[This is Part 3 of the Catholicism Isn't Christianity Series]. The Mass celebrated by Roman Catholics has massive issues that are heretical and apostate in nature. There are two primary issues that I want to deal with today. But before we begin, let me contrast the Biblical supper of the Lord with the Roman Catholic Mass. In condemning the following errors, I condemn them when found in the Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and other so-called Apostolic churches as well, because, in reality, what they practice isn't Scriptural at all, and thus, can never be considered truly Apostolic.
The Roman Mass:
- has a sacrificing priest, who is considered as representing Christ during Mass. He is considered alter Christus, or, another Christ, in that he reenacts the Last Supper for the faithful. Without a duly ordained priest, ie., without apostolic succession derived first from the Pope and then from the Bishops, no Mass can be validly celebrated
- has an altar table, normally made of stone, with relics of dead "saints" underneath it, where Christ is supposedly offered to God the Father as a propitiatory sacrifice for the remission of sins, both for the living faithful, and the faithful departed in purgatory, whereby those in purgatory can have their time of cleansing shortened and enter into Heaven faster
- has vestments, golden and embezzled chalices, candles, incense, images, icons, crucifixes, prayers for the dead, prayers of intercession, prayers of confessing sins to saints
- adds the phrase "mystery of faith" to what Jesus said at the Last Supper
- if it is a "Traditional" Latin Mass, the cup of the Lord is not given to the people
The Lord's Supper:
- contained absolutely none of the man-made elements that the Roman Mass contains (altars, vestments, priesthood, icons, relics, etc.)
- is a memorial meal that is to be shared among the saints in simplicity and brotherly love
- was not a sacrifice: Jesus offering Himself on the cross is the one and only sacrifice. We spiritually remember and partake of Christ's life-giving sacrifice/body and blood when we celebrate the Last Supper, we do not re-sacrifice or offer Jesus to God
- was not celebrated at an altar: it was instituted as a memorial meal, celebrated at a dining table, just as the Passover was, as the fulfilment of the Passover, in which the saints are to remember our true Passover Lamb, and enter into His redemption and the new exodus out of slavery to sin and eternal death through faith in His shed blood
- had no priest representing Jesus: Jesus is the only High Priest, who offered Himself once upon the Cross
- had no prayers of intercession to the saints, prayers of forgiveness from the saints, prayers for saints in purgatory (a place that doesn't exist), prayers for popes or bishops
- the Lord did not lift the bread up, no one bowed down to the bread and worshipped it, no one put the bread in a $100,000 golden tabernacle or monstrance to gaze upon or pray to
It is obvious that the Roman Catholic Mass is absolutely nothing like what the Lord celebrated with His disciples in the Upper Room at the Last Supper, or what His disciples celebrated together when they broke bread together after His death, resurrection and ascension. Rome has added a multitude of man-made superstitions, innovations and vanities to the Lord's Supper, and has turned it into a Babylonian masterpiece of pagan idolatry and filthiness. The Roman Mass leads millions of gullible and simple souls away from the simplicity that is in Christ and from what He actually commanded us to do. When He said, "Do this in remembrance of Me", He meant what He said. Breaking bread and sharing a cup with other Christians in remembrance of Christ's death is simple and pure devotion to the Lord and obedience to His command. You don't need anything but two or three Christians, some wine, and some bread. There is no need for a priest, an altar, relics, vestments, long prayers or anything else. Imagine the horror of the persecuted Christians in Iran or North Korea who have been celebrating the Lord's Supper together, in the shadow of death, if a Roman Catholic came along and told them that they needed a sacrificing Roman priest to validly consecrate the Lord's Supper for them, and that they haven't celebrated it even once because they don't have a priest to do it for them. This kind of teaching is repugnant to our Lord and is completely unbiblical, and is the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which is the "clergy" dominating the "laity", which Jesus hates (Revelation 2:6). It completely steals the freedom we have in the Gospel. A group of Christians has every right to celebrate the Lord's Supper because the Lord Himself gave us that right, and, when we are gathered together, He is in our midst. We don't need any meditator or intercessor or priest to do it for us: Jesus is our only Mediator, Advocate, and High Priest. All authority belongs to Him, and He has given us the authority to obey His commandments in Scripture without being blocked by human interference or demonic doctrines.
When we examine what the Apostle Paul taught the Corinthians concerning the Lord's Supper, considering they were abusing the Supper by becoming drunk and not waiting for the others to come to the meal, we recognize immediately that the Corinthians were actually celebrating and eating the memorial meal. They didn't have any altars, vestments, candles, priests or anything else. They were celebrating it according to the Lord's institution, just as Paul taught them to. They had one loaf of bread and one cup that they all shared in remembrance of Christ's death. This simple family gathering and memorial meal depicts the simple and loving fellowship of the saints. They were rebuked in this instance because they didn't wait for the family of Christ to gather. They were selfish and contentious with one another. They didn't respect the memorial meal of the Lord, and therefore, they didn't respect Christ or show Christ-like love to one another as commanded. They also neglected the sacredness of the meal, neglecting the fact of communing with the body and blood of Christ, our Spotless Passover Lamb. Even though they were sinning and needed to be rebuked, at least they had the basic concept right: sharing a memorial meal together as a Christian family. All of the Pagan Roman additions were added over hundreds of years. The earliest Church still celebrated the Lord's Supper as the first disciples did, even when the Apostles died. There was no sacrificial priesthood or Roman-Pagan idolatry involved. It was simple, edifying, loving, and powerful, because it was celebrated according to what Yeshua said. All of the highly esteemed Roman accoutrements of the Mass were not commanded by Christ, nor are they accepted by Christ. Roman Catholics who deem themselves to be more holy than others in their false assemblies despise those who do not bow down or receive the "host" (the wafer, meaning sacrifice, which is an abomination) even though none of the disciples bowed down at the Lord's table.
Now let's get to the two main issues with the Roman Mass I want to deal with.
1. The doctrine that the Mass is a propitiatory sacrifice where Christ is re-offered to God on every Roman altar throughout the world in an un-bloody manner.
This is a doctrine of Lucifer. The Book of Hebrews utterly annihilates this doctrine. No amount of whoreish Catholic sophistry can undo or overturn the teaching of the Word of God. Hebrews chapter 10:1-14 is more than clear to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. It vanquishes and demolishes this truly Satanic and filthy doctrine of Rome. Let's go through this passage together:
V. 1-4: "For the Law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins."
Let's stop here for a moment. What does this remind you of? The Roman Catholic Mass. Roman priests do the exact same thing that the Old Testament priesthood did day by day. While the Day of Atonement was only once a year, which involved the High Priest, there were also daily sacrifices offered by the priests. The parallels are stunning between the Old Covenant priesthood and the sacrificial system of the Roman Catholic Mass. The difference in the sacrifices between the two is that instead of offering bulls and goats or other offerings, Roman priests believe they are offering Christ to the Father day by day. This is absolutely repugnant, impossible, blasphemous and damnable. It also proves that Roman Catholicism is a false religion that doesn't understand or practice New Covenant Christianity. When a sacrifice needs to be offered every single day, or every year, it reveals itself as a sacrifice that cannot purge the conscience. It cannot take away, forgive or cleanse sins. Therefore, what the Roman priests do can never purge the conscience of a Christian. Only faith in Christ's true sacrifice can. Roman Catholics trust in the amount of Masses they attend to save their soul, and they need daily Mass to be cleansed of sins everyday, because they do not have true faith in Christ's one and only sacrifice. They need to maintain a constant state of grace or friendship with God, not by trusting in Jesus and walking in the Spirit, but through going to Mass, confessing sins to a priest, doing carnal ritual works like praying the Rosary, earning indulgences, and so on.
V. 5-10: "Wherefore when He cometh into the world, He saith, 'Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared Me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me) to do thy will, O God.' Above when He said, 'Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the Law; then said He, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
This passage describes how Jesus came to do the will of His Father, which was to die for our sins on the Cross as the propitiation and atonement for the sins of the world. We are sanctified, or made holy, not through the blood of Old Covenant sacrifices according to the Law of Moses, but through the once for all offering of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Considering Jesus offered Himself once for all, again, once for all, He can never be offered again. This passage alone destroys the notion that Jesus is perpetually offered to the Father. Re-sacrifice or offering is impossible. When our Lord said "it is finished" on the Cross, He meant it.
V. 11-14: "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 at 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."
How many times does the Scripture have to say that Christ was once offered? Why then does the Council of Trent (1545-1563) teach the exact opposite of the Book of Hebrews? The apostate Council of Trent teaches that Christ is immolated and that such an oblation is appeasing to the Lord. It states: "For the victim (Jesus Christ) is one and the same, the same now offering by the ministry of priests, who then offered Himself on the cross, the manner alone of offering being different." This statement is damnable heresy. Christ was offered ONCE FOR ALL. It is impossible for priests to offer Christ in any way whatsoever. Christ has not, will not, and cannot offer Himself as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world ever again. It is finished! The teaching of Trent expressly violates the Word of God and contradicts it in plain terms. While supposedly anathematizing those who denounce their errors, the heretics at Trent actually divorced themselves from the Gospel and came under divine anathema for teaching damnable heresy and a false gospel (Galatians 1:8-9). By one offering Christ has perfected those who are sanctified forever. The Scripture can't get any clearer. It is impossible for Roman Catholic priests or ANYONE else to re-offer Christ in ANY WAY according to the holy Word of God which cannot be broken (John 10:35).
2. The wicked practice of communion in one-kind, where the priest only gives the faithful the bread instead of both the bread and cup.
This evil practice explicitly contradicts what our Saviour Himself did in the Last Supper with His Apostles, and what He has commanded and taught us to do in the Last Supper within His church. The Roman Catholic Church actually defends this heretical practice because she is too proud to repent and turn back to the Lord. This practice must be rebuked and vehemently condemned as something totally strange and foreign. At the Last Supper, our Lord told His disciples to take and eat the bread, and to take and drink the wine. The saints in Corinth did the same, and all the early Church did the same. For 1200 years the Church never did anything else. Biblically and historically it is absolutely unheard of for Christians to receive the Lord's Table in only one kind. But even today, in Latin Masses, which are considered bastions of orthodoxy to traditional Roman Catholics, the believers only receive the bread. They don't drink from the cup. Then they attack Novus Ordo Catholics for having a false Mass, even though many of them drink from the cup at their Masses. This is utter confusion. For a priest to drink the cup and eat the bread, while the "laity" only eat the bread, is truly wicked. Total irreverence, rebellion, lack of faith, lack of knowledge, and lack of love towards the Lord is displayed by this wicked practice. This practice doesn't even really need to be debunked, because anyone reading the Scriptures or desiring to follow the Lord already understands how stupid and ungodly it is. It is a clear and stunning departure from what the Lord did with His Apostles.
Now that I've covered these two main issues, let me address two other issues as well. The first is having Mass in Latin, which happens in traditional Roman Catholic churches to this very day. Because of missals, the people are able to memorize the prayers and learn what they mean in English in our time. But this was not the case in times past. The people would go to "hear" Mass, while the priest "said" Mass, and it was expected that the laity would simply hear what was said, even if they had no understanding, and this would check the Mass-requirement box. When they saw the "host" (hostia, latin for sacrificial offering) lifted up, this would fulfil their Sunday Mass duty. They didn't even need to partake of either the bread or wine. All of this is totally anti-biblical as well. It makes the people spectators instead of participants of the Christian family. The priests became mighty-powerful through the ignorance of the people. The Apostle Paul speaks directly against this practice, saying: "I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." The Apostle had the Spirit-given ability to speak in foreign languages, but in the Church he would rather speak five words in a language the saints could understand and thereby be edified by, than 10 thousand words in an unknown language. The faithful in Latin masses didn't understand at all what was being said or taught, and thus they were not edified at all by the words of the Missal.
The second is saying "private Masses" or Masses for the souls in purgatory, or paying for a Mass for some type of spiritual benefit. Can you imagine paying a priest to enroll you in his Masses? Or paying a priest per Mass? Well, this happens even today. This turns the Lord's Supper into a business with spiritual currency and exchange, which is demonic. Woe to those who turn our Lord's house into a place of merchandise! Our Lord didn't take a whip into the temple for no reason. How can you share a memorial meal if there's only one person? The priest thinks he's meriting favor and remission of sins before God for the people, in reality he has turned the holy Supper into a sacrifice and is committing blasphemy. Purgatory doesn't exist, so there's that too. Jesus Christ purges us from our sins through His shed blood, as Hebrews 1:3 clearly states. We are already cleansed, purged and sanctified by faith in Christ's blood. We don't need to go to Purgatory for that. But if you want to make money selling indulgences, Purgatory is obviously a needed doctrine. Paying for Masses to be said for dead loved ones to ease the pain suffered in the thousands of years of purgatorial flames is purely an abomination and a strange doctrine of demons.
My brothers and sisters, Roman Catholicism isn't Christianity. It is a pseudo-Christian, Satanic false religion. It is a whoreish, Babylonian, adulterous, idolatrous, unspiritual, humanistic, pagan religion. Please repent and return to the Lord and become a true Christian through faith in Christ. Trust in Christ's one sacrifice. Obey the Word of God alone. You do not need all the garbage spewing out of Rome. May God bless you! I love you all in the Lord.
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