This is the transcript of the initial presentation of the video, “Yes, Catholics Can Receive The Eucharist in One Species! The Bible vs. Jordan Cooper” (Catholic Bible Highlights with Kenny Burchard, 1-11-26).
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Rev. Dr. Jordan Cooper is a Lutheran pastor, theologian, and host of the popular Just & Sinner YouTube channel (it has 75,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 videos). This is a response to the main contentions he makes in his video, “Does Scripture Allow the Church to Withhold the Communion Cup from the Laity?” (10-3-25). His words from his video will be in blue.
18:43 [Catholics believe that] we also receive the blood of Christ as we receive the host. . . . the question is . . . if we receive the blood of Christ in the host as well because body and blood are together, is there then something that is necessary [when] we receive in the cup . . . that we don’t also receive when we receive the body of Christ in the host?
20:17 I don’t think we have to say that . . . we get 50% of this here and 50% of it here so we need both. I do think that we want to simply go to the necessity of precept, to say this is what God has told us is true and this is what God has told us to do.
21:53 I would argue that there is certainly a divine precept to partake of both bread and wine.
Rev. Cooper argues that at the Last Supper Jesus commanded the disciples to take the cup of His Blood as well as the consecrated bread, and that in 1 Corinthians, chapters 10 and 11, Paul also includes the eucharistic cup. He contends that it’s a command and divine precept for the laity to receive in both kinds. But let’s listen to a little more before we respond.
40:41 There’s no assumption here that you could eat the bread and not drink the cup.
42:00 the fact is there is no evidence whatsoever anywhere in the New Testament that . . . [in] the consumption of the Lord’s Supper, part of it could be withheld or that there is no divine command to partake of the blood of Christ. . . .
44:05 this is maybe the clearest evidence of a tradition in the church pushed by the magisterium simply overriding a command of Jesus.
46:05 [It’s] pretty clear there is no institution of the Eucharist other than this which teaches that the distribution and use of both parts alike was instituted.
Here we go again with the universal negative claims. You don’t want to do that when I’m around. It’s bad apologetics technique. In fact, there are many instances in the New Testament of a scenario where that is precisely what happens (thus contradicting Rev. Cooper’s assertions in the last three excepts above).
Luke 24:30, 35 (RSV) . . . he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. . . . [35] . . . he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
John 6:48, 50-51 I am the bread of life. . . . [50] This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. [51] . . . if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.
John 6:57-58 . . . he who eats me will live because of me. [58] This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.
1 Corinthians 5:7 . . . Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed.
John 6 gives examples of both flesh and blood being partaken of (6:53-56), yet only body / flesh is spoken of singularly and repeatedly as giving spiritual life, and Jesus never describes Himself as the “living wine” from heaven. Hence, the analogy directly holds to the Catholic permissibility of receiving Holy Communion in one kind only. If this is denied, it follows that the Bible would contradict itself. But, as so often, these matters are “both/and” rather than the Protestant tendency of an “either/or” mentality. Bottom line: the entire Christ, Body and Blood is included in the consecrated bread alone and in the consecrated wine alone, as indeed Paul teaches:
1 Corinthians 11:27, 29 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. . . . [29] For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.
Even Martin Luther didn’t believe that Jesus required both kinds in Holy Communion, based on the Bible, as I documented in one of my articles that we will link to.
Related Articles
Bible on Receiving One Species in Communion [3-11-08 and 6-24-11]
The Host and Chalice Both Contain Christ’s Body and Blood [National Catholic Register, 12-10-19]
Martin Luther: Christ Didn’t Require Both Kinds in Holy Communion [Facebook, 8-20-24]
Chalice or Host Only Contain the Body & Blood of Christ [patristic evidences] [11-21-19]
Related Book
Biblical Catholic Eucharistic Theology (2011, 222 pages); chapter 7 in particular.
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