THE LORD’S
SUPPER ― INSTITUTED BY JESUS OR PAUL?
In Matthew, Mark
and Luke, Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper during the passover
meal. Whereas, in John’s gospel the Lord’s Supper is not instituted - Jesus
was dead by the time of the Passover meal.
In 1 Corinthians
The Lord’s supper
was not invented by Paul, but was borrowed from Mithraism, another mythical
religion that existed long before Christianity. Mithraism was also
Christianity’s chief competitor up until the 4th century when it was suppressed
by Emperor Constantine. In Mithraism, the central figure was the mythical Mithras
who died for the sins of mankind and was resurrected. Believers in Mithras were
rewarded with eternal life. Part of the Mithraic communion liturgy included the
words, “He who will
not eat of my body and drink of my blood, so that he will be made one with me
and I with him, the same shall not know salvation.”
The early Church
Fathers Justin Martyr and Tertullian tried to say that Mithraism copied the
Lord’s Supper from Christianity, but then they were forced to say that
demons had copied it since only demons could copy an event in advance of its
happening! They could not say that the followers of Mithras had copied
it since it was a known fact that Mithraism had included the ritual
a many centuries before the fictitious birth of Jesus. The cult of Mithras has
been traced to 1400 BC in Persia.
Where did Mithraism
come from? For over three hundred years the rulers of the
Paul admits that he
did not know Jesus and maintained that his religion was not taught to him by
any man (Galatians
Christianity
should properly be called Pauline Christology.
"And
I said to him, 'Jeez, Jeezy boy, I feel like no one
will ever accept me.' And Jesus looked
at me and said, 'You know what my theory is ― accept me or go to hell.'" -Gilbert
Gottfried (1955-)
Copyright ©
2004, Christianity-Revealed. All rights reserved.