Any man alive could perform what the priest does, including the supposed transubstantiation, which is disgusting to think of actual flesh. Especially since Christ died once for all, not at every “mass”. Evidenced in 1 Peter 3:18 or Hebrews 9:28. Why cant anyone tell me the ratio of works to Jesus necessary for salvation? The Catholic church teaches works are necessary to earn salvation, so how much can we rely on Jesus? PRmerger what say you?
sigh
This smacks of so much ignorance, I’m half-tempted to ignore this. But I will still attempt to somehow educate you.
Firstly, transubstantiation is backed up by the Bible. Read the story of the Last Supper.and it is quite clear by Jesus’ own words that the bread IS His body and the wine His blood. From the Catholic Answers tract on the Eucharist:
Fundamentalists insist that when Christ says, “This is my body,” he is speaking figuratively. But this interpretation is precluded by Paul’s discussion of the Eucharist in 1 Corinthians 11:23–29 and by the whole tenor of John 6, the chapter where the Eucharist is promised. The Greek word for “body” in John 6:54 is sarx, which means physical flesh, and the word for “eats” (trogon) translates as “gnawing” or “chewing.” This is certainly not the language of metaphor.
Secondly, priests are necessary as they represent Christ at the Mass, who is of course the High Priest. It is no different to the priests of the Old Testament who offered the necessary sacrifices each day in the Temple. In the Torah, it is quite plainly made clear that ONLY priests were to make sacrifices on the altar and even then according to strict laws on how this was to be done. Priests alone were also allowed to eat certain offerings from the Temple (when asked why HIs disciples were gathering corn on the Sabbath, Jesus replied that David and his companions had eaten bread from the Temple which only the priests could usually eat.)
As to faith and works, it’s been said time and time again that faith without works is not faith, and that works without faith are dead. Just as a tree produces seeds or fruit, faith and works go hand in hand, and works will naturally follow faith. Even something as simple as defending Christ is a ‘work’ as such.
Here’s a good little sermon on the subject of the good thief and whether he was saved by faith alone, which seems to be the usual argument:
youtube.com/watch?v=_z-yr6hT3Hk
I’m not even Catholic (not yet anyway!) but I would never call the Mass disgusting or unBiblical. I’ve been highly moved by the Masses I’ve attended.
Exactly: look at what you typed: Declared or made righteous in the sight of God. To be declared righteous is definitely different from to be made righteous. It is all simple if the definition of being justified is just being declared righteous…but to be made righteous? That is a different ballgame altogether.
