The Lord´s Supper In John Calvin's Theology

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The Lord’s Supper
In Calvin’s theology, the Lord’s Supper is a visible sign of the union with Christ that comes through the Spirit. Even as baptism is the outward sign of the remission of sins, so the Lord’s Supper is the outward sign of union with Christ. The actual union with Christ comes through faith by the work of the Holy Spirit, not through some mystical transformation of the elements of the Lord’s Supper. Just as the blood of Christ washes away sins in baptism, so the Holy Spirit makes a union between Christ and the believer in the Eucharist.
This union is spiritual and not physical. The Lord’s Supper is not merely a symbol or a remembrance. It is a visible sign of a spiritual reality that is actually taking place at that time.
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Just as God inspired the Scriptures to teach doctrine, so God inspired leaders throughout the history of the church to introduce additional doctrines and practices. The collective writings of the early church “fathers,” the decisions of the ecumenical councils, and the decisions of the popes constitute this authoritative church tradition.
The council included as part of the Bible the Apocrypha, books from the inter-testamental period that the Jews and the Protestants excluded. The Council of Trent officially pronounced eleven books of the Apocrypha to be Scripture. The result is that the Roman Catholic Bible today includes in the Old Testament seven extra books and four additions to existing books.
The council also pronounced that the interpretation of the church was authoritative. An individual did not have the right to his own interpretation of Scripture. Whenever the church proclaimed a certain interpretation of a scriptural passage, then all Catholics had to accept it.
The council further declared that the Vulgate, the traditional Latin translation of the Bible, was the official Bible of the church. The translation process was inspired like the original writing so that the translation itself was