Is Protestantism Heresy? Pt. 2 - The Eucharist | Collision w/ Jeff Durbin

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Is Protestantism Heresy? Pt. 3 - The Pope | Collision w/ Jeff Durbin

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This is a really important one, and we actually fairly recently did a message on this at Apologia Church.

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If you look up Dr. James White and you look him up through Apologia Sermons, his sermon series he did on the

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Lord's Supper or the Eucharist is, I think, something that's very helpful. He went into the church history, he went into the

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Fathers, you know, of course, also unpacked from the text itself. I think it'd be a great blessing to you guys.

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If you want further resources, check out the more recent sermon series on the Eucharist or Communion, the

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Lord's Table that was just done. But Jesus tells us to consume the Eucharist as it is truly his body, but Protestantism doesn't teach that.

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It's interesting because the Roman Catholic position on the

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Eucharist, specifically the issue of transubstantiation, is something that can be clearly demonstrated to be doctrinal development over time.

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However, you'll look in church history and see that the Eastern Orthodox is also raising their finger up saying, excuse me, we also have problems.

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So even when the Eastern Orthodox talk about the real presence of Christ, or Protestants talk about the real presence of Christ in the

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Eucharist, or the Roman Catholics talk about the real presence of Christ, there are differences and disagreements among these, and even

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Eastern Orthodox looking over at Rome saying, we don't accept that position. Rome's position on transubstantiation is something that actually developed over time.

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Even in the Fathers where you see people talking about Christ truly present in the supper, Protestants will say, yeah, totally agree with that.

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Christ is truly present in the supper. It doesn't mean transubstantiation. It doesn't mean you're actually consuming human flesh, actual human flesh and blood, the actual human flesh and blood of Jesus.

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Scripture would condemn the practice of eating other human beings, and Roman Catholicism teaches that you're eating his literal flesh and blood, transubstantiation.

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But more importantly, Protestants would reject what Rome is teaching on the mass, that the mass is a propitiatory sacrifice, that when you go to the mass, this is something that is cleansing your sins.

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And if you miss this, you're missing the cleansing of your sins. You're no longer righteous. You've got stains and everything else.

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You've got to deal with those sins because Jesus, of course, is not really finished. This is just Roman Catholicism.

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Their perspective on the mass is that what's taking place is essentially a re -sacrificing of Jesus.

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Now, they don't like to use that language because they say it's the same sacrifice that occurred on the cross, being represented and all the rest.

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But it's that sacrifice for sin, a current sacrifice for sin. You are committing sins.

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You must go to mass where the priest is an alter Christus. He's another Christ. And there's that presentation of the actual flesh and blood of Jesus.

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You're receiving that to cleanse any sins that you committed that week. And if you miss that, you're in trouble because now you have new sins to deal with with God.

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You don't really have peace with God. You don't really have forgiveness of sins where your sins are not remembered anymore.

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As in Romans chapter 4, you are not actually counted righteous apart from your works as Romans chapter 4 says.

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You've got to sort of get on this wheel, right? Like God's done something, but you've got to cooperate. And you've got to get into the sacramental system of Rome.

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You've got to deal with these sacramental system things so that you actually continue to maintain that righteousness, so that you're still okay with God.

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But if you miss these things, you've got sins to deal with now. It's not really finished. There's the issue of purgatory.

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So when Christians are rejecting the Eucharist as told by Rome, we're rejecting on purely theological grounds in terms of what is the inspired revelation of God say about the

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Eucharist. And in John chapter 6, what you find is actually one of my favorite sections of Scripture, one of my very favorite, the place that I go the most, to be honest with you, for joy and happiness and an anchor.

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Well, if you read John 6, it's a pretty substantial chapter. Jesus starts in John chapter 6, verse 22, talking about the fact that he is the bread of life.

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So the text goes on. And in verse 26 of chapter 6, it says this. Jesus answered them.

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Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, but not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

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Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the

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Son of Man will give you. For on him, God the Father has set his seal. And then they say, what must we do to be doing the works of God?

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So what do we have to do? What do we have to do, Jesus? Tell me what I have to do to work the works of God.

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Listen to the simplicity of the gospel that Jesus preaches here. He says, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

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So what do we have to do? What do we have to do here? Okay, what do we have to labor? How do we have to do this? And Jesus says, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

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Faith, trust in Jesus. And so they said to him, then what sign do you do that we may see and believe?

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What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

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And so you remember the story. Of course, the Jews are wandering in the wilderness. There's that wilderness wandering. There's the sin.

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There's the testing in the wilderness. And they're like, we remember that God gave them bread, literally, miraculously bread from heaven.

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Right? And he says this in verse 32. Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not

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Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven.

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For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. I am the bread of life.

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Here it is. Ready? Whoever comes to me shall not hunger.

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And whoever believes in me shall never thirst. And so Jesus equates coming to him and believing him, believing in him as now no longer hungering and no longer thirsting.

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So if you come to Jesus and you believe in him. Ready? He says it. You've eaten. You've drank.

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If you come to Jesus and you believe in him, you have eaten and you have drank.

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You will never go hungry. You will never thirst. So Jesus is showing you that that sign that God gave in the wilderness was actually him preparing you for Christ.

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That God gave you what would fill your hunger and your thirst from heaven in Jesus.

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And if you come to him and believe in him, you've already eaten. You've already drank. And so the challenge has to come to the

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Roman Catholic. This is John 6. This is long before Jesus gives that last supper where he breaks the bread and gives them the wine.

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This is long before then. And Jesus tells them then in front of them.

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If you come to me and believe in me, you'll never hurt hunger. You never thirst. So the challenge needs to be asked to the

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Roman Catholic friends. Okay, this is John 6 long before the last supper, the crucifixion and resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

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If they believed in him here on this day in John 6, if they heard his words and believed in Jesus and what he just said to them there.

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Did they eat the bread of life? Did they drink? Yes or no.

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He promised it to him on the spot. If you come to me and believe in me, you will never go hungry and you have drank.

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You'll never be thirsty. So the question has to be asked, is Jesus telling the truth? And of course we would all acknowledge that the

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Roman Catholic would acknowledge it and say, of course. So on this day, they actually ate the bread of life, didn't they?

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If they believed. But there was no communion. There was no Eucharist. There was no bread.

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There was no cup. They didn't do that. But did they eat? And the answer is yes.

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And Jesus says, all of the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

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That's a real problem from Roman Catholic soteriology, I think very clearly. And Jesus says this in verse 40, for this is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.

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So Jesus says here, ready? If you look on him and believe in him, what will you have?

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What is it? Eternal life. The promise is made. If you come and believe in him, you've eaten and you've drank.

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You'll never go hungry and never thirst. And he says that if you look on him and believe in him, he says what? You have eternal life.

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What's the outcome of believing in the son? According to Jesus, you will have eternal life.

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Now, as you go further down in chapter six, it says in verse 47, truly, truly,

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I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. So what is the prerequisite to having eternal life?

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According to Jesus in John six, believing in him, he said, come and believe eternal life.

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As you go further down, starting in 52, actually, the Jews then disputed among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?

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Because Jesus just said before that the bread that comes down from heaven so that no one may eat of it and so that no one may eat of it and not die.

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I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

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So they're freaked out about this disputing, like, wait a minute, how are we going to eat his flesh? So then

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Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

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Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.

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And so they don't like this, obviously, but clearly he's speaking to them in symbolic language.

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And the answer is, again, he has not even been crucified yet. There's no last supper here.

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There's no breaking bread and giving wine. That's further off in the distance. But notice the words that he uses.

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Are you ready? One more time. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.

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But he's already said that before. Did you hear it? He's already said it before because he says, truly, truly,

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I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. And then he says here, verse 40, for this is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.

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So in verse 40, it's looking on Jesus and believing in him that gives you eternal life and he raises you up.

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And then over here in verse 54, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I'll raise him up on the last day.

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So what's that mean? Jesus equates eating his flesh and drinking his blood, receiving the bread that came from heaven.

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He equates that with coming to him and believing in him. If you've come to him and believe in him, then you have eternal life.

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You were raised up on the last day. If you eat his flesh and drink his blood, you have eternal life.

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You were raised up on the last day. He equates the coming to him and believing in him with eating his flesh and drinking his blood because he's the true bread that came down from heaven.

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But let's remember now, the Eucharist hasn't been given yet. This is earlier on in Jesus' ministry.

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So the challenge needs to be asked of the Roman Catholic friend. On this day in John 6, if they came to Jesus and believed in him, did they eat his flesh and drink his blood?

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According to Jesus, they did. When there is Passover, the Passover celebration, there are all kinds of items that were laid out on the table for the

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Jews to remember. They had things that symbolized the suffering that the Jews experienced, the bitterness, all those things.

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They had these elements on the table they were all supposed to receive and experience to remind them of what

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God did to redeem the people of God out of their slavery. There was the bitterness, the tears, all of that stuff.

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They had elements on the table that pointed to a greater reality, right? They weren't actually those things.

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And now in that context at Passover, Jesus comes and says, this is my body broken for you.

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This is my blood, the blood of the new covenant poured out for many for the remission of sins. So in the context of Passover, Jesus gives them a table and things to actually do this in remembrance of me.

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That's what we're told, that that table is to do it in remembrance of Jesus. But those elements on the table that were all on a table at Passover were elements that pointed to a greater spiritual reality.

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They were very true, very beautiful, very important things, but they weren't actually the things.

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And so when Jesus comes in that context and says, do this in remembrance of me, here is my body broken for you.

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Here is my blood, the blood of the new covenant poured out for many for the remission of sins. It's in the same context of Passover and we are to do it in remembrance of him.

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And here's what's really important too. Protestants, like myself, fully agree in the real presence of Christ at the table.

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It is a deeply spiritual thing. It's not simply a symbol. Christ is truly present there in an amazing, deeply spiritual way.

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But the Bible doesn't teach transubstantiation. That's a developed doctrine by Rome that, again, it's not just Protestants that have a problem with it.

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Talk to your Eastern Orthodox friends. Hey, what's up, guys? This is Pastor Jeff Durbin. Thank you for watching

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Collision. We wanted to provide a solid resource to help you to respond to anything coming into collision with the

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Christian worldview. There's more as a response to this video and others at Apologia's All Access at ApologiaStudios .com.

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