Spiritual Famine

R. C. Sproul says in the Foreword to Keith A. Mathison, Given For You: Reclaiming Calvin’s Doctrine Of The Lord’s Supper (Phillipsburg, P & R Publishing, 2002) :

… as divided as they were on some issues, the Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists were solidly in agreement on two vital issues – that the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is a means of grace and that Christ was really and truly present in the sacrament. All three affirmed that the believer is actually nurtured by the risen body and blood of Christ.

Since the sixteenth century there has been a gradual but steady erosion of the Reformed view of the sacrament so that in the present era the doctrine of the doctrine of the real presence is decidedly a minority report.

… When the sacrament is reduced to the level of a “naked sign” or “nude symbol,” its importance and its practice all but disappear from the life of the church.

I am convinced that where the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is taken lightly the people of God are sorely impoverished. Without both Word and sacrament we face a spiritual famine.

The light of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is in eclipse. The shadows of postmodern relativism have covered the table. For the Lord’s Supper to be restored to the spiritual life of the church there must be an awakening to its meaning, significance, and power. (p.x)