Transubstantiation (Part 1)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, ministry. Today is a day here in New England that is raining.

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I don't know if it's sunny now, but when the show is being played on WVNE 760 on your

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AM dial, remember when there were dials on your radio station? Maybe there still are dials now. We had

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XM radio the other day in a rental car, and I thought, that's pretty fancy. Maybe No Compromise needs to be on XM radio.

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Today I'd like to discuss the topic of transubstantiation. You know, when you're a kid, you think, how many syllables does that have?

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Transubstantiation, a six -syllable word, polysyllabic. It is the

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Roman Catholic viewpoint of communion or the Lord's Supper, Mass, the

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Eucharist. We're going to talk about that subject today in John chapter 6.

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Now what we want to do on No Compromise Radio, we want to look at things from a biblical perspective, and I think they should be thought -provoking.

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This one is just, in fact, that. It's like a goad. It's like a stick.

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It's a prod, and I hope the prod hits two kinds of people today.

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The first person I hope it hits is the Roman Catholic who's listening, and I know you're listening. There are people that listen to the show that are not evangelicals, that are not born -again, that are not

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Protestant, that are not whatever I might call myself. We differ on some things, and if you ever meet me,

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I'll be glad to shake your hand and say hello, and I want the best for you. I want God's best for you.

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That is to say, salvation. But we differ on some things, and that's just life.

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We differ on issues of the Bible and other things like that and times, but here it's a very important thing to make sure we get the

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Lord's Supper right, because if you think that it is saving, if it helps get you forgiveness and it doesn't really do that, well, we've got a problem.

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I'm trying to push the Roman Catholic who's listening today to completely rely upon, to wholly trust in Christ's finished work at Calvary, and we have a once -for -all delivered faith in a once -for -all dying

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Savior who triumphantly rose from the dead. And Hebrews chapter 10 is very, very clear that we have the great high priest who in fact is both the sacrifice and the priest.

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And so I want you to think properly, if you're Roman Catholic, about transubstantiation, and today

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I think you'll say to yourself, this is a pretty ridiculous doctrine. This is a doctrine that cannot be found in the

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Bible, and therefore maybe I should ask some questions. So that's goad number one, or prod number one.

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And I have another prod, and I hope this prod hits the evangelical out there who somehow is deluded into thinking that just because Roman Catholics talk about Bible, church, virgin birth,

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Jesus, resurrection, that somehow Roman Catholics are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

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Now, there are some Roman Catholics, you know, you always have to give this disclaimer. It's a tired, old disclaimer.

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The disclaimer is there are Roman Catholics who are born again in the Roman Catholic churches in the gatherings, but they're not born again because of the

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Catholic doctrine. They're born again in spite of the Catholic doctrine, and they're born again because Jesus Christ through the

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Word caused them to be born again by the Spirit's power. And so if you're an evangelical today, and you're, well, this is

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Catholic bashing, this is such and such, I'm after you because I want you to be provoked in your own heart like Paul was provoked at Athens in Acts chapter 17 because of idolatry, it concerned him.

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And so both the Protestants and the Roman Catholics, they can't both be right. I know it's postmodernism today, and everybody's truth is relative, and if it's good for you, if it works for you, etc.,

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etc., but these both can't be correct. One is right, one is wrong, or they're both wrong, but they both can't be right.

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That's just illogical. So today I'd like to talk about transubstantiation, and what does the

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Bible say about this topic? What does Rome say about the topic? Well, I'll tell you what

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Rome says about the Lord's Supper and the Mass, as they would call it. They think the sacrifice of the

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Mass is, in fact, a propitiatory offering by which sins are taken away, sins are forgiven, sins are removed.

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It's very fascinating when the Lord's Supper elements are blessed that they change actually into, according to the

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Roman Catholic Church, into Christ's real physical body and his real physical blood.

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The appearances stay the same. The bread is still shaped like bread.

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It's still the same size as it was before it was blessed. It has the same odor that it normally would have.

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It has the same color to your taste buds. It even tastes like bread.

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But after the priests do their formal consecration, it's different.

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And what a Roman Catholic person is supposed to do is supposed to believe by faith that is, in fact, different.

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And actually Cyril of Jerusalem said, quote, Judge not by the taste, but by faith.

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So as you take the bread that's been consecrated by a priest into your mouth, it smells like bread, it looks like bread, it tastes like bread, it's got the color of bread, but it's not really bread, it's

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Jesus. And you say, well, this is just an in -house debate. I'm not the one throwing out formal curses.

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I'm not the Catholic hater. I think the Catholic doctrine from the big shots at the very top,

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I think they're Protestant haters. I think they're Protestant bashers. And so why do we always say, well, they're

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Catholic bashing? Well, why is the Roman Catholic Church Protestant bashing?

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Here is what the Roman Catholic Church says. A curse rests upon those who do not receive the teaching of the

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Council of Trent on this point. So I guess by my own definition, according to Rome, I am cursed.

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A matter of fact, Lateran Council 1215 said there's no salvation outside a church which teaches this about the

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Lord's Supper. I, on the other hand, believe that forgiveness of sins is affected by Christ and Christ alone on Calvary's cross.

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I do not say you must believe in the cross of Christ and some sacramental system in order to be saved, because that would make the finished work of Christ when

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Jesus sat on the cross after assuaging the wrath of God for three hours,

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Isaiah says, it pleased the Lord to crush him, Jesus. After that happened, I believe when

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Jesus said, it is finished, debt has been paid in full, that in fact he was telling the truth.

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But by practice and by theology, we see the Roman Catholic Church denying the finished work of Jesus Christ, his life, his death, his resurrection.

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And so I find it interesting that years ago we would have the Roman Catholics denied drinking the cup.

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And so, if in fact the Roman Catholics, as they do, go to John chapter 6,

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Jesus therefore said to them, verse 53, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the

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Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourself. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

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So my question is, why did Rome years ago say that the people, the laypeople, could not have the cup?

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The cup was for the priests. The laypeople, they get the bread, but they don't get the cup.

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The cup was banned from the laypeople and kept for the priests at the Council of Constance in 1414.

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Now my point to a lot of this is, notice the changing, notice the ebbing and flowing, notice something comes up.

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It's no different really than Mormonism when they've got a certain view of black people, and it was an improper view, a sinful view, but then to make sure everything's copacetic with the world and the state and the

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United States government, let's just change the issues when it comes to black people and the priesthood, etc.

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God is immutable, God is eternal. God doesn't change, his way of salvation doesn't change, his view of people made in his image and likeness does not change, his view of how often and how regularly and who should take the

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Lord's Supper, that has not changed. But in 1546,

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Trent confirms the Council of Constance and says the cup is banned and kept for the priests.

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So what do they do? Because you've got John 6, the passage that is so revered by Roman Catholics to teach somehow the actual transubstantiation doctrine, what do you do?

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Well, then you come up with another doctrine, concomitance, concomitant, the

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Roman Catholic doctrine comes and goes. For those of you that don't know pop culture 20 years ago, you can just look up Boy George and find the answer to that.

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I know I can't sing, that's life, what do I care? I sing with the voice that I have. 1414,

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Council of Constance says no cup for the laypeople, Trent confirms it, and so you've got to get somehow the blood of Jesus in you, and so there's a little runaround, there's a bypass, and it's called concomitance.

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And that is when you eat the bread, according to the Roman Catholic doctrine of concomitance. Easy for me to say.

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I couldn't be a Roman Catholic priest because I can't keep up with all these words and these doctrinal words.

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When you take the bread, according to that doctrine, you're taking the bread and the wine. So the doctrine they have there is you just eat the bread, you're really having the wine as well.

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You take both. Now here's what Trent says, if anyone denies that in the venerable sacrament of the

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Eucharist the whole Christ is contained under each species and under every particle of either when separated, let him be anathema.

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So my question is, why years ago did they deny the wine? Why deny the wine from people when

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John chapter 6 is very, very clear? Well there were several reasons. One could have been money, because it costs more money to give wine to the people.

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But I think there are more important reasons why they denied—by the way we're talking today on No Compromise Radio about the doctrine, the

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Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation and why it's a wrong doctrine. It's a heretical doctrine and it's a doctrine you ought to purge from your mind.

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What you do is if you've changed Jesus, you've changed bread into Jesus, and you've changed blood into Jesus's blood, well if you drop a piece of bread it might not be too bad, but if you spill

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Jesus's blood you're in big trouble. So they denied the laypeople from having the blood of Jesus because they didn't want to spill it.

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And there's also another problem that is even recognized today by people in our country, that when you drink from a common chalice or from a common cup, you are going to have infected lips of the previous person if they have some kind of virus or infection or disease, and you are going to get it.

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Yes, in fact, there's alcohol in wine and it might kill some of that, but it's not going to kill all.

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So it was a health reason. It's a danger for health. And now

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I believe, at least in some parishes, you can get the bread and then you get the wine by concomitance, but if you really want it you can go stand to the side and have some of the wine.

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We're changing back and forth. There's an interesting book called Forty Years in the Church of Rome, written by a

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Catholic priest, Father Chinoquy, Father Chinoquy, and he was very puzzled over the years when he would pronounce the blessing and consecrate the bread and the cup, and he just couldn't believe that that actually turned into the real

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Jesus. And he actually one day pronounced the bread to be the body of Christ, and then a mouse came over and nibbled on the bread.

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And he had a question, and that question was, was the mouse nibbling on Jesus? Interestingly enough, in the 18th century, 19th century, when he asked the question, 600 years prior to that,

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Thomas Aquinas, the Roman Catholic theologian, had already made a pronouncement of that very thing.

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If a mouse or another animal comes out and nibbles on the bread, he nibbles on the body of Christ.

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End quote, Thomas Aquinas. I will say this for Aquinas, besides being a brilliant man, he was consistent.

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I appreciate his consistency, even though he was consistently wrong on this topic.

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So Mike Abendroth today, No Compromise Radio. We are dealing with the issue of John chapter 6 and what happens with transubstantiation.

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You know, there are four typical views of communion. One is it represents, that would be the

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Zwinglian view, two, that it's under, with, or by, that's transubstantiation, that's

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Lutheran, and then you've got Calvin's view, the Reformed view, spiritual presence, and you've got the

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Roman Catholic view, transubstantiation. And I was fascinated when I was reading this week about things like if you spill

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Jesus, when he's, his blood, what do you do? So I looked up catholic .com,

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I'm on www .catholic .com, and I'm looking at things about communion.

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Now at the end of this communion section, it says this, Nihil Obstat, N -I -H -I -L -O -B -S -T -A -T.

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Here right on this page that I'm on, I have concluded that the materials presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.

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Bernadine Carr, STL, Censor Librarum, August 10th, 2004.

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Imprimatur, in accord with 1983 CIC 827 permission to publish this work as thereby granted,

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Bishop of San Diego, August 10th, Robert Brom. So basically, this is coming from catholic .com,

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and it's got the signature, as it were, of the mucky mucks in Roman Catholic stuff, so you don't think

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I'm making this up. Because I need to say that disclaimer, why? Why do people give disclaimers like that?

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Because you're going to think I made it up. And what I don't want to do on this show is create straw men, straw dummies, and then just knock them down.

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I want to actually tell you the truth. And when Jesus said in John 6, 51, I am the living bread that came down out of heaven.

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If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread also which I give for the life of the world is my flesh.

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Since Jesus said that, since he has this figure for belief with all kinds of figures of speech.

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Remember, John 6 isn't anywhere close to the Lord's Supper. This is not the Lord's Supper meal.

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This is not the Passover meal, the last Passover, which was the first Lord's Supper. We're earlier on in his ministry, a la

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John 6, not John 18, not John 19, not John 20.

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And so the Jews, they didn't know about this spiritual eating either. They're just like the

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Roman Catholics in their view. It says in verse 52, the Jews therefore began to argue with one another saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?

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They've got a problem. They are not grasping intellectually, theologically, the issues that Jesus was talking about.

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And so Jesus therefore said to them, truly, truly, you know, this is I tell you the truth with emphasis, unless you eat the flesh of the

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Son of Man, that's why the Catholics need to figure out how to make this into Jesus's flesh and drink his blood.

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That's the same thing that they have to do there. You have no life in yourselves. And so I've got a question for my

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Roman Catholic friends. Leviticus 17, 10 to 14 says, and any man from the house of Israel or from the aliens who sojourn among them who eats any blood,

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I will set my face against that person who eats blood and I will cut him off from among his people.

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For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls.

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For it is the blood by reason of life that makes atonement. Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, no person among you may eat blood, nor may any alien who sojourns among you eat blood.

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We're reading Leviticus 17. So when any man from the sons of Israel or from the aliens who sojourn among them in hunting catches a beast or a bird which may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth.

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For as for the life of all flesh is blood is identified with its life. Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, you are not to eat the blood of any flesh.

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For the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.

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So you mean to tell me, John chapter six, Jesus is really saying, now this is before the cross, so we're still under the old covenant, we're still under Mosaic law.

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Jesus is obeying the Mosaic law perfectly, but Jesus is saying, you know, I want you to disobey

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Leviticus 17 and have God the Father's face set against you because you've got to eat my flesh.

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Of course he's not doing that. He's not saying that at all. He makes a statement because he's pushing the

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Jews to realize they've got to believe in him. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

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He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living

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Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he also shall live because of me.

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This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died, but he who eats this bread shall live forever.

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Ever. And so Jesus isn't talking about physically eating him, he's talking about believing in him.

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This is a spiritual belief. Now, back to Catholic .com. Who can receive communion? This is going to be very, very interesting because Roman Catholics have questions and I think the laypeople have excellent questions because if this is in fact true, what do we do?

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So let me just say this. There's some questions in this page and let me ask you some of these questions.

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These are real questions from Catholic .com. If one were to add wine to the precious blood, what would happen?

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Is it somehow less precious blood per volume? Is the wine consecrated by contact or does it cease to be precious blood at all?

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Fair question. Answer. Adding unconsecrated wine to the Eucharist does not result in wine being mixed with wine, but wine being mixed with blood.

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After the consecration, any wine poured into a chalice containing precious blood would not by that fact become the blood of Christ.

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It would still be wine. Even though this would not be visible to the eye, it would also be a sacrilegious act.

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Interesting. Another question. Is it possible to get sick from drinking from the Eucharistic cup?

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The precious blood, yes, the precious blood does not inoculate a cup against germs that cause illness.

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Hmm. All right, here's a good one. This is no compromise style right here. Our newly ordained young priest refused to remove the precious blood that unknowingly had spilled on the carpet by an extraordinary minister of the

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Eucharistic. The priest said, leave it, it will go away. He said that Thomas Aquinas taught that when consecrated bread or wine changes appearance,

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Jesus is no longer present. So when the precious blood dries, Jesus is no longer present. Therefore, it should be left to dry so that Jesus will go away.

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We do not believe that these teachings are of Thomas or any other doctor of the church. Answer according to Catholics .com.

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It's a super long answer. I mean, here's another question before I give you that answer if I have time.

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My daughter asked me what happens to the consecrated host. She asked if we digest Jesus.

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Well, the answer is going to be at least initially, yes, you're receiving him through the esophagus down to the stomach.

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But then what happens? Here's the answer. When the host is digested and is no longer has the appearance of bread, it is no longer the body of Christ.

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The Lord is only present as long as the appearance of the bread is present. Aye yai yai, you'll find this one fascinating.

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At what point do the bread and wine become the true body and blood of Christ? Answer, you are going to love this one.

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The bread becomes the body of Christ when the words of consecration complete the sentence, i .e. Now get your grammar books out.

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But I hope the sister that you had taught you good grammar. When the object body, modified by the adjective my, completes the subject, this, and the verb is predicate is.

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Once the thought is articulated, this is my body, the change takes place. The same goes for the wine becoming his blood.

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The Catholic answer says, sister told us that knowing the parts of speech would help us in the future. What would help me in the future is if all this mumbo -jumbo, hocus -pocus, for those of you who know the origin of that word will find that quite apropos, type in etymology hocus -pocus.

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This is just a bunch of, yes it is consistent, but it's nonsensical, it's illogical.

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You've got Thomas Aquinas, yes he does say if Jesus is evaporated he's no longer there, et cetera, et cetera.

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Why ask these questions? Why ask, you know, when does Jesus dissolve into our body and he's, you know, do the gastric juices change

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Jesus and dissolve him away and then he kind of flies away until next time or does he go down into our intestines?

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I mean, if you just keep thinking, the logic of that gets pretty gross. Why all this?

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Here's the answer. It's because the Roman Catholic Church at the highest levels has lied to its people and they are wolves in sheep's clothing and they're not talking about the real

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Jesus and the real salvation and the real sacraments and the real Lord's Supper. So here's my go to my

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Roman Catholic friends, prove me wrong. Get your Bibles out and read the Gospels. Read John 6, read

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Leviticus 17, read 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and find out that there is forgiveness of sins.

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You can have forgiveness completely, trusting in Christ's finished work, death and resurrection. You can have assurance of faith.

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You can know for certain if you're listening today that you can go to heaven when you die.

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You can know it today. The Bible says so. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's Word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.