The Mormon Dilemma

ACCUSATION: Mormons turn the Lord's Supper (which they call the Sacrament) into a mockery by using regular bread and water instead of unleavened bread and wine, like Jesus Himself used when He instituted it.

COMMON MORMON RESPONSE: We treat the Sacrament as holy. One Mormon Scripture says it doesn't matter what you eat or drink as long as you do it with an eye singularly towards the Lord. Besides that, the early Mormon church suffered persecution of the such that the local wine distributors would poison the wine in an attempt to harm Mormons. So the Lord revealed that it was ok to substitute what we had available to us.

MY THOUGHTS: We read in the New Testament that Jesus took bread and wine and blessed them and gave them to the disciples as a memorial of His body & blood, respectively. We know that Jesus MUST have used UNLEAVENED bread because he administered it during the Passover, during which leavening was not allowed in the house (See Exodus 12:14-20; Deuteronomy 16:1-4). Furthermore, they most likely used wine partly because it is cleaner than the well water available back then, and partly because of characteristics similar to blood, being red-ish or blue-ish in color, and also thicker than water. We read that the church of the New Testament continued this remembrance upon the first day of the week (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34), even in the face of intense persecution by Saul, Jews, and Romans. We then turn to the BoM and see that the followers of God also used bread and wine. However, the D&C later reveals that the church was told not to purchase wine from their enemies, probably because of the possibility of poisoning. They were told to make their own wine. Today, the Mormon church uses water instead of wine, and regular sliced bread (wheat, white, and rye, and sometimes combinations of them!) instead of the unleavened bread used by Jesus. There are 2 discrepancies here: the type of bread, and the type of drink. Now, if they were told not to buy wine from their enemies because of the potential for poisoning, wouldn't it make sense that maybe they shouldn't by bread from their enemies either since it could be poisoned? My studies of the preparations of Sacrament show that the men preparing the Sacrament use regular tap water from the faucet (bought from the local water company...just as the early church would have bought wine from the local winery or market) and it uses sliced bread bought from a local grocery store (that could just as easily have been poisoned as the wine). If the church is to use wine of its own make, why not use bread of its own bake? And if it matters not what you use, then why did Jesus wait until the Passover day to institute the Sacrament, when He knew full well that He would only have Unleavened bread and wine in the house? And why did the first century church and the Mormon church in the BoM follow the example?

Any Christian will find it difficult to associate the locally-bought, brand-name, sliced bread, that is the same they eat at home and containing leaven (yeast), with the pure, sinless body of the Savior. Not because of lack of faith or knowledge or imagination (it takes more imagination to accept Mormonism!), but because that bread, which is produced by non-Christians, is not like the unleavened, uncontaminated bread the Israelites prepared in haste to escape slavery in Egypt, and which Jesus used to symbolize His body. Furthermore, the water brings to mind no symblance of the blood of Christ, because it is clear and thin, and nothing like what Jesus used when He ordained the sacred ceremony to the disciples. Yet if water & wine are interchangeable symbols of each other, like the Mormon Sacrament seems to suggest, then why not baptise in wine?

Another question to ask Mormons: Would the use of wine be a violation of the Word of Wisdom? (Point out that the wine they used in the New Testament was not like what people excessively consume today...it's alcoholic content was very low and was probably more like drinking grape juice, since it was the "fruit of the vine.")

Finally, would it be so hard for an organization with the tremendous resources of the Ladder-Day Saints to produce its own sacred wine and unleavened bread for use in the Sacrament?



RELATED SITES:
Jerald & Sandra Tanner
Recovery From Mormonism
Books on Mormonism
The Mormonism Research Ministry

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