Why wouldn't a Protestant want to receive the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist

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In time, yes. In eternity (which doesn’t mean a whole lot of time, followed by another whole lot of time, repeat, etc) the Son intercedes for us before the Father, eternally, offering the One Sacrifice as that intercession. Outside of time. The One Sacrifice is eternal. It is re-presented in every Eucharistic sacrifice. The same Sacrifice. We are brought there to worship and adore.
 
Thank you, yes, the Son is eternally making intercession! Like I heard a Lutheran pastor proclaim “we are a Resurrection people!”
 
It’s not a matter of wanting to receive the Holy Eucharist or not. Even If they believe in the transubstantiation and wish to partake in it, they cannot; unless, they have been converted and baptized into the Catholic faith. It’s as simple as that.
 
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Wannano said:
What then for someone like me that has been to numerous Catholic Masses and even asking God in prayer, do not feel the authenticity?
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Be careful not to rely on “feelings.” They may mislead you.

Also be careful not to expect that the experiences of others will be efficacious for you. My husband and I had been through a horrific experience in our final Protestant church. We were actually kicked out of that church on the basis of a trumped-up accusation (the accuser was caught in a lie a year later and fired from her church position). It was nightmarish.

So perhaps Jesus decided that we needed to actually SEE Him that day. But He may choose a different path for you that is more meaningful and appropriate for your situation. 🙂
 
If I am a Baptist, for example, then I believe that what you Catholics are doing is worshipping bread and wine – which would be idolatry. The Scriptures say that God is jealous. So yeah, If i believed like they do, I’d have zero interest in receiving the Eucharist in our Churches.
 
@Lenten_ashes1,

Then it’s your loss not ours. Pure and simple.
 
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Agree

But sadly, it’s not just protestants who lack belief in real presence in the Catholic sense – most Catholics don’t believe it.
 
As someone who studied the Eucharist in depth in RCIA recently, I could never deny the centrality of the Blessed Sacrament to the Christian faith. So to see poll results saying two thirds of Catholics don’t even believe in the Real Presence completely exasperates me.
 
Again, it’s their loss. It’s none of our concern if they choose to believe in it or not. We cannot control their mind.
 
According to a recent survey (a thread I created), only about half of Catholics understand the true teaching on the Eucharist anyway. Couple that with the fact that in other surveys, Catholics answer incorrectly on beliefs concerning homosexuality, abortion, and contraception while conservative Protestants are the ones who display a proper Christian understanding.

Furthermore, many times the Mass in its current form - everything from what people wear, to how they act, how they receive the Eucharist, the songs - does not really elevate one to believe they were surrounded by the presence of Christ.

So when Protestants don’t think they’re missing anything, the more proper interpretation is that Catholics as a whole do not demonstrate the centrality of the Eucharist as anything that actually guides them to lead Christian lives and obey the Church’s teachings. In other words, what kind of example is a Catholic who receives the Eucharist but supports abortion, homosexual relations, and contraception? The faithful Protestant can claim (and per their conscience, rightly so, in my opinion) that reception of the Eucharist, based on the attitudes of Catholics, does not impart any type of actual grace which leads them toward the path of Christ. So why would they bother? It’s because overall, we haven’t really practiced what we preach and live the way we claim to believe.

We have failed people like @wannano above, because we didn’t act like we were in the presence of anything special.
 
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Shasta-Rose said:
This is most certainly true. There is a certain amount of misunderstanding about what the Lutheran Church teaches.
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I thought real presence was universal to Lutherans, but apparently not so. Apparently some of the churches that claim they are “truly” Confessional this not true as I was recently informed. Interesting because I’m married to a Lutheran pastor!
 
Tolle_Lege said:
According to a recent survey (a thread I created), only about half of Catholics understand the true teaching on the Eucharist anyway. Couple that with the fact that in other surveys, Catholics answer incorrectly on beliefs concerning homosexuality, abortion, and contraception while conservative Protestants are the ones who display a proper Christian understanding.

Furthermore, many times the Mass in its current form - everything from what people wear, to how they act, how they receive the Eucharist, the songs - does not really elevate one to believe they were surrounded by the presence of Christ.

So when Protestants don’t think they’re missing anything, the more proper interpretation is that Catholics as a whole do not demonstrate the centrality of the Eucharist as anything that actually guides them to lead Christian lives and obey the Church’s teachings. In other words, what kind of example is a Catholic who receives the Eucharist but supports abortion, homosexual relations, and contraception? The faithful Protestant can claim (and per their conscience, rightly so, in my opinion) that reception of the Eucharist, based on the attitudes of Catholics, does not impart any type of actual grace which leads them toward the path of Christ. So why would they bother? It’s because overall, we haven’t really practiced what we preach and live the way we claim to believe.

We have failed people like @wannano above, because we didn’t act like we were in the presence of anything special.
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I appreciate your candid honesty and yet it delivers a conviction to me as well. I often fall short.
 
PJH_74 said:
I thought real presence was universal to Lutherans, but apparently not so. Apparently some of the churches that claim they are “truly” Confessional this not true as I was recently informed. Interesting because I’m married to a Lutheran pastor!
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Poor catechesis is another thing Lutherans and Catholics have in common.
 
Tolle_Lege said:
We have failed people like @wannano above, because we didn’t act like we were in the presence of anything special.
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Not really getting this “we” stuff when in this day and age there is quite a lot of Eucharistic devotion, including public processions on the Feast of Corpus Christi and/or on Holy Thursday in many places.

Yes, there are some Catholics who self-identify as Catholic but do not practice the faith very consistently or are confused on major teachings. I’m willing to bet that just about every large religion has some of that. But if a Protestant really wished to see faithful Catholics being reverent towards the Eucharist, he would not have to look too hard.
 
Thats the issue with the prefix ‘re’

I am not buying that such a huge % of Catholics understand that the Eucharist is the true Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus. Perhaps those surveys should be broken down to ‘class of catholic’

Regular Mass attendee, Catholic by birth but not by belief, etc.
 
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AtheistNoMore said:
exasperates
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Yeah, the overall lack of Catechesis exasperates me as well.

I can recall attending RCIA and the instructor told us to turn to II Corinthians – and over half of the students at our table where searching through the OT!! UGH.
 
These were likely not converts from the Baptists, I would suspect.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Not really getting this “we” stuff when in this day and age there is quite a lot of Eucharistic devotion, including public processions on the Feast of Corpus Christi and/or on Holy Thursday in many places.
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I just meant “we” as in general, the modern Catholic. Someone like the OP wouldn’t know that or get that sense just from attending Mass. I was just looking at it from the perspective of, if a Protestant attended the typical (ordinary form) Sunday Mass, would they really get the sense of the True Presence, based on the attitudes of the folks in the pews?
 
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