This megachurch preacher shocked many fellow Protestants with this speech. Francis Chan is an author and speaker on Christian topics. He is the founder and teaching pastor at Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, CA. He also founded Eternity Bible College and performs significant philanthropic work, donating much of his income to charities.
He shocked the protestant community when he made this admission concerning the Real Presence of Jesus in Holy Communion and rejected the exclusively symbolic interpretation of the Eucharist. During a sermon to his congregation on the feast of the Epiphany, Chan said:
I didn’t know that for the first 1,500 years everyone saw Communion as the literal body and blood of Christ.
(Clip) Holy Communion, the Reason for the Gathering of the Church by Francis Chan
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In Acts 2:42, we see how the early church devoted itself to the Lord’s Supper, prayer, teaching, and fellowship. Chan correctly notes that, for over 1,500 years, the Christian Church believed it was participating in the Last Supper and that Jesus’ literal body and blood became present. This was the partaking of the bread. This is why, as Chan notes, St. Paul warns the Corinthians that many of them are sick or have died because they partook of Communion in an unworthy manner.
Chan also lamented the substitution of a sermon for the sacrament by Protestant reformers:
“For the first time, someone put a pulpit in the front … before that, it was always the body and blood of Christ that was central.”
The Sunday gatherings were always a Mass, and missing it was, and still is, a mortal sin in the Christian church. Here is why missing Mass is a mortal sin.
Our Lord meant to change the bread and wine into His body and blood, rather than leaving us a mere symbol or memorial of His passion. We know this from the words of His promise to do this in St. John’s gospel, Chapter 6. The critical words of this chapter are John 6:52, “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” John 6:54, “. . . unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of man, ye shall not have life in you.” John 6:56, “For my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed.” Learn more…
“To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant.” John Henry Cardinal Newman