God wants us to confront our doubts;He will answer them. He answered Thomas' doubt about Jesus' resurrection. Thomas' reply was, "My Lord and My God!" Thomas gained belief. Jesus was bigger than Thomas' doubt and more than able and willing to answer!
One of the biggest hurdles in approaching a sacramental view was the doubt that sacraments truly did anything. Most of us are taught that sacraments are just representative; no real presence is there.
From the Westminster Confession of faith: Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately instituted by God, to represent Christ and His benefits; and to confirm our interest in Him: as also, to put a visible difference between those that belong unto the Church and the rest of the world; and solemnly to engage them to the service of God in Christ, according to His Word.
In Baptistic churches, which is the predominant view in the U.S.A., they are taught so well that instantly one will react to the real presence in Holy Communion with "It is only symbolic. The apostles weren't gnawing on Jesus' actual body."
Upon facing my own doubt about this, God answered me with scripture. Peter tells us that baptism washes away sin. Moses and the Israelites were saved by passing through the Red Sea, with Pharoah and his army drowned in the sea not to rise again. Naaman's leprosy was healed by passing through the water.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread: and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and gave it to His disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.
2 comments:
The statement remains the same: "It depends on what the meaning of the word is, is." Wm Jefferson Clinton.
:P
Maybe President Clinton was more of a theologian than we realize?!
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