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Is transubstantiation true?
Topics: Church Article
Anonymous user Thu Oct 11, 2007 17:32:58 PDT
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0 responses 0 comments Location: 26180 Plateau Way, Tehachapi, CA 93561

     In 1 Corinthians 11:24, Jesus said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  When Jesus held up a piece of matzah and said, “This is my body” in verse 24, what did He mean by that?  Was Jesus saying that the bread was literally His anatomy?  Was Jesus saying that the bread supernaturally becomes His head, His torso, His limbs, and all of His internal organs?  Was that what He was saying?  No.  Not even most of today’s Catholics believe that.

     Evidence for this can be found in the National and International Religion Report.  From that report, there’s an article entitled, “Only 30% of Catholics.”  The author writes:  “Roman Catholics have traditionally believed that when they took communion at mass, the elements were transubstantiated into the actual body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Fewer than one in three Catholics still believes in this mystical transformation of the bread and wine, according to a Gallup poll commissioned by an organization of conservative lay Catholics” (page 4, 3/9/92).

     How did the doctrine of transubstantiation originate?  How did it get started any way?  In 818 A.D., there was a man named Paschasius Radbert, who formally propounded the teaching in which the material elements literally change into the very body that was born to Mary through Divine power.  Later on in 1089 A.D., Humbert made the crass statement that, “The very body of Christ was truly held in the priest’s hand, broken and chewed by the teeth of the faithful.”  By the year 1215 A.D., at the 4th Lateran Council, transubstantiation became an article of faith.

     There’s no reason to believe Jesus thought His physique was one and the same as the bread He gripped with His fingers as He celebrated Passover or Pesach.  He was not teaching that the substance of the bread and wine changes into His body and blood, which the Roman Catholic Church teaches.  The Lord was simply acting out the parable, which He taught in John 6:51-56.  While the idea of actually eating Jesus Christ may seem absurd to us, during the first two centuries, unbelievers believed Christians practiced cannibalism.  Inflamed rumors, based on the early Christians’ observance of the Lord’s Table, accused believers of cannibalistic behavior based on magic.  Early critics of the church thought Christianity was just another version of Greek sorcery, and that the bread and cup were transformed through magic into the body and blood of Christ.  The phrase “hoc est corpus meum” (this is my body) was later adapted to "hocus pocus".

     Although non-Christians misinterpreted what Jesus said, He was not endorsing cannibalism or magic in any way.  Jesus was exhorting those, who would follow Him, to totally appropriate Him and receive Him for eternal life.  Ulrich Zwingli, the reformer of Zurich, had the right idea, when he interpreted the scriptural phrase “This is my body” to mean “This represents my body.”  The use of figurative language was nothing new for Jesus (cf. Mark 2:17; John 8:12; 10:9; 14:6; 15:1).  When Jesus says here, “This is my body,” the matzah that Jesus was holding did not literally become Jesus’ body.  The bread remained bread.  Jesus was making an association.  He was associating the life giving sustenance of bread with the spiritual life giving sustenance of His person.

     Jeff Kaplan is the senior pastor of Bear Valley Church in Tehachapi.  To find out more about Bear Valley Church, please visit their website at www.bearvalleychurch.org or call the church at 661-821-0183.                  

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