Concurrently in this same time frame, the Lord’s Supper came to be perceived in a very mystical sense. Understood in the first century as a very simple memorial of Christ’s death for the believer, the ceremony by 200 AD was seen as an offering of sacrificial praise (a "eucharist"²); that is, a sacrificial meal where participants offered the sacrifice of praise and prayer, a sacrifice that had no atoning efficacy. But by 400 AD in the Roman Church, the eucharist had become a sacrificial act of efficacy; that is, one that had atoning value. It is this concept of the Lord’s Table that became institutionalized in the Middle or Dark Ages and then became known as the "Mass." The English "mass" derives from the Latin missa. How early the latter was used to designate the eucharist as sacrifice is uncertain: the earliest written documentation is by Isadore of Seville who died in 636 AD.³  

Though beyond the time frame of this article, permit me to highlight one more development in the mystification of the Lord’s Table: in 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council, under the Pontificate of Pope Innocent III, declared "Transubstantiation" to be the official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church relative to the elements of the Lord’s Supper. Transubstantiation is based upon the arguments of Scholastics of the 12^th-13^th Centuries who applied Aristotelian philosophy of accidents to the elements. Thomas Aquinas (died, 1274) is the most famous of these. 

"Transubstantiation" is the doctrine that declares the change in the eucharistic elements at their consecration in the mass (which consecration could only be uttered by a Roman Catholic Priest) from the substance of bread and wine to the substance of the body and blood of Christ with only the accidents of the bread and wine remaining (as taste, color, shape and smell). In others words, the priest utters magical words of consecration and the bread and wine become the actual body and blood of Christ even though they still taste and look like bread and wine. Moreover, this transaction is to be viewed as a literal sacrifice (or re-sacrifice) of Christ for the participant’s sins, a sacrifice without which there is no salvation. In 1215, transubstantiation is declared official Roman Catholic dogma: from that point on, the Lord’s Supper is viewed in the Roman Catholic Church as a literal sacrifice of Christ having atoning value, hence necessary for salvation.

Contrast that with the simplicity of the New Testament: our Lord, after he had taken a common loaf of unleavened bread, had given thanks, and had broken it, said, "This do in remembrance of me" (I Cor. 11:24). That is: "break off a little piece of a common loaf of bread, eat it soberly when you have gathered in assembly fellowship: this bread represents my body and therefore is to bring to mind, to remembrance, the giving of myself for you at Calvary with all the benefits and efficacy of that death for all true believers. Keep doing this as a remembrance ‘til I come." 

The elements are figures that serve as reminders: the bread represents and reminds us of his body that was given for us: the cup represents and reminds us of the blood that he shed to ratify the New Covenant through which God would pour out His blessings in grace upon believers. Both elements direct our thoughts to the efficacy of his once-for-all death; therefore as oft as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we do shew or announce the Lord’s death ‘til he comes. So our Lord says, "Keep doing this in remembrance of me."  

From the New Testament perspective, the Lord’s Supper, often referred to as the Lord’s Table, was a very simple remembrance service in which, through the two elements, believers were reminded of Christ’s death for them and the benefits that accrued to them through that death.⁴

Contributors to the Progressive Mystification of the Lord’s Supper 

Mystification of water baptism and the Lord’s Supper is not based upon good biblical exegesis, rather upon scattered references in the writings of certain of the post-apostolic church fathers as interpreted by medieval theologians. These writings and the assumed traditions that they reflect are as authoritative in the Roman Catholic Church as are the Scriptures in an evangelical, fundamental church. The basis of authority is a major, major issue between these two segments of modern Christendom. Nowhere in the New Testament is the Lord’s Table perceived as a sacrifice.

Mystification by the year 250 AD 

The following quotes from various post-apostolic sources well illustrate how the Lord’s Table and its elements took on mystical and magical proportions that medieval theologians carried all the way to the doctrine of transubstantiation.

It is obvious that the ceremony of the Lord’s Supper early became enshrouded in mystery. But it should be remembered that the history of this doctrine is nowhere a progress of thought or of solid biblical exegesis. Instead, it was conditioned by fixed rites and rituals with which a multitude of individual opinions were interwoven, and, from about 200, filtered through a privileged priesthood ("sacerdotalism"). It remained for Ambrose and Augustine to give further substance to the Lord’s Supper as an atoning sacrifice and thus pave the way for the medieval manipulations and Aristotelian application than brought the doctrine to one of transubstantiation.

"Sacramentalism," the belief that "sacraments" were intended for, hence necessary to, one’s salvation was thoroughly entrenched in the western Church by 400 AD. There were only two: water baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Water baptism somehow mysteriously washed away sins; the Lord’s Supper in someway mysteriously provided eternal life and was seen by many as a sacrifice of atoning value. And only the priests (the "sacerdos") were endowed with the powers and privileges to make all this happen. 

Ron Merryman served the Lord in Bible colleges for 11 years, 3 of those as Acting President of Western Bible College. He also pastored Holly Hills Bible Church in Denver, Colorado, for 14 years. Ron currently teaches in the G.I.B.S., a ministry of Duluth Bible Church.