Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist

The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, sometimes shortened Real Presence, is the Christian doctrine that Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist, not merely symbolically or metaphorically,^[1] but in a true, real and substantial way.

There are a number of Christian denominations that teach that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist, including Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Church of the East, the Moravian Church, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, Methodism and Irvingianism, as well as Reformed Christianity (including the Continental Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and Reformed Baptist traditions).^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8] The differences in the teachings of these Churches primarily concern "the mode of Christ's presence in the Lord's Supper".^[1]

Efforts at mutual understanding of the range of beliefs by these Churches led in the 1980s to consultations on Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry by the World Council of Churches.^[9]^[10]

The Real Presence is rejected by other Christians who see the Lord's Supper as purely a memorial, including many General Baptists,^[11]^[12] some Anabaptists,^[13] the Plymouth Brethren,^[13] some non-denominational Christian churches,^[14] as well as those identifying with liberal Christianity, segments of the Restoration Movement,^[13] and Jehovah's Witnesses.^[15]^[16]^[17]^[18]

^ ^a ^b ^c R. C. Sproul (1 November 2006). "The Battle for the Table". Ligonier Ministries. Retrieved 2 August 2020. It is important to note at this point that there is major agreement among Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, the Reformed, that Christ is truly present in the Lord's Supper. They all go beyond the view of the Supper as a bare sign or memorial ... The debate among Catholics, Lutherans, and Reformed people is one that focuses on the mode of Christ's presence in the Lord's Supper. At the bottom, this debate is not so much sacramental as it is christological. [sic]
^ Cite error: The named reference Atwood2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Losch, Richard R. (1 May 2002). A Guide to World Religions and Christian Traditions. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 90. ISBN 9780802805218. Anglicans and Orthodox do not attempt to define how [Christ is present], but simply accept the mystery of his presence.
^ Cite error: The named reference Neal2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ McKim, Donald K. (1998). Major Themes in the Reformed Tradition. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-57910-104-6. The Westminster Confession emphatically declares that Christ is truly present in the elements and is truly received by those partaking, 'yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually' (chap. 31, par. 7). The insistence is that while Christ's presence is not physical in nature it is no less a real and vital presence, as if it were a physical presence. ... Those of us in the Reformed tradition are under strong obligation to honour the notion of the real presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper.
^ Johnson, Maxwell E. (2015). The Church in Act: Lutheran Liturgical Theology in Ecumenical Conversation. Fortress Press. ISBN 978-1-4514-9668-0. That is, as the practice of the ancient Assyrian Church of the East indicates clearly, not all churches who hold a high doctrine of Christ's real presence have reserved the Eucharist historically. Further, a lack of reserving the Eucharist in the Assyrian Church of the East has not been a factor in entering recently into a situation of shared Eucharist with the Chaldean Church.
^ "Being Baptist: The Lord's Supper". Covenant Reformed Baptist Church. Retrieved 15 April 2025. Benjamin Keach, a very influential early Baptist pastor/theologian who lived from 1640 to 1704 stated in his "Keach's Catechism" (1677) question 117: "The Lord's Supper is a holy ordinance, wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine, according to Christ's appointment, His death is showed forth, and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporeal and carnal manner, but by faith, made partakers of His body and blood, with all His benefits, to their spiritual nourishment, and growth in grace." Keach would later be a signatory on the 2nd London Baptist Confession of 1689 which followed very closely the Westminster Confession of Faith in declaring that: "Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this ordinance, do then also inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually receive, and feed upon Christ crucified, and all the benefits of his death; the body and blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally, but spiritually present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses."
^ Cite error: The named reference Garvie1920 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Kereszty, Roch A. (2002). Rediscovering the Eucharist: Ecumenical Conversations. Paulist Press. p. 253. ISBN 978-0-8091-4144-9. Besides the documents produced by several joint commissions consisting of Catholic and Protestant theologians of different denominations, the most important ecumenical document was published by the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches: Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry. Some form of the real presence of Christ in the eucharistic celebration has been commonly expressed in the joint text: "the eucharistic celebration is the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, the sacrament of his real presence" (#13).
^ Belcher, Kimberly Hope (15 October 2020). Eucharist and Receptive Ecumenism: From Thanksgiving to Communion. Cambridge University Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-108-83956-3. Bilateral eucharistic agreements leading up to Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry included enormous progress on the disputed territory of real presence, substantial progress in mutual understanding of positions on objective and subjective aspects of the Eucharist and technical terminology such as transubstantiation, and incipient progress in understanding the concept of sacrifice. The most important gains came from a shared study of history and a deepening of the understanding of the action of the whole eucharistic liturgy.
^ "Basic Beliefs: Baptism & the Lord's Supper". Southern Baptist Convention. 2018. Archived from the original on 12 March 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2019. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members ... memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His Second Coming.
^ "What We Believe: Baptism & the Lord's Supper". National Baptist Convention. 2018. Archived from the original on 7 August 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2019. We believe the Scriptures teach that Christian baptism is the immersion in water of a believer, into the name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost; to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem, our faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior, with its effect, in our death to sin and resurrection to a new life; that it is prerequisite ... to the Lord's Supper, in which the members of the church, by the sacred use of bread and wine, are to commemorate together the dying love of Christ; preceded always by solemn self-examination.
^ ^a ^b ^c Balmer, Randall Herbert; Winner, Lauren F. (2002). Protestantism in America. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 26. ISBN 9780231111300.
^ "University of Virginia Library". Religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu. 7 September 2006. Archived from the original on 30 October 2007. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
^ What Does The Bible Really Teach?, Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, 2005, p. 207.
^ "Discerning What We Are—At Memorial Time", The Watchtower, February 15, 1990, p. 16.
^ "The Lord's Supper: Why Do Jehovah's Witnesses Observe the Lord's Supper Differently From the Way Other Religions Do?". Watchtower Bible & Tract Society. 2018.
^ "The Eucharist: The Facts Behind the Ritual". Watchtower Online Library. 2018.

[Sproul2006-1] R. C. Sproul (1 November 2006). "The Battle for the Table". Ligonier Ministries. Retrieved 2 August 2020. It is important to note at this point that there is major agreement among Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, the Reformed, that Christ is truly present in the Lord's Supper. They all go beyond the view of the Supper as a bare sign or memorial ... The debate among Catholics, Lutherans, and Reformed people is one that focuses on the mode of Christ's presence in the Lord's Supper. At the bottom, this debate is not so much sacramental as it is christological. [sic]

[Atwood2010-2] Cite error: The named reference Atwood2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Losch2002-3] Losch, Richard R. (1 May 2002). A Guide to World Religions and Christian Traditions. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 90. ISBN 9780802805218. Anglicans and Orthodox do not attempt to define how [Christ is present], but simply accept the mystery of his presence.

[Neal2014-4] Cite error: The named reference Neal2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[McKim1998-5] McKim, Donald K. (1998). Major Themes in the Reformed Tradition. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-57910-104-6. The Westminster Confession emphatically declares that Christ is truly present in the elements and is truly received by those partaking, 'yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually' (chap. 31, par. 7). The insistence is that while Christ's presence is not physical in nature it is no less a real and vital presence, as if it were a physical presence. ... Those of us in the Reformed tradition are under strong obligation to honour the notion of the real presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper.

[Johnson2015-6] Johnson, Maxwell E. (2015). The Church in Act: Lutheran Liturgical Theology in Ecumenical Conversation. Fortress Press. ISBN 978-1-4514-9668-0. That is, as the practice of the ancient Assyrian Church of the East indicates clearly, not all churches who hold a high doctrine of Christ's real presence have reserved the Eucharist historically. Further, a lack of reserving the Eucharist in the Assyrian Church of the East has not been a factor in entering recently into a situation of shared Eucharist with the Chaldean Church.

[7] "Being Baptist: The Lord's Supper". Covenant Reformed Baptist Church. Retrieved 15 April 2025. Benjamin Keach, a very influential early Baptist pastor/theologian who lived from 1640 to 1704 stated in his "Keach's Catechism" (1677) question 117: "The Lord's Supper is a holy ordinance, wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine, according to Christ's appointment, His death is showed forth, and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporeal and carnal manner, but by faith, made partakers of His body and blood, with all His benefits, to their spiritual nourishment, and growth in grace." Keach would later be a signatory on the 2nd London Baptist Confession of 1689 which followed very closely the Westminster Confession of Faith in declaring that: "Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements in this ordinance, do then also inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally, but spiritually receive, and feed upon Christ crucified, and all the benefits of his death; the body and blood of Christ being then not corporally or carnally, but spiritually present to the faith of believers in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their outward senses."

[Garvie1920-8] Cite error: The named reference Garvie1920 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Kereszty2002-9] Kereszty, Roch A. (2002). Rediscovering the Eucharist: Ecumenical Conversations. Paulist Press. p. 253. ISBN 978-0-8091-4144-9. Besides the documents produced by several joint commissions consisting of Catholic and Protestant theologians of different denominations, the most important ecumenical document was published by the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches: Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry. Some form of the real presence of Christ in the eucharistic celebration has been commonly expressed in the joint text: "the eucharistic celebration is the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, the sacrament of his real presence" (#13).

[Belcher2020-10] Belcher, Kimberly Hope (15 October 2020). Eucharist and Receptive Ecumenism: From Thanksgiving to Communion. Cambridge University Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-108-83956-3. Bilateral eucharistic agreements leading up to Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry included enormous progress on the disputed territory of real presence, substantial progress in mutual understanding of positions on objective and subjective aspects of the Eucharist and technical terminology such as transubstantiation, and incipient progress in understanding the concept of sacrifice. The most important gains came from a shared study of history and a deepening of the understanding of the action of the whole eucharistic liturgy.

[Southern_Baptist_Convention-11] "Basic Beliefs: Baptism & the Lord's Supper". Southern Baptist Convention. 2018. Archived from the original on 12 March 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2019. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members ... memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His Second Coming.

[nationalbaptist.com-12] "What We Believe: Baptism & the Lord's Supper". National Baptist Convention. 2018. Archived from the original on 7 August 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2019. We believe the Scriptures teach that Christian baptism is the immersion in water of a believer, into the name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost; to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem, our faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior, with its effect, in our death to sin and resurrection to a new life; that it is prerequisite ... to the Lord's Supper, in which the members of the church, by the sacred use of bread and wine, are to commemorate together the dying love of Christ; preceded always by solemn self-examination.

[Balmer2002-13] Balmer, Randall Herbert; Winner, Lauren F. (2002). Protestantism in America. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 26. ISBN 9780231111300.

[University_of_Virginia_Library-14] "University of Virginia Library". Religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu. 7 September 2006. Archived from the original on 30 October 2007. Retrieved 29 July 2010.

[15] What Does The Bible Really Teach?, Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, 2005, p. 207.

[16] "Discerning What We Are—At Memorial Time", The Watchtower, February 15, 1990, p. 16.

[17] "The Lord's Supper: Why Do Jehovah's Witnesses Observe the Lord's Supper Differently From the Way Other Religions Do?". Watchtower Bible & Tract Society. 2018.

[18] "The Eucharist: The Facts Behind the Ritual". Watchtower Online Library. 2018.

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