The Crucifix vs The Cross - What Is the Difference & why does it matter?

Many of you are familiar with the Roman Catholic Mass. Now what is the

Roman Catholic Mass? This is when they re -sacrifice, and this is what the term they use, it is a re -presenting or a re -sacrifice of Christ on a

Roman altar in the Eucharist again and again and again until the end of the world.

So when we take communion, we believe the bread and the cup are symbolic.

It's a memorial. We do this in memory of me, so they represent the body and blood of Christ, but the

Roman Church says that they actually turn into the literal flesh and blood of Christ.

So when they take of communion, Jesus is being re -sacrificed again and again until the end of the world.

That's why they believe you can lose your salvation. You need to go to confession, partake of the

Eucharist, and keep getting re -forgiven again and again and again and again, because they don't believe in the once -for -all death of Christ.

Yes, Marcus. The name for that is transmutation? Transubstantiation is the belief that the elements turn into the literal flesh and blood of Christ.

The Protestants in the Reformation, or since the

Reformation, we have identified that. Protestants and evangelicals have identified that as a different gospel.

We believe Jesus died once. His sacrifice was enough. Amen? There's nothing you can add to it.

Your good works, ceremonies and rituals, being drizzled by water or eating bread and drinking, that is not going to forgive you of your sin.

Nothing can forgive a person of their sin except Jesus' death on the cross, which only happened once.

Yes? Interesting that that's probably why their crucifixes still have a body on the cross, and ours doesn't.

He's not on the cross. He's not in the tomb. I'm glad you mentioned that, right, because if you go to a jewelry counter and they're selling crucifixes or they might sell a necklace with a cross.

I overheard this at Walmart one time. A lady was trying to buy a cross, and the person at the counter asked, well, is this for a

Catholic or a Protestant? Because a Catholic would want Jesus on the cross, because again, he's the perpetual victim.

He has to die. He doesn't actually die again and again, but that's their system.

So that's why he's still on the cross with a crucifix, but our cross that we display is empty because it already happened.

So that is a major difference that we should be aware of. All right, any other comments or questions?

Yes, Carolyn? I have friends that are Catholic, but don't go, but she said to me one time, she likes that Jesus is on the cross because it reminds her of all he did for her, and to forget the fact that he's not there anymore.

Right, and not only is he not there, it's a graven image that people are bowing down to. The Ten Commandments are very specific.

You shall not make unto thee any graven image. Do not bow down to them, nor serve them.

You say, yeah, but it's an image of God. No, God does not want images of himself or that are supposed to represent himself.

Even the person of Christ, to make an image, to make an idol of Christ, and of course that's not really him because nobody knows what he looked like, but to make an image of Christ and to bow down in front of that graven image.

I mean, this really should be pretty basic, but again, it's very, very common.

Marcus? Are you leery then also of Solomon's head of Christ as a painting? I personally don't like any visible representations of Christ.

So a painting, this was also an issue in church history, more with the

Orthodox Church. If you're familiar, there's the Roman Catholic Church that has graven images, 3D images, statues, and then the

Orthodox Church says, okay, graven images are wrong, but they have flat images, so paintings of Jesus where they kiss and bow to the painting.

I don't even like the paintings because I know if you show devotion to this painting of a man, that man is not

Jesus. It's like walking around, to me, this is how I would describe it. You walk around with a picture of your wife in your wallet.

Hey, you want to see my wife? And you show a picture of another woman. That's what you're doing because that man in that that painting is not the