“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
If, as preterists maintain, Jesus came in AD70, why do you celebrate the Lord’s Supper?
To answer as an orthodox preterist (I’m sorry, but ‘partial’ doesn’t work for me), I would mention that the communion is a covenant memorial that reminds God of the covenant. The covenant is the key.
A recurring pattern throughout the Bible is this one: Called, Divided, Filled and Reunited.
We see it in the exodus. The Hebrews are divided from Egypt through a divided sacrifice and a divided sea (blood and water). In the wilderness, Israel is betrothed to God by Covenant, and fed with miraculous bread. An enormous haul of grapes brings a promise of wine, but they aren’t ready for it.* After a generation, Israel is no longer just a people but an army. She has been ‘filled.’ Through another crossing of water and blood (Jordan and Jericho), she is finally united to her Husband in the promised land.
God always divides, fills and reunites. Creation consisted of three days of dividing and three days of filling the 3 new ‘chambers.’ God divided Adam to construct Eve.
In Communion, the bread and wine are given separately. Christ’s body is dividedfrom His blood. We are filled, and His body and blood are reunited in us. As we partake, we, Greater Eve, fulfill His resurrection as a holy army (Ez. 37; John 12:24).
*We see this pattern in the garden of Eden, with a bread tree (priest) and wine tree (king). Adam wasn’t ready for the wine of kingdom. It would be another generation, Noah’s, who would drink wine before God in a new land.
The difference between the wicked and the righteous is whether
or not we give thanks as we take hold of the world.
–James Jordan, Ritual and Typology. biblicalhorizons.wordpress.com
The Synod of Dort
If you’ve ever been to a Synod, you’ll quickly find out that “truth” is determined by numbers.
So remarked a Catholic contributor on a Protestant forum recently. Is this a fair criticism of Protestant disunity? How should we Protestants reply? Thanks to James Jordan’s teaching, I think I can offer an answer.
Bible Matrix blog
