G. C. Jeffers

2 responses to “In Defense of Apostolic Succession and the Catholic Sacraments”

1. 

   My Personal Theology (updated August 2024) – G. C. Jeffers

   August 22, 2024 at 7:34 pm

   […] I affirm the two dominical sacraments (rituals ordained by Christ that communicate grace to the recipients): Baptism and the Eucharist as generally necessary for salvation. In baptism, we enter the life of the believing community and are sealed with the Holy Spirit by dying and then rising to new life in Christ. I thus affirm baptismal regeneration. As a lifelong credo-baptist, paedo-baptism was foreign to me experientially, though I have no specific theological objection to the practice. And, indeed, I find it hard to argue with scriptures that seems to support infant baptism (Acts 2:39, Acts 10:48, Acts 16:15, Acts 16:33, Col 2:11-12). Additionally, while accepting the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, I do not correspondingly accept transubstantiation as the explanation as to how Christ is really present in the Eucharist. I deny the theory of Receptionism which holds that only those who have faith truly receive Christ. Rather, as St. Paul holds in 1 Corinthians 11:27-32, I affirm that all who partake of the elements partake of Christ himself (body, soul, blood, and divinity), though those who partake in an unworthy manner bring judgement on themselves. I also affirm five ecclesial sacraments (rituals ordained by the Church that communicate grace to the recipients): Confirmation (which is related to Baptism), Reconciliation of a Penitent, Ordination, Holy Matrimony, Reconciliation (Confession), and Unction (anointing the sick and the dying). For more on my take on the Sacraments and Ecclesiology, see this article. […]

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2. 

   My Personal Theology (updated April 2022) | G. C. Jeffers

   May 23, 2022 at 8:50 am

   […] since the first-century (for more on the three-fold order and sacramental theology, see this post). Though Christ did not explicitly ordain such an order in scripture, and “the functions of […]

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