HeartBreakLog

Technorati is getting me in a lot of trouble lately. I stumbled across this while innocently looking for something else, and of course didn’t have enough sense to leave it alone:
JIMMY AKIN.ORG: Adding Wine To The Precious Blood JIMMY AKIN.ORG: More On Adding Wine To The Precious Blood
I responded:

This is certainly revealing---what is its actual Scriptural basis? One begins to suspect that you all sit around making stuff up.

None of this seems to be described in Jesus’ presentation of the first Communion (Luke 22:18-20). His intent is clearly to present the ceremony of the Passover in its completed form under the New Covenant, with Himself as the Lamb of the Sacrifice(Hebrews 9:24-28), whose Blood turns aside the punishment for our sins. He said “Do this in Remembrance of me”.

Nor did the Ceremony itself confer the Holy Spirit, which the Apostles only received after His return to Heaven (Acts 2:1-4). The ceremony isn’t a magical incantation, it is our expression of remembrance of God’s Greatest Gift, our final Exodus from slavery to sin and death---as the Passover commemorated Israel’s Exodus from slavery in Egypt.

Nowhere in the descriptions of the Holy Spirit and His Purpose by Jesus (John 14:26) or Paul (1 Corinthians 12:7-11), for examples, is there any apparent reference to this “dilution” issue. Are we to believe that the Presence of the infinitely powerful, Living God, Who struck down the Israelites who rebelled, Who drove out nations before them, Who empowers us as the children of God, the “deposit guaranteeing our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:14) until ultimate Redemption, is somehow affected by solvents?!

If you had to present your discussion to the King Himself in person, wouldn’t you at least find it sort of embarassing?

[Further comments from the group seem to express continued comfort with the whole idea of containment of the Holy Spirit within fancy dinnerware by use of alcoholic beverages, and even to find the concept rather charming and perhaps personally enabling. Others think we are being unduly harsh by limiting our "understanding" of Scripture to the testimony of contemporary witnesses represented in the canonical New Testament writings.]

Labels: Bible and Religious Commentary

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