From Leonard Alt:
“How could you be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord if it wasn’t the Body and Blood of the Lord?”
In Lorraine Boettner’s book on the Catholic Church, he devotes a full chapter to speaking against the Catholic notion of Communion.
He doesn’t deny 1 Corinthians 11:18-27, in fact he quotes it: “Wherefore whosoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord” (I Cor 11:18-27). But then he does a very peculiar thing.
He goes on the offensive and poses this question; “How could anyone be guilty of drinking the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner if the cup were not given to him” (Rom. Cath., p.181)? Of course today we do receive Jesus under both forms.
But why does Boettner lead people away from this verse? He does it so he doesn’t actually have to explain the meaning of, 1 Corinthians 11:18-27, and in fact he doesn’t explain it.
Boettner is trying to distract the reader so that they don’t ask the question, why would anyone consuming just ordinary bread and wine in an unworthy manner “be guilty for the body and blood of the Lord?”
Of course, Boettner never has to answer that question and the reader is not aware that he doesn’t answer it because he goes on the immediate offensive and the reader is led away from this main point.
On FaceBook one individual made this statement; “The True Believer takes Communion.. ONLY AS A SYMBOL.. of that Finished Work of Redemption..”!
Of course this statement is to be found nowhere in the Bible and as such is a violation of Sola Scriptura. And secondly, Jesus never referred to Communion as symbol. What the Reformed tradition calls symbol, Jesus calls true food and drink; “My body is true food and my blood is true drink” (Jn 6:55).
What some call Symbol, the Apostle Paul calls the Body and Blood of the Lord. “Wherefore whosoever shall eat the bread and drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.” (1 Cor 11: 27-28).
One Evangelical Baptist minister posed this very compelling question; “How could you be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord if it wasn’t the Body and Blood of the Lord?
Of course asking excellent questions like this is the reason he is no longer Baptist.

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