Questions, Answers, and Comments

I really enjoyed reading your site. I would like to ask about the “one cup” at communion. You failed to site the next verse in Matt. 26. Verse 29 clearly puts the emphasis on the contents of the cup “fruit of the vine”. The emblams are what is important. The unlevened bread…Christ’s body…The fruit of the vine …Christ’s blood. ” Do this in rememberance of me…” A cup(s) does not remind you of His death. I am a member of the church and do not desire to strain at gnats with you. Would you only sing psalms in worship or do you use a hymnal with traditional songs like “Amazing Grace”or “everlasting Arms”  Thanks for your time and your great website!

~ Trent from Gilbertsville, KY

Greetings to you Trent! We very much appreciate hearing from you and are so glad that you have enjoyed the website supported by our congregation of the church here in West Virginia. We hope that you will tell others about the site so they may enjoy it as well….. so on behalf of our little congregation in Wayne, West Virginia we thank you for browsing the gospel for today website and for sending us your comments!

In regard to your question about the use of “one cup” in the communion. This is the kind of question that many people as yourself have inquired, as to why that we believe that it is essential to use one cup or drinking vessel in the distribution of the fruit of vine. Perhaps it may seem like that we are straining at gnats in regard to this issue, and like you, we really have no gnats to strain with anybody about this issue.

Ours is a position much like any scriptural position that most who claim to be members of the Lords church would hold in view of other religious topics. In all openness and honesty and from a scriptural viewpoint, we truly do believe with all of our heart that the Bible does teach that using one cup in the distribution of the fruit of the vine is not an optional thing, but that the Lord did give spiritual significance to using one cup in distributing the fruit of the vine, during the communion service.

I hope the following thoughts will briefly affirm from the scriptures as to why that we do hold this position as an unmovable ordinance within the worship of the Lords church. Some do contend that the emphasis in the New Testament regarding the observance of the Lords Supper is never to be placed upon a cup or container in any sense, but only upon the fruit of vine representing the blood of Christ. The passage that you spoke of in Matt. 26: 29, that you reminded us of failing to site in our article, is definitely a passage that emphasizes that the fruit of vine does represent the blood of Christ. We believe that as well as you do….but if you notice carefully the scripture does not say that the blood of Christ represents the New Testament, but rather Jesus simply stated…..

in verse 28…For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many….

The emphasis is placed upon the blood here, yet not separate and apart from the one cup in which he gave thanks for in the verses just previous to this one…..As the one cup that Jesus took on that occasion was one literal container that contained fruit of vine, the meaning following is very simplistic, and that is as the one New Testament that would be created before the Father by Jesus the Son and thus would be sealed by His precious blood, so it would be that the one cup in the communion containing the fruit of vine would likewise represent the New Testament which contained the ratifying or sealing blood of Jesus Christ.

Please notice these passages that specifically say this about the cup representing the new testament in my blood……

Luke 22:19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. 20 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.

1 Corinthians 11:25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

To compare Matthew and Mark’s account with the accounts of Luke and Paul in view of the institution of the supper, it is quite clear as we make an comparison side by side that all the accounts are actually saying the same thing in view of what the emblems were to represent according to Jesus. Notice Jesus and Paul emphasize different aspects of the significance in how the memorial was to be observed by those who were disciples, as they properly discerned that the fruit of vine was to represent the blood of Christ, and the cup or drinking vessel which contained the fruit of the vine was to represent the new testament.

Notice the comparisons and examine the emphasis revealed in the gospel accounts and I Corinthians.Matthew and Mark reveal, “This (fruit of the vine) is my blood of the new testament.”  Luke and Paul reveal, “This cup is the new testament in my blood”.One might look at it from this viewpoint.

If when Christ said of the bread, “This is my body, which is given for you”, we realize that the one bread and the body of Christ are literally different things but they carry an undeniable spiritual relationship through symbolism that was intended and spoken by Christ; When Christ said of the fruit of the vine, “This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many, we realize that the fruit of the vine and the shed blood of Jesus Christ are also literally different things, yet they too carry an undeniable spiritual relationship through symbolism that was intended and spoken by Christ;……

Surely then there should be no problem with seeing by way of consistency that when Christ said, “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you, ” we realize that the one cup Jesus used and the new testament were also two literal, yet different things, yet they carry between them an undeniable spiritual relationship through symbolism that was intended and spoken by Christ. If we conclude that there is an undeniable spiritual relationship that exists in the two examples previous to this last one (as we should,) then certainly we should conclude, should we not, that it was not man that delivered spiritual significance to the use of one cup in the communion service, but it was Jesus Christ himself that did, for the benefit of his disciples as they would memorialize Him after the establishment of the church..

Trent, you made the observation that a cup does not remind you of his death. I can agree with that observation to a certain point and here it is…..an empty container with nothing in it, surely represents nothing alone by itself. If we ever speak of the scriptural significance of using one cup, as though we are only talking about an empty container, it would be as useless as speaking of a covenant being made without a seal of approval upon it……Such could not be the case if we believe that a certain covenant is valid and good……Certainly we believe that the covenant we have through Jesus Christ is good and is valid, which affords the conclusion that if something represents the new testament which is synonymous with the covenant we have in Christ, and thus to be scripturally sound and consistent we would have to conclude that the one container of the fruit of the vine which is the new testament ratified by the blood of Jesus is not just an empty container, but is a container which contains fruit of the vine that symbolically reflects, in communion, the benefits we have within the New Covenant of Jesus.

Please consider this, when Jesus died upon the cross, the bible reveals clearly that three things did take place when that event occurred. And these are things that we think of and remember during the communion service.

1. His one body was sacrificed……..The one loaf used in the communion service signifies this, and so as we commune, we commune together as disciples his body as the spiritual body of Christ.

2. His blood was shed……The fruit of the vine signifies that it was his blood and only his blood that was shed, and thus as we commune, we commune his blood of the new testament.

3. The new testament was ratified…….The one cup which contains the fruit of the vine, signifies the one new covenant by which Jesus delivered and sealed through his blood. And thus as we commune, we do so with the reminder and the avenue of proper examination of the new covenant that we live under through Jesus Christ the Son of God.

In 1 Corinthians 11:28-30– the Bible says….But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

In summary, by substituting individual cups for the one cup Jesus specifically with his voice gave spiritual significance to in all of the biblical accounts of the new testament, destroys the beautiful symbolism that was intended by Jesus when he instituted this greatest of memorial feasts to his disciples on the night of his betrayal.  

The reality is, Trent, we on this earth are not the ones who originated the spiritual significance found in using one cup in the communion,  it was the Lord himself who did so, as He told His disciples….this do in remembrance of me!

Surely, the symbolism of the communion service can never be seen in what fits into the trends of modern thinking of today. And by the way, please check it for yourself…… it is an historical fact that the use of individual cups didn’t start in the days when the apostles set forth the teaching of Jesus regarding the ordinances to be delivered to the churches. Look from now until the end of time, and you will not find the slightest hint in the new testament that the Apostles of Jesus ever used individual cups in the communion service or at anytime endorsed the use of them  for distributing the fruit of the vine or even endorsed the use of multiple loaves in the communion either.

Ironically, individual communion cups didn’t show themselves upon the world scene until they were introduced by a patent pending invention of a man who was a Presbyterian preacher and doctor by the name of J.G. Thomas in the year of 1894 in the town of Lima, Ohio. Allen county Ohio’s historical museum today has the original set of individual communion cups by patent on display there, and these cups were introduced by Dr. Thomas because of the rising fear of the spreading of germs and diseases such as TB and others at the turn of that century…..Individual cups were invented by this man strictly for sanitation reasons at their inception and the documentation of this fact is open for all to see and observe who wish to investigate the true originator of individual communion cups for worship.

I’m not sure if that is your reason for using Individual cups where you attend services Trent, but historically speaking that is where their use came from and in all honesty that is why they were introduced into the religious community. GC Brewer a preacher of the church of Christ long ago, makes the statement in his book Forty Years on the Firing Line,….” that he believed that he was the first preacher to advocate the use of the individual communion cup and the first church in the State of Tennessee that adopted it was……the Central church of Christ in Chattanooga, then meeting in the Masonic Temple”…

Think of it…. even those who practice their use in the churches of Christ today,  have only GC Brewer to thank and to claim as their point of origin for their practice in the body of Christ and not Jesus Christ or his Apostles.

To close, I hope this response is not viewed by you as something to not be considered and cast aside. I can assure you we have no axes to grind over this issue. We are just simple people, trying to do what the Lord wants as best as we can determine from the Bible, without the interference of modern thinking and innovative hindrances.  Our overall goal is to not be lead away from the truth and beauty found in the simple memorial that Jesus instituted to his disciples so long ago.  If we stick to the Bible, we don’t have to lose anything, we have only heaven to gain….As one who is a member of the church, I encourage you to be open to and at least consider these views in context to the scriptures and not consider them by anything that I might say or assume, as a human being who is capable of error. Your interest in spiritual matters is very important to us, and with grace and truth, I believe we can believe and come to reason with the same judgment in view of this subject that has tragically over several decades divided the body of Christ.

May God be with you in search for truth, and may we always be in contact with each other, as we strive to make heaven our final home.Thank you so much for contacting us we appreciate your kind words!

Look forward to hearing from you,

Best Personal Regards, Wyn Baker, Preacher of the Gospel