 2:8 ) “By who’s stripes you were healed”. The marks of afflictions that Paul also said that he bare in his body, ( Galatians 6:17 ). For it is written: all that shall live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, ( 2 Timothy 3:12 ). Not an outward, visible battering. But one that is borne by the faithful believer on the inside, of which I have also testified of myself as bearing those marks. But to God be the glory if I shall be bruised as well, on your behalf, that the glory of God may rest upon you as with all of His faithful sons and daughters who are now, and those who desire to walk in the grace of God by His son Jesus Christ.
So, the majority of the Christian world shows you a symbol of a cross and says: In this you are saved. When that cross only marked the end of the Old Covenant and the beginning of the New. But Paul and all of the Disciples that knew the truth preached Christ’s obedience to God and said: In this you are saved. That cross is not seen but it is lived. For my conscience to be clear, I choose the latter cross.
Jesus taught the disciples things that they, short of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, could not lay hold on, (John 12:16). This he did so that after they were converted, after the day of pentecost, after they had received the Holy Spirit, they would remember the teachings and take to heart the instructions that are designed to keep the new convert from falling. (John 14:26; 16:12-15)
Thus I write.
There is nothing that the Most High God is not able to do. Follow His son Jesus Christ. The grace of God be with you all. Amen.