Featured Does your church have an altar?

We set the communion elements on it. It is a table that says "This do in remembrance of me.".

Do you find fault with every tradition of the church?

 

YES

 

You are right that an Altar doesn’t make sense unless there is a Sacrifice.

Catholics see the Eucharist as The New and Everlasting Covenant in Christ’s Blood.
For us it is not just a remembrance meal of bread and wine, it is the Altar of Everlasting Covenant with Christ.
If you don’t see the Lord’s Supper as the New and Everlasting Covenant Sacrifice in Christ’s Blood, an Altar will not make sense to you.

It is the Everlasting Covenant that we participate in, so that everyone can be present at the Lord's Supper down the ages.

 

Jesus used a Table when He performed communion.

 

“We have a cup that we bless; is not this cup we bless a participation in Christ’s blood? Is not the bread we break a participation in Christ’s body? 17 The one bread makes us one body, though we are many in number; the same bread is shared by all.[9] 18 Or look at Israel, God’s people by nature; do not those who eat their sacrifices associate themselves with the altar of sacrifice?“

Paul is making the association between the Jewish sacrifices and Altar of Sacrifice with the Last Supper.

Even further he differentiates between the “ Table of the Lord “ The Christian Altar and the “ Table of devils “ the pagan altars and the foods offered on them.

 

So in these passages we the association of the Lord’s Supper with the Jewish sacrifices and Altar of Sacrifice.

“ It is we that were foreshadowed in these events. ”

The Old Covenant Sacrifices and Altar of Sacrifice pre figured the Lord’s Supper, and the Lord’s Table, which is the Sacrifice and Altar of the New and Everlasting Covenant.

Paul calls the pagan altars the “ Table of demons “ where sacrificial foods are offered, differentiation he makes with the “ Table of the Lord “.

Ask yourself why the Lord’s Supper is brought up between these terms of sacrifice and altars of sacrifice unless the Lord’s Supper is indeed viewed as a Sacrifice and His Table an Altar.

 

You cannot read the institution of the new covenant (testament) narratives without recalling Exodus 24, where after Moses offers the blood of the covenant, he and the others are taken up to eat and drink in the presence of God (communion)...

"And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, 'Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.' Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink." (Exodus 24:8-11, KJV)

Read what Jesus does and institutes on this evening and you will understand why Christians have an altar.

 

All of the earliest churches that have been excavated have altars.

 

Exactly!

 

I attended a local Baptist church in our town where a close friend of mine attends. The Lord's Supper was offered at the end of the service. Specifically, people were told that their were 'elements of bread and grape juice to partake if you like in the vestibule as you leave'. There was no related scripture to the Lord's Supper read, no exhortation given to people warning them not to partake of the Lord's Supper with sin in their lives, no speaking to the significance of the 'ordinance', and no communion table. Just people passing out 'Communion to Go' packets. I believe each packet had a communion wafer and a cup of grape juice inside.

There is another church (I think it is a Methodist church) that has drive-by 'Holy Communion on the go' option. No attendance at church necessary.

Thoughts?

 

My thoughts are best expressed by Fulton Sheen…

“He did not ask that men should write down His Words into Scripture; He did not ask that His kindness to the poor should be recorded in history; but He did ask that men remember His Death. And in order that its memory might not be any haphazard narrative on the part of men, He Himself instituted the precise way it should be recalled. The memorial was instituted the night before He died, at what has since been called ‘The Last Supper.’” - Fulton Sheen

 

Your joking.