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What is "Biblical"?
Our Facebook ad for July is about the Lord’s Supper. It links a PathLights article which summarizes what the Bible says about that subject. Most of the reaction has been positive. One dissenter, a Lutheran preacher, said he does agree with everything the article says, and referring to the Lutheran’s practice he added, “Ours is Biblical too.”
What does it mean for something to be Biblical? The dictionary says that word refers to something that is in the Bible or in accord with the Bible. Please note. . .
“Biblical” does not necessarily require something to be named in Scripture. Communion trays, as we call them, are not Biblical in the sense that you can read about them in the Bible; they are, however, surely in accord with what the Bible says about eating the bread drinking the cup (1 Corinthians 11:26).
“Biblical” does require acting in conjunction with all the Bible says on the subject. Eating the bread but not drinking the cup—so-called “communion under one kind”—is not Biblical because it leaves off something the Bible teaches us to do.
“Biblical” does not permit us to change the Bible’s instruction. The Corinthians transitioned the Lord’s Supper into a meal to satisfy hunger. They doubtless still called it “the Lord’s Supper,” but Paul wrote, “Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk” (1 Corinthians 11:20-21). Changing any part of the “who, what, when, where, why, and how” of Bible instruction makes our practice no longer Biblical, even if it retains some marks of the original.
I don’t know the specifics of our Lutheran friend’s practice. Reason says, if it is significantly different than ours, there is no way both can be Biblical. One or both of us need to change.
