F.F. Bosworth and R.A. Torrey on The Lord's Supper: Two Opposing Views

By Roscoe Barnes III, PhD

Author, F.F. Bosworth: The Man Behind "Christ the Healer"
Copyright (c) 2019

#FFBosworth
#RATorrey

R.A. Torrey
(1856 - 1928)

Reminder: "F.F. Bosworth History" is now on Twitter. Follow @bosworth_fred 

--------------------------

F.F. Bosworth held a view about The Lord’s Supper that did not sit well with R.A. Torrey. Bosworth believed that Christ was the Passover lamb who suffered and died so that we can receive “healing for the soul and healing for the body.” A staunch believer in “healing in the atonement,” he taught the Lord’s Supper serves to remind us of “the two great benefits purchased for us by the death of Jesus.” Those two benefits include divine healing and forgiveness of sin.

While Torrey also believed in “healing in the atonement,” he did not believe that the Lord’s Supper was about divine healing. In his commentary on Matthew 8:16 and 17, he noted: "It is often said that this verse teaches that the atoning death of Jesus Christ avails for our sicknesses as well as for our sins; or, in other words, that 'physical healing is in the atonement.' I think that that is a fair inference from these verses when looked at in their context." Although he embraced the idea of divine healing, he did not believe that every believer could simply claim healing and expect to be healed in the same way that they can "claim immediate pardon for all their sins on the ground of the atoning death of Jesus Christ." Complete healing for all will not happen until Christ returns, Torrey explained.

Torrey was the author of Divine Healing: Does God Perform Miracles Today? (Fleming H. Revell Company, 1924). In the Introduction to his book, he used strong language to criticize the view held by Bosworth and a number of Pentecostals. He did not mention Bosworth by name, but he probably had Bosworth in mind. Torrey wrote:

"We have not gone into a consideration of such weird, fantastic and — to a careful Bible scholar — ludicrously impossible and really blasphemous interpretations as that the bread in the Lord’s Supper is for the healing of the body, and the wine for the healing of the soul. Time would fail us to chase to their lair and decapitate all the monstrous vagaries that have haunted the overwrought imaginations of persons who have become so occupied with the thought of Divine Healing that they fancied they saw it everywhere."

Bosworth expounded on his own view of the Lord’s Supper in the sermon, “Discerning the Lord’s Body: Living Faith Makes Disease Impossible.” The message was delivered at a May 22, 1914 convention in Dallas, Texas, and later published in the June 1914 issue of The Latter Rain Evangel. According to Bosworth, the wine in the Lord’s Supper represents “the blood of Jesus for the remission of sins,” and the bread represents “His body broken for the healing of every man’s body in the world.” Bosworth asserted:

Thousands of Christians today because they have not been taught, are eating the Lord’s supper without discerning the Lord’s body. That is, they eat the bread, not knowing that it is an emblem of the Lord’s body broken for their healing. Paul says: “For this cause (not discerning the Lord’s body) many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.” In other words, because many have not been shown their privilege of being healed, they have remained weak and sickly and many have died. Thousands are in the cemeteries before their time for not discerning the Lord’s body broken for their healing. Thousands of others are sick who can be healed.

Bosworth’s view on the Lord’s Supper is held by many today, including followers in Word of Faith churches. Kenneth Copeland, for example, teaches communion can be taken for financial blessings, as well as bodily healing. He also encourages his followers to take it on a daily basis if necessary. For more information on his position, see “How to Take Communion Over Finances,” available here, and “How to Take Communion for Your Healing,” which can be seen here.

Further reading:

For an excellent article on R.A. Torrey and his views on divine healing, see “R. A. Torrey and the Ministry of Healing” by J.D. King. The article, which is adapted from King’s book, Regeneration: A Complete History of Healing in the Christian Church, can be viewed here or by visiting this link: https://authorjdking.com/blog/post/torrey-healing

For a look at R.A. Torrey’s book, Divine Healing: Does God Perform Miracles Today?, visit here and here.

-------------------------

Note: My book, F.F. Bosworth: The Man Behind "Christ the Healer," can be purchased here with a 25% discount. Use the discount code: bosworth25.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Want to know more

about F.F. Bosworth?

Follow the Bosworth Matters blog!

Start here:

ffbosworth.strikingly.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

For more information:

Visit the F.F. Bosworth page here. Questions about the research and commentary on F.F. Bosworth may be directed to Roscoe Barnes III, Ph.D., via email at doctorbarnes3@gmail.com or roscoebarnes3@yahoo.com. For updates on F.F. Bosworth history, simply follow this blog or @bosworth_fred and @Roscoebarnes3 on Twitter. #ChristTheHealer #BosworthMention #BosworthMatters