July 16 – LD 29, Day 1: Truth Versus
Error in Understanding the Meaning of the Lord’s Supper
by Rev Arie den Hartog
Read: Galatians 1
It is tragic that false teaching soon appeared in the
church regarding the meaning of the Lord’s Supper. This false teaching soon
corrupted the observance of the Lord’s Supper. One of the reasons why the church
had to be ‘reformed’, ‘formed anew’, or ‘formed again’, was because the Roman
Catholic Church had corrupted the Lord’s Supper. This corruption was so serious
because it led to all sorts of superstition and even idolatrous ideas of the
sacred ordinance of the Lord’s Supper.
It is never a pleasant
thing in itself to have to condemn error. However when the great truths of God
are involved and the glory of the name of Jesus Christ is involved, the church
must be faithful to condemn errors, and if necessary, even separate herself
from them. The prophets of the Old Testament had to condemn error and they did
this courageously. Our Lord Jesus condemned the false teachings of the Scribes
and Pharisees of His time. He even pronounced woes on these false teachers for
their hypocrisies and their self-righteous attitude. The apostle Paul, the
apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ, felt compelled to condemn errors. In the book
of Galatians, for example, he condemned the teachers of salvation through the
works of the law who insisted on the necessity of circumcision for salvation.
So serious did the inspired apostle consider the errors of these false
teachers, that he called them another gospel, which is no gospel. He went so
far as to pronounce the curse of God on the teachers of this false doctrine in
the
So, believing the truth
of the Lord’s Supper as being of greatest importance for the proper worship of
the church, the leaders of the Reformation condemned the false teaching of the church of Rome. The name that is given to the corrupted
celebration of the Lord’s Supper in the church of Rome
is the name ‘the mass.’ Over time, the observance of the mass became central to
the worship service. The celebration of the mass was exalted wrongly above the
preaching of the Word. In many churches of
The errors concerning the
mass (called by the Reformers ‘the popish mass’)
continue to our modern times. It is called the popish mass because of the
regulation of the Pope with respect to the administration of the mass. The
church has not turned from its false teaching, but only confirmed its erroneous
teachings at several church councils over time. The church at
For all of these reasons,
the Reformed Church in the Heidelberg Catechism takes great pains to
distinguish truth from error with regards to the proper understanding of the
sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. We should not be offended by this. If we love
the Lord, we should be concerned about maintaining the truth of the sacraments
which He Himself ordained in the church. Only then can this sacrament serve for
the encouragement of the faith of the church and the glory of the name of the
Lord presented in this sacrament.