Transubstantiation

Transubstantiation is the name given to the Roman doctrine that through the blessing of the priest at mass the wafer becomes the very body and blood of the Lord. The following brief notes show the strength of the Biblical evidence against this error.

a. Did Jesus sitting at the table take of his own body and break in pieces and give it to the disciples?

b. And did the disciples, with their outlook strongly nurtured on the ordinances of the Law, calmly and without a qualm receive the cup as the very blood of their Master?

c. “Ye do show the Lord’s death till he come” (1 Cor. 11 : 26) plainly proclaims his absence, not his real presence. Cp. also Acts 3 : 21.

d. When he gave it to the disciples Jesus called the wine “the fruit of the vine” (Luke 22 : 18), and Paul refers to the elements as “bread” and “the cup”.

e. “This (bread) is my body” is interpreted by “This cup is the new covenant”. As the cup is not literally the covenant (but symbolizes it), so also the bread is not literally his body.

f. Christ’s body is now no longer subject to corruption: Acts 2 : 25–27. How then in the mass does it become part of the corruptible body of the one partaking?

g. The “host” is made by man and then worshipped by man! See the condemnation of such a practice: Isaiah 44 : 16–20.

h. If Christ himself is literally present, then is the bread no longer a sacrament or symbol or emblem but the very thing itself.

i. There are many things in our religion which are beyond proof by our five senses, e.g. the intercession of Christ at the Father’s right hand. But we can come to know these truths through the exercise of our senses (in the reading of the Bible). But transubstantiation is contrary to the evidences of our senses. See 1 John 1 : 1–3.

j. Hebrews 7 shows the priesthood of the Law to have been “weak and unprofitable” on the following grounds:

1. Many priests, because mortal; verse 23.

2. They needed to offer daily for their own sins; verse 27.

3. They are men of infirmity; verse 28.

In all these respects Romish priests offering the mass are condemned.

k. The Apostles and their successors had many instructions to teach, exhort, instruct, baptize, but in all the New Testament there is no hint of a command or commission to offer sacrifice.

l. Heb. 7 : 28: “So Christ was once offered” (Gk., once for all). But the Roman church has “offered” him many thousands of times.

m. “Ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always” (Matt. 26 : 11). These words contradict the assumption that Christ is present in the mass.

Source: Harry Whittaker