23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come.
27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

MATTHEWS GOSPEL - CHAPTER 26
26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

MARKS GOSPEL - CHAPTER 14
26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

LUKES GOSPEL - CHAPTER 22

16 For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
17 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves:
18 For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.
19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.
20 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.

JOHN'S GOSPEL - CHAPTER 6
53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.
59 These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.
60 Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?

From the above scripture it would appear that there may be something to the Catholic teaching that one receives the Literal body and blood of Jesus Christ at the "Mass". It was indeed an hard saying! The passage, when understood with the verses to follow shows some fascinating things about the Lord Jesus. First of all, he did not mind feeding information to those who resented him that would lead them astray if they would not seek truth. He was not above purposely offending those people! Secondly, He made it abundantly clear to those who refused to be offended, that what he spoke about in the scriptures cited above no more taught that he was suggesting eating or drinking his literal flesh or blood than his words to the adulterer in John 8 legitimizes adultery. You must read the rest of the story! --

61 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?
62 What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?
63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

In verses 61 - 63 the Lord Jesus Christ made it plain that the flesh profiteth nothing. He said to them "Doth this offend thee?" he asked in reference to their astonishment at what they perceived him to be teaching, Then he asks "what will you do if I go away?" In other words, "You must eat me, and drink my blood to be saved, but I'm leaving. Too bad!" It looks very confusing to the disciples until he tells them in 63 that it is his WORDS he is talking about. Very interesting. To us, his word is LIFE!

All the above is to get a good start. In first Corinthians 11, (quoted above) The Lord instituted what is commonly called "Communion". In the word of God, it is NEVER anything more than an ordinance. It is NEVER a "Sacrament", as a matter of fact there is no such thing as a Sacrament in the word of God. An ordinance is simply a physical act that memorializes or symbolizes a greater reality. There are two Ordinances in the Bible. Baptism by immersion of adults or children that are saved and understand the meaning behind the ordinance, and the Lords Supper or "Communion". At the very beginning of Christ's ministry, he submitted to baptism by John, to "fulfill all righteousness. (Matt 3:15) The wisdom of this can be seen throughout church history. The second thing he did was to sit with his disciples just before his death at what is called the "Last supper": That is referred to in the scriptures quoted above. In these two acts, he provided a safeguard against the two main heresies that would rule the earth in the dark ages. 1. Baptismal regeneration by baptizing infants upon birth. 2. The Roman Mass, which teaches that the fruit of the vine and the "Host" become by some mysterious process the literal blood and body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those two ordinances kept the fires of orthodoxy alive and well while Rome, and the "Holy" Roman empire ruled the world. Those two ordinances defined anyone who held to the Bible as the sole rule of faith and practice during the period of time from immediately after the end of the first century, right up to the reformation. The people that held to the truth through that awful period were called by different names, but all believed fundamentally in the truths that real Baptists hold to today. They were persecuted. Infant Baptism was LAW under the Roman Whore. To refuse to accept it was to sign your death warrant. Catholicism was the STATE religion. To refuse to accept the mass as the body and blood of Christ was to place oneself in jeopardy of life itself. Conservative estimates of the number of slain for the truth of the word of God in the first 13 centuries of the present age went as high as 50,000,000. (fifty million!) They were called Novatians, Donatists, Ana-Baptists, Montanists, Priscillians, Paulicians, Paterines, Mesalines, Euchites, Nestorians, Sabellians and Manichaeans. Later they were known as Vaudois, Brethren, Bogomiles, Albigenses, Waldenses, Henricians, Bulgarians, Petrobrusians, Berengarians, Arnoldists ,Cathari.  Although they vary sometimes in their doctrines, they all had five things in common.
1. They professed to believe that the Bible alone was the final authority in all issues relating to faith and practice.
2. They would not sprinkle or baptize babies
3. They did not believe the State had any business dictating to a local church in matter of religious belief or practices.
4. They would not pray to the saints or pray for the dead
5. They flatly rejected the Roman Catholic mass

One can understand easily why The Lord Left us the ordinances. Faithfulness to them would safeguard one from the seductive Whore of Revelation 17. I am not a protestant. Luther was a "Protester" and I thank God for what he did, but he had many before him that were never a part of Rome. They can be traced back to the time of Christ. They are my heritage. They died for what some would consider foolishness. But to them the integrity of the words of the living God dictated a non-negotiable standard. I am a Baptist, (an Independent, Bible believing, Bible thumping, Bible preaching, blood washed Baptist) because I desire to be allied with those souls of antiquity that never got the publicity that Martin got. He, as was stated above, a leading force in the Protestant reformation, but he never got over infant baptism. Thank God he got salvation by faith right, but his movement now is little more than a stones throw from it's mother - ROME. I am a Baptist by conviction, not by convenience. They honored the word of God and paid for it with their lives.