Expert: Sal - 11/27/2008

Question
Dear Sal,

I was talking to christians about the Eucharist yesterday and infant baptism! I said Christ is really in the Eucharist and they said you dont need to have communion to be with God. According to the teaching of theology a revealed fact can be proved solely by recurrence to the sources of faith, viz. Scripture and Tradition, with which is also bound up the infallible magisterium of the Church.


Among the aberrant Catholic sacraments and doctrines, one of the least understood is that of the Eucharist and transubstantiation.  While analogous to communion in many ways, it is also worlds apart, separated by a gulf of heresy.  This article will provide a basic analysis of the Catholic Eucharist, and reveal the ways in which it is unbiblical and a denial of the sufficiency of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.



The Catholic Church teaches that once a Catholic priest has consecrated the wafer of bread during communion, or the...

“Eucharist” as it is called by Catholics, it turns into the literal and real body, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ.  It is no longer a piece of bread nor is the wine regural wine it is Jesus' blood.  

It is Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread, and is therefore worthy of worship and adoration.  This process of consecration followed by a literal change from a mere wafer to the body of Christ is called transubstantiation.  

The non catholics were telling me otherwise Jesus is not in the euchurist they said its a work and they argued with me about my belief.

The Catholic Church similarly teaches that the wine or water taken with the wafer becomes the literal blood of Christ upon consecration by a priest Jesus' apostle. They claim that Jesus taught transubstantiation at the last supper and that the disciples were anointed with the power to change bread into the actual presence of Christ their for the disciples were the first catholics in the bible. This authority was then passed down through priestly ordination and apostolic succession.

To the early church the practice of the Lord’s Supper was a time of fellowship and a meal memorializing Christ’s sacrifice.  The bread and wine were taken in a Thanksgiving celebration that came to be known as the Eucharist..... I told them this: The Eucharist comes from the Greek word, eucharistia, which means “thanksgiving”.

It was a celebration held in expectation of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb that awaits all believers before the Glorious Appearing (Rev. 19:9).  The transubstantiation doctrine of the Catholic Church was not taught or practiced until the middle ages, long after the emergence of Roman Catholicism in the 6th Century A.D.

John 6:51-55 “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?  Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.”

They also said that infant baptism isnt biblical and yelled at me saying I am doing the works of Catholicism and not what the bible teaches I know what I am doing I know I am in the right path and faith I know Catholicism is the truth and nothing but truth it is the rock of St. Peter! They can say all they want but they dont know what they are missing....  

Answer
Dear Jacqueline:

God bless you for defending the True Faith of Christ! As I read what the protestant said to you I was very saddened. What lies he told about God's Church! The devil is using such people against Jesus. We can only try to educate such people and pray that God forgives them for attacking His only Son's Church. "Forgive them Father for they know not what they do."

God Bless You,
Sal