“Passover” or the “Lord’s Supper”?

We received a question on why we use the term Lords Supper. "Christ is our passover" so that’s the term that should be used. Their thinking was that the ICG was conforming to the world in using term "Lords Supper."

I will give you the bottom-line first.  This is personal element of belief [in addition to what I will explain].  The church is united together in 33 common [and posted] doctrines from the Word of God.  In addition to this are thousands of personal elements of belief [PEBs].  All PEBs are considered valid if they are in balance and do not run contrary to the Word of God.  Examples would be derived by asking your congregation how they observe the Sabbath.  One might have a PEB that says he watches the news on the Sabbath.  Another would say that the TV remains off during the Sabbath.  One might take his family to a state park on the Sabbath for family fellowship and a picnic, along with meditation or family Bible study.  Another would never do such a thing. 

Many PEBs oppose each other, as I exampled above and each holder of a PEB feels his or hers are RIGHT before God.  Some fall into the pitfall of wanting their PEB to be common doctrine.  The church cannot do that.  These PEBs are between the firstfruit and God.  He expects each member to have good theology on all beliefs.  We are judged on two things in the Salvation Process:

1] Our beliefs
2] The theology we use to arrive at our beliefs.

Our beliefs are rooted in the Word of God.  Our theology is rooted in the Holy Spirit that is in us---Spirit driven conclusion as opposed to private interpretation:

See the study on this here

Therefore if one has a PEB that says it is the Lord's Supper and another that says it is the Passover, then this is what they should use.  I personally use the following…

In writing:

"Passover" [Lord's Supper]"

"Lord's Supper [Passover]"

In speaking:

"Passover or Lord's Supper"

I do this because of the differing PEBs within the congregation.

"Passover" means different things in the Bible.  Take this verse:

Luke 22:8 [This is covered in Matthew 26:17-25; Luke 22:7-14, 21-23; Mark 14:12-21 and John 13:21-30]

8 And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat.

Was Jesus sending Peter and John to prepare the event of the Passover?  No, He was not.  The word passover here refers to the physical elements of the passover---meat, bitter herbs, unleavened bread and wine, along with a place.

Now we know that despite what Jesus said [prepare the Passover] that they kept something 24 hours earlier so that Jesus could die with the Passover lambs.  This is fact.  Therefore Jesus could, in no way, keep the usual Passover they usually kept.  Further, the Passover day was the preparation day for the first Holy Day and Jesus had to be in the tomb before sundown and the Passover meal.  This is fact.

You apparent sticking point is the use of the word "passover" in this verse

Matt 26:17-19
17 Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover?

18 And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples.

19 And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the passover.

Now I suspect that you are thinking that Jesus is talking about the Passover, as in the keeping of the Passover in the evening after the Passover day---the event.  HE IS NOT TALKING ABOUT THE EVENT OF PASSOVER.  He is talking about the LAMB and the stuff [bitter herbs, sauce and unleavened bread] that was needed for the event. 

Matt 26:17-19
Verse 19. [They made ready the passover] That is, they procured a lamb, multitudes of which were kept for sale in the temple; they had it killed and flayed by the priests, and the blood poured by the altar; they roasted the lamb, and prepared the bitter herbs, the sauce, and the unleavened bread. This was done, it seems, while our Lord was absent, by the two disciples.
(from Barnes' Notes)

Clearly He had the two disciples get the passover stuff but then used it for the NEW event...the Lord's Supper.  They used passover stuff at the Lord's Supper.

Now is it clear?  The verse is not talking about a time or event but about lamb, bitter herbs, sauce and unleavened bread.

Now regarding, "Christ our passover":  This is not referring to the event either.  It is referring to an element IN the Passover---the Old Testament Passover.  That element was the lambs--the sacrifice of the lambs.  Notice:

PASSOVER
The slain lamb typified the "Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).
(from Fausset's Bible Dictionary)

John 1:29
29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

The lambs slain for the Passover in the Old Testament were a type of Christ.  Christ came to take away the sins of the world.  Therefore "passover" as in "Christ our passover" is referring to the lambs and not the Old Testament Passover per se.  Therefore the contention that it MUST be called the Passover cannot be based on this verse.  Christ is the passover lamb.  The lambs of the Old Testament slain at Passover were Christ [in type].

Let us confirm this by looking at the context of where "Christ our passover" is mentioned.  It is in the epistle of Paul to the Corinthian church and where he is discussing fornication and other sins being committed.

1 Cor 5
5:1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.
2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

Paul wants us to be unleavened bread...a symbol of Christ.  He wants us to purge the sin from our lives.  He calls us "unleavened" in that verse 7.  He then reminds them that Christ is the passover lamb sacrificed for us to take sin away.  Nothing here is referring to the Old Testament Passover.  Indeed, at the Lord's Supper---------clearly it could not be called the Passover--------Jesus introduces the symbols of His body and blood--the unleavened bread and the wine.  This was done at a super that Jesus, the Lord set up.  It was not the Passover clearly.  That would be done 24 hours later.  If it is not the Passover, what do we call it?  We have to call it something.  What can we gather from John 13?  No official title is given in scripture but how do we refer to what we are seeing in the scripture?  Notice

 

John 13:1-4
13:1 Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

2 And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him;

3 Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;

4 He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.

What is being described here?  A supper.  They mention it twice so we do not miss what the even was---a supper.  Whose supper?  Who set it up---made it happen?  Who is the author of this supper?  Jesus, the Lord is the author of this supper.  I do not care who on earth claims the coinage of the phrase "Lord's Supper", the Bible and Spirit-driven logic tells us that it is the Lord's Supper---a SEPARATE event from the Passover.  Now we could, I suppose, call it the "unleavened bread and wine" event or "Symbol Day" but the "Lord's Supper" works and makes clear distinction from Passover.  So why do modern-day firstfruits call it "Passover"?  Partly tradition and partly because of the Lord's Supper's proximity to the Passover that was being kept at the time Jesus authored the supper and died as a Passover lamb.

Notice this from Matthew 26 again and see what the commentary says:

Matt 26:17-19
Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover?

Verse 17. [The first day ...] The feast continued "eight" days, including the day on which the paschal lamb was killed and eaten, Ex 12:15. That was the fourteenth day of the month Abib, answering to parts of our March and April.

[Of unleavened bread] Called so because during those eight days no bread made with yeast or leaven was allowed to be eaten. Luke says, "in which the passover must be killed"-that is, in which the "paschal lamb," or the lamb eaten on the occasion, was killed. The word in the original, translated "Passover," commonly means, not the "feast" itself, but the "lamb" that was killed on the occasion, Ex 12:43; Num 9:11; John 18:28. See also 1 Cor 5:7, where Christ, "our Passover," is said to be slain for us; that is, our paschal lamb, so called on account of his innocence, and his being offered as a victim or "sacrifice" for our sins.  (from Barnes' Notes)

When individuals call it the “Passover” they are referring to THE LAMB----JESUS CHRIST

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