The Mass - Transubstantiation

Doctrine Article - D.0219

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1. Regarding the issue of transubstantiation, we would ask advocates of Catholicism to respond to two questions:

a. How do you deal with the fact that transubstantiation wasn't introduced into the R.C. church until the Lateran Council under Innocent III in 1215 A.D.?

b. If Jesus meant what he said in (John 6:53-57) literally, then what became of those believers who died during the 1175 years or so before anyone actually ate the real body and blood of Jesus, because no priest was authorized (or even knew how) to make the mass a legitimate and 'real' sacrament before 1215 A.D.?

2. Jesus didn't speak to the multitudes without using parables (Matt 13:34), in order to reveal the truth to those whose hearts sincerely willed to know the truth. His use of parables, metaphors, and similes does not negate the reality of the issue he was discussing. The context clearly determines whether his words are to be taken literally, or figuratively.

3. Although they do so in error, it is admirable that advocates of Catholicism read the scriptures literally in John 6:53-57, but it is inconsistent that they don't do the same in Matt 23:9

4. If Jesus meant that a person must eat his literal flesh and drink his literal blood (transubstantiation in the mass) because he used the words, "This is my body" Matt 26:26 and "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." John 6:53, then why are his words not taken equally literally in the following passages?

a. I am the bread which came down from heaven. John 6:41

b. I am the light of the world John 8:12

c. I am the door of the sheep John 10:7

d. I am the resurrection, and the life: John 11:25

e. I am the way, the truth, and the life: John 14:6

f. I am the vine John 15:5

5. The book of John begins with the background we need to understand Jesus' words: IN the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God…..And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,…."

6. Jesus is called the Light of the World and the bread of heaven. If we live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matt 4:4), and if Jesus is that Word made flesh, and if Jesus is the bread of heaven, then it makes sense that we must eat him to live, metaphorically.

7. That is, we must consume his word to live, and continue to do so until we become like him. His words are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. (Prov 4:22)