We were talking about this Catholic issue concerning confessing sins to a priest but the Bible shows that we are already priests, that’s why this teaching is invalidated.

Revelation 1:6 “And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”

1 Peter 2:9-10 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”

This passage also proves that we are made into the priesthood and we do not need other priests to confess our sins for salvation. Since we are priests of God, we do not need to fear to attain God’s mercy for sins because we already have it.

 

Issue 5: Catholic Mass

Catechism 1406-1407

Catholic doctrines teach that the Catholic Mass (bread, wafer, alcoholic wine) truly contains the blood and body of Jesus Christ.

They’re going to use John 6:53-56, 1 Corinthians 10:16, and 1 Corinthians 11:27, 29 to prove the Catholic mass doctrine.

Their Catechism teaches that the Catholic Mass is supposed to grant them their salvation so if you skipped eating a wafer and drinking alcohol, you’re going to burn in hell for all eternity.

John 6:53-56 “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.”

In v56, the Catholic faith claim that this verse is literal, that salvation is maintained by eating His flesh and drinking His blood. We believe that this is a spiritual transaction.

John 6:35 “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.“

The simple answer is at v35: if we come to Him for salvation, we shall never hunger, that’s ‘eating His flesh’, it’s when we come to Him for salvation. If we believe on Christ, that’s drinking His blood. So this is all talking about a spiritual transaction taking place. It is a sacrament for the Christian faith, but does not have anything to do with our salvation.

John 6:47-48 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life.”

Why would Christ Jesus say this if the Catholic Mass equals to salvation? Because Jesus Christ was saying that if we believe on Him for salvation, that’s eating Him as the bread, that is drinking His blood, so it’s all a spiritual transaction.

Catholic’s favorite verse is v55, and the word ‘indeed’ proves that it is literal. If we look at all the verses in our Bible that say ‘indeed’, it’s not going to prove that it’s literal all the time.

Matthew 13:31-32 “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.”

Here, Jesus in his earthly life is giving a metaphorical story that the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard. In v32 the word ‘indeed’ is shown, but does that mean Jesus is talking about a literal grain of mustard seed which is a kingdom of heaven?

No, He’s giving a figurative interpretation here.

‘Indeed’ basically means truly, really, most perfectly. The idea is that ‘it most perfectly represents the idea’, it doesn’t mean that it has to be literal.

When Jesus Christ says that ‘my flesh is meat indeed, my blood is drink indeed’, He’s taking that figurative subject that is flesh and blood, that most perfectly pictures the object at hand, food, and drink.

That’s why He’s mentioning His flesh and blood because there is no perfect or better representation than His own flesh and blood to perfectly, truly picture our nourishment, our eternal life. But that doesn’t mean that we eat it, no. It was something figurative that truly, perfectly represented the object at hand.

Matthew 20:23 “And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.“

Does Jesus mean we’re going to truly drink this cup that He is using right now? No. He’s giving a figurative representation of the cup of suffering.

Mark 9:13 “But I say unto you, That Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him.”

cf Matthew 17:12-13 “But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.”

John 6:33-35 “For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.“

The Jews asked Jesus for the bread to eat and Jesus responded by saying that you got to come to Me for salvation, that’s your bread and if you believe on Me, that’s your drink.

John 6:60-63 “Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

In v63, it’s all spiritual, this has nothing to do with the flesh. Everything that He said in His word, ‘eat my flesh and drink my blood’, they are spirit and they are life. Eating and drinking Jesus Christ is a spiritual transaction that takes place, it’s not physical and literal. If we would eat the literal blood and drink the literal blood of Christ, it profiteth the flesh nothing. So that means that Catholic Mass profiteth nothing and is a waste of time according to the scriptures.

The Catholic tradition may argue this way, the Jews found it hard to understand so Jesus was saying that they couldn’t understand by their own flesh and needed God’s spirit to help them understand. They will use John 8:15-16 and say that it’s relying on His spiritual power, God’s power. But they’re merely inserting whatever word they want to mean flesh and spirit, so when they do that, that doesn’t mean it’s the right interpretation.

Go back to John 6:63 and we’d look at the context here. ‘the spirit that quickeneth’, quickeneth means make alive. Remember Jesus Christ said that if you eat my flesh, you have life, so He’s talking about a spiritual transaction that gives you life. ‘The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life’, the words that He spoke (I am the bread of life, you eat my flesh, you drink my blood), it’s spirit. Take it as it says or we can make up whatever interpretation we want here. The words are life, the spirit is life, eating and drinking is life.

Notice v54, everything that has to do with life is in context with the spirit here. The spirit is tied to it no matter what. Everything has to be the work of the spirit, a spiritual transaction that’s taking place. Notice v48, I am that bread of life, life appeared again here, and what is connected to life? His words and the spirit. There is no doubt right here that when He’s saying ‘I am the bread of life’, life is connected to the spirit. No matter what you say, the bread that He’s talking about, eating Him that He’s talking about, is connected to a spirit working, a spiritual transaction.

John 12:40 “He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.”

Catholics claim that Jesus Christ said that we need the Father’s spirit to help us understand. No, Jesus Christ didn’t do that. He was saying the Father blinded us, He’s doing the opposite here.

1 Corinthians 10:16 “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”

Catholics will also use 1 Cor 10:16 which supposedly shows eating His literal body and blood at the Catholic Mass for salvation. But did the verse say it is the blood of Christ, it is the body of Christ? No. It says the communion of the blood of Christ and the communion of the body of Christ. When we partake in the bread, it is a communion, a memorial, a remembrance of His body. When we drink the cup, it is in communion, in memory, in memorial of His blood.

1 Corinthians 11:27 “Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 11:29 “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.”

But this verse is all figurative. Catholics may say and insist that this is Jesus Christ’s body and it is Jesus’s body that they are eating.

Satan twists the scripture to people’s destruction.

Remember that they use 1 Corinthians 10:16, 11:27, 29 to prove their Catholic Mass but there is one verse that debunks all of these: 1 Corinthians 10:17.

1 Corinthians 10:17 “For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.”

Does this verse then imply that we are eating each other? No, that doesn’t make sense. If we’re going to insist that this bread is the body of Jesus, then we need to remember that we are the body of Christ and we are that bread. It makes more sense to say that this is supposed to be a representation, a memorial, a symbol.

When we partake in the Lord’s supper and we’re trying to remember the bread that represents the body of Jesus, we all take it solely. We’re guilty of what it’s representing, what it’s picturing right here.

1 Corinthians 11:24-26 “And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.“

Notice that they are a remembrance of His death and they are a show of His death. V24-25 definitely proved that it’s a memorial of His body and blood. In v26, ‘ye do shew the Lord’s death till he comes’. This is all to do with showing and remembrance, this has nothing to do with His literal body and blood.

If they insist that we are drinking literal blood, then we’re going to violate ALL dispensations. In every dispensation, there was one rule that God did not change and that was the drinking of blood.

Before the law, blood was forbidden:

Genesis 9:4 “But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.”

During the law, in God’s system, He cuts us off if we eat or drink blood.

Leviticus 17:11-14 “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood.And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust.For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.”

After the law, blood was forbidden.

Acts 15:20 “But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.”

Acts 21:25 “As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.”

In the Catechism, they mention that this was a sacrifice that is continual to cleanse away their sins. However, we need to realize that there is no more sacrifice/mass to continue Christ’s sacrifice again. There was only one sacrifice that settled it forever.

Hebrews 10:10-12 “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 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 on the right hand of God;”

Hebrews 10:14 “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”

Hebrews 10:18 “Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.”

v10 the body of Jesus Christ was offered once and for all. Every time the priest has broken the wafer and claimed this was the body of Jesus, how many millions have done that throughout the past century, that is blaspheming the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. v12 Catholic bible used to read like this ‘one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God’. v18 there is no other sacrifice except for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Issue 6: Venerations of Icons

Catechism 2132

Catholics say that when they have these images, they’re not worshiping them. When they’re venerating/honoring the image, they’re thinking about what the image is representing. So if they’re bowing down to the image of Francis/Moses/David, they’re not worshiping the idol, they’re just simply showing honor to what that image is representing. It’s scriptural, to honor to whom the honor is due. That’s their way around it. So they’re not worshiping the crucifix but they’re trying to venerate/honor Jesus.

Exodus 20:3-5 ”Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;”

In v5, we’re not even supposed to bow down to it. Notice that v4-5 is the second commandment, v3 is the first commandment about polytheism. Catholics like to put v4, 5 as polytheism. God already covered polytheism at v3, why would He put a second commandment at v4-5 against polytheism again?

Because He’s talking about something specific here, He’s talking about idols. Catholics deliberately dropped the second commandment, this is not found in the Catholic Ten Commandments, they probably revised it now but back then, the Catholic church dropped it.

They pretend that v4-5 is the same commandment found at v3. They changed the whole idea about v4-5 in idolatry and replace it with polytheism.

 

You may also be interested in the following articles about Catholicism from this same series: