[The following material is from O Timothy magazine, Volume 12, Issue 4, 1995. David W. Cloud, Editor. This material cannot be placed on BBS or Internet sites without express permission from the author. Any articles which are redistributed by e-mail or print must be left intact and nothing must be removed or changed, including these informational headers. Copyright 1995 by David W. Cloud. All rights are reserved by the author. O Timothy is a monthly magazine. Annual subscription is US$20 FOR THE UNITED STATES. Send to Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org. FOR CANADA the subscription is $20 Canadian. Send to Bethel Baptist Church, P.O. Box 9075, London, Ontario N6E 1V0. The Way of Life Internet web site is http://www.wayoflife.org/.]

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC MASS

By David W. Cloud

The following is one of the entries from the Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity, David W. Cloud, Editor, copyright 1994, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org. There is the equivalent of an entire book on Roman Catholicism in this Encyclopedia. Hard cover book, 500-pages, $29.95 + $4 S/H.

The Mass is the Roman Catholic form of the Lord's Supper. According to Catholic doctrine, the mass is a re-sacrifice of Christ in which the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Christ when it is blessed by the Catholic priest. The authoritative Vatican II Council of the mid-1960s stated: "The Mass, the Lord's Supper, is ... a sacrifice in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated. ... In this sacrament Christ is present in a unique way, whole and entire, God and man, substantially and permanently. This presence of Christ under the species `is called real, not in an exclusive sense, as if the other kinds of presence were not real, but par excellence'" (Vatican Council II--The Conciliar and Post conciliar Documents, 1975, pp. 108,114). The Catholic Catechism, 1975, says: "The sacrifice on the altar is no mere commemoration of Calvary, but a true and proper act of sacrifice, whereby Christ the high priest, by an unbloody immolation offers himself a most acceptable victim to the eternal father, as he did on the cross."

That the Catholic Church considers Christ actually present in the mass is evidenced by the fact that it requires that the wafer be worshipped: "All the faithful ought to show to this most holy sacrament the worship which is due to the true God, as has always been the custom of the Catholic Church. Nor is it to be adored any the less because it was instituted by Christ to be eaten. For even in the reserved sacrament he is to be adored because he is substantially present there through that conversion of bread and wine which, as the Council of Trent tells us, is most aptly named transubstantiation" (Vatican Council II, pp. 109-110). This means the wafer used in the mass is to be worshipped as Almighty God, both when it is offered during the mass and afterward when it is placed in a little tabernacle until the next mass.

While certain forms of the Mass have changed since Vatican II (it can be said in the vernacular instead of Latin and many prayers are omitted), the dogma of the Mass being a re-sacrifice of Christ has not changed. The Catholic Mass is a gross perversion of the simple memorial meal depicted for us in the N.T. Scriptures.

FOLLOWING ARE THE REASONS WE REJECT THE MASS: (1) Jesus could not possibly have meant that the bread and juice would actually become His body and blood. a. When He instituted the Supper, He was there in His physical body, "so the piece of wafer which He said was His body, and the cup of wine which He said was His blood, could not possibly have been His body and His blood in any literal sense; certainly, He was indicating that these were symbols that He was using" (Let Rome Speak for Herself, pp. 14-15). b. Paul plainly says the Lord's Supper is a symbolic, memorial meal (1 Co. 11:23- 25). c. In Jn. 6 Jesus explained the meaning of His demand that men eat His flesh and drink His blood, and He said it had a symbolic, not a literal meaning (Jn. 6:35,38,41,48,53). (2) The sacrifice of Christ was a once for all event (He. 9:12,26,28; 10:10,12,14). When Christ died on the Cross, He said, "It is finished" (Jn. 19:30). The RCC, with its repeated sacrifices of Christ, denies the eternal sufficiency of Christ's Atonement. (3) A sacrifice without blood cannot atone for sins (Le. 17:11; He. 9:22). (4) The intrusion of a special priesthood between Christ and the believer is an unbiblical abomination (1 Ti. 2:5; He. 7:24-27; 1 Pe. 2:5,9). (5) Masses for the dead, which are central in Catholic practice, are entirely foreign to the Bible. Prayers and rituals for the dead are pagan practices, not biblical Christianity (De. 18:9,11; 26:13-14). (6) The supposed changes which occur in the Mass are clearly deceptions. The bread and wine remain unchanged in appearance, color, odor, or form, yet the Catholic Church requires its people to believe the elements actually become Christ. They call this deception a miracle, but true biblical miracles are real and observable. (7) It is idolatry to worship the elements of the Mass (Ex. 20:4-5; Jn. 4:24). (8) There is no semblance between the drama of the Catholic Mass and the simple ceremony initiated by Christ and practiced by the N.T. churches (Mt. 26:26-29; Mk. 14:23-25; Lk. 22:19-20; 1 Co. 11:23- 25).

It is obvious that the Lord Jesus Christ did not institute the Mass. The Bible promises perfect security and assurance through Christ's once-for-all sacrifice on Calvary. Any person who places his trust entirely in Christ and His shed blood need never doubt his eternal salvation before God (Jn. 3:16; He. 9:12). The Lord's Supper, far from repeating Christ's sacrifice, simply REMINDS the believer of that glorious sacrifice by which he is redeemed unto God forever!