Chapter Four
Rome's Doctrine of the Eucharist

The Host With the Most?

       In the celebration of the Holy Mass, the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ. It is called transubstantiation, for in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the substance of bread and wine do not remain, but the entire substance of bread is changed into the body of Christ, and the entire substance of wine is changed into His blood.⁽¹⁾

       In the Mass is offered to God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead; and that in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist there is truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that there is a conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood.⁽²⁾

       The doctrine of Transubstantiation, which is an essential part of the sacrament of the Romish Mass, was unknown during the first twelve centuries of the Roman church. It was not until the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, under the direction of Innocent III that it was officially declared to be a dogma of faith and subsequently adapted to the existing structure of Romanism. It was later reaffirmed at the Council of Trent in 1551 by Julius III. Attached to this new doctrine was the customary anathema directed at dissenters: "If anyone shall deny that the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore the entire Christ, are truly, really, and substantially contained in the sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist; and shall say that He is only in it as a sign, or in a figure -- let him be anathema."⁽³⁾
       The doctrine of Transubstantiation is claimed to be supported by two passages of Scripture. The first of these is John 6:53-55: "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." However, upon examination of the above passage in its entire context (verses 22-65), it becomes obvious that Christ was talking about spiritual, not physical, food and drink. For example, food is eaten to satisfy hunger. In the first half of verse 35, He said, "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger...." Now, Jesus was clearly not promising His disciples that they would never again experience hunger pangs after attending Mass. Instead, what He was speaking of was the spiritual hunger in the elect of God for His righteousness and salvation from sin which Christ alone can truly satisfy. Therefore, to come to Jesus Christ is to "eat" the spiritual food He offers:

       Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they will be filled (Matthew 5:6).

         In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work (John 4:31-34).

       Likewise, we drink to satisfy thirst, and again, in the latter portion of John 6:35, the Lord said, "[A]nd he that believeth on me shall never thirst." Therefore, to believe in Jesus is to "drink" the spiritual drink He offers:

       Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee. Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon (Isaiah 55:1-7).

       There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
       Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
       Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
       The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
       Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4:7-14).

       Christ concluded His discourse in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John with these words: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father" (John 6:63-64a). Clearly, the context from which Romanists have torn verses 53-55 is that of coming to Christ and believing on Him alone for salvation, not of the consumption with the physical mouth of His literal flesh and blood.
       The second passage of Scripture which is used to support the doctrine of Transubstantiation is Matthew 26:26-28: "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." Upon closer examination, however, the figurative language of this passage becomes obvious. When we refer back to the original Greek text, we find that Matthew did not record the words touto gignetai ("this has become," or "this is turned into"), but touto esti ("this represents," or "this signifies"). For example, if a man were to hold up a picture of his child and say, "This is my son," none of his hearers would assume that he believed the photograph to actually be his flesh and blood son. Such speech is readily understood to be figurative. We see an excellent example of this figurative manner of speaking in the eleventh chapter of 1 Chronicles in which David's men risk their lives to fetch water for their thirsty king during the battle with the Philistines. Upon receiving the water, David refused to drink it, saying, "My God forbid it me, that I should do this thing: shall I drink the blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy? for with the jeopardy of their lives they brought it" (1 Chronicles 11:19a).
       If the Romanist insistence upon a literal interpretation of what is obviously figurative metaphor were applied consistently throughout Scripture, we would be left with a God who has wings like a chicken (Psalm 17:8) and whose Son is a loaf of bread (John 6:48).

The Idolatry of the Mass

       The bizarre teaching of Rome concerning the Eucharist host is a direct consequence of a misunderstanding of John 6:53-55 and Matthew 26:26-28. Honorius (1216-1227) declared that the wafer was to be adored and worshipped as Jesus Christ Himself.⁽⁴⁾ Supporting this doctrine at the Council of Trent in 1545, Paul III decreed it to be a dogma of faith: "If anyone shall say that Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is not to be adored in the holy sacrament of the Eucharist... and that He is not publicly set before the people to be adored, and that His adorers are idolaters, let him be anathema."⁽⁵⁾ Paul III here demanded that all Romanists comply with the papal decree to bow down and worship a simple piece of compressed bread as the Creator of the universe, lest they be condemned to hell. As we saw in the previous chapter, latria, the highest form of worship in Romanism, is given, not only to the Godhead, but to the Eucharist host as well. To the contrary, the Bible prohibits the making of any idols, and forbids the worship of them (Exodus 20:4-5), and to ignore this clear commandment is to invite the judgment of a jealous God (Deuteronomy 27:15). Although the inspired writers of the New Testament apparently did not anticipate that professing Christians would become so debased in religion so as to worship a wafer as Deity, the Apostle Paul's distinction of the Lord's Supper, or Christian Communion, from the idolatrous feasts of the heathen in 1 Corinthians 10:14-22 is applicable here:

       Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?

       Furthermore, we read in Revelation 21:8 that idolaters "shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." Whereas the Roman church maintains that one must submit to the idolatry of the Mass lest he be damned, the Bible is replete with warnings to the contrary. It does not matter whether the idolater is sincere or not; idolatry is still idolatry and will damn the souls of those who continue in it. The Romanist is forced to choose between the clear teachings of Scripture, which he acknowledges as the Word of God, and the claims of the papacy, for the two are in obvious conflict with one another.

The Continuing Sacrifice of the Mass

       The Roman church claims that it is necessary to offer up Christ in the Mass again and again as a sacrifice for sin. This is the reason for the insistence that the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ be present in the Eucharist:

       The sacrifice of the Mass is the same sacrifice of the cross, for there is the same priest, the same victim, and the same offering.⁽⁶⁾

       The Holy Mass is one and the same sacrifice with that of the Cross, in as much as Christ, who offered Himself, a bleeding victim, on the Cross to His Heavenly Father, continues to offer Himself in an unbloody manner on the altar, through the ministry of the priests.⁽⁷⁾

       Explaining why Christ must be continually sacrificed, The Catholic Information Service, an organization which is officially recognized by Rome, stated, "Sacrifice is the very essence of religion. And it is only through sacrifice that union with the Creator can be perfectly acquired. It was through sacrifice that Christ Himself was able to achieve this for man. It is only through the perpetuation of that sacrifice that this union may be maintained."⁽⁸⁾ In light of this claim, it is interesting to note Christ's last words on the cross, recorded in John 19:30: "It is finished." How does the Roman church handle this obvious discrepancy between Jesus' declaration and the alleged necessity of a continuing sacrifice? In his book, The Sacrifice of Christ, Richard W. Grace wrote: "These words do not declare that His sacrifice was finished, but that He had finished His former, normal, earthly life and was now fixed in the state of a victim.... He then began His everlasting career as the perpetual sacrifice of the new law."⁽⁹⁾
       Again, the teachings of Romanism are in conflict with those of Scripture. The idea that Jesus must continue to suffer as an eternal victim in the "bloodless sacrifice" of the Mass was unknown to the New Testament writers. Instead, Christ's truly completed sacrifice of His own body on the cross actually expiated the penalty of sin in behalf of God's elect and propitiated the wrath of God once and for all:

       ...[O]ur old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God (Romans 6:6-10).

       ...Jesus [was] made a surety of a better testament. And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: but this man [Christ], because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself....
       ...Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?... For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: nor yet that he should suffer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many....
       ...[W]e are sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin (Hebrews 7:22-27, 9:11-14, 24-28, 10:10-18).

       For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit (1 Peter 3:18).

       In accepting the doctrine of the Eucharist, Romanists reject the testimony of the man whom they claim as their first infallible pope: "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts 10:43). To possess saving faith is to believe in the completed sacrifice of Calvary and to cling to the righteousness of Christ which was imputed there to the elect (2 Corinthians 5:21). On the other hand, an unfinished sacrifice can save no one, because such a sacrifice "can never take away sins." An ever-dying christ is not the Christ of the Bible who "ever liveth to make intercession for us," but is a false christ who cannot save because his work of "obtain[ing] eternal redemption for us" can never be finished.
       The Bible also teaches that a "bloodless sacrifice" is worthless because "without shedding of blood is no remission" and "it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul" (Leviticus 17:11). Furthermore, according to the Old Testament, the eating of a sin offering, as well as the drinking of blood, were both strictly forbidden. There is no avoiding the conclusion that intelligent participation in the Mass is an open rejection of the only means which the true God has provided for man's redemption and will finally damn those who refuse to repent of such wickedness. Indeed, Romanists would do well to heed the Bible's warning to those who "crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame" (Hebrews 6:6).

Endnotes

1. Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IV, page 277.

2. Creed of Pius IV, Article V.

3. Council of Trent, Canon 1.

4. The Roman Catholic Catechism.

5. Council of Trent, Canon VI.

6. Bartholomew F. Brewer, Ph.D., The Roman Catholic Sacrifice of the Mass.

7. Roman Catholic Catechism, Question and Answer #278.

8. This is the Catholic Church (The Catholic Information Service, Knights of Columbus, imprimature: Most Reverand John F. Wheaton, Archbishop of Hartford), pages 20-24.

9. Fr. Richard W. Grace, The Sacrifice of the Mass.