Sunday, January 1, 2012

Are Lutherans the only Christian group that believes in the doctrine of CONSUBSTANTIATION?

As I understand it, this is different from the Catholic doctrine of TRANSUBSTANTIATION (shared by Orthodox Christians, regarding the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist). Roughly speaking, the Lutheran view has it that nothing changes in form or substance: the bread remains bread and the wine remains wine. However, Christ becomes SPIRITUALLY present in the bread and wine, as a result of consecration. Hence, one physically receives bread and wine, but spiritually receives Christ's body and blood. My question is: does any other Protestant church view the Eucharist in the same way (i.e. as a spiritual representation)? I believe that most persons belonging to such denominations regard the bread and wine as merely SYMBOLIZING Christ's body and blood ... there is a world of difference between a spiritual and symbolic representation ...

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