Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity – Monday

The official false position of the Roman Catholic Church.

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? — I Corinthians 10:16.

It may seem disagreeable to speak of false and seductive doctrine when contemplating the Gospel. But unless we do so, the seduction will spread.

The Roman Church, the church of the Pope, the Antichrist whose coming was foretold in II Thessalonians 2, teaches that bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper are changed into the body and blood of Christ. But all Scripture passages treating of the Lord’s Supper show that we are given bread and wine to eat and to drink, but that this bread and this wine are the “communion” of the body and blood of Christ, that is to say, that together with the bread and the wine, Christ’s body and blood are given us.

Because the Church of Rome teaches such changing, or “transubstantiation,” it also teaches that the bread and wine must be adored (worshiped). But Scriptures nowhere say that the bread and wine are to be adored; rather, they everywhere command us to eat and drink the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper.

And the Church of Rome furthermore says that the bread in the Sacrament, which, according to their false doctrine, is changed into the body of Christ, is to be offered as an unbloody sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead. But this is an abomination and a profanation of the atoning sacrifice of Christ upon the cross. “For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now where remission of these [sins] is, there is no more offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:14, 18).

And lastly the Roman Catholic Church has historically refused the cup to the laity, that is, to the members of the congregation, saying, with blasphemous presumption, “Why, the body of Christ already contains blood!” But the Lord Jesus says: “Drink ye all of it!” (Matthew 26:27).

My dear Christian, abide simply by the words of Christ, and seek the forgiveness of your sins in the Lord’s Supper; for that is given to you through the body and blood of Christ which you receive together with the bread and wine.

PRAYER – My Lord and God, do not let Thy precious Word, the bright and unchanging light which now shines upon us, be put out and taken from us. Guard Thy dear Christian Church against the specious seduction of the Antichrist at Rome! Continue Thy pure Word and Sacrament with us, and grant that therein we may seek and find the forgiveness of sins. Amen.

Thy body and Thy blood,

Once slain and shed for me,

Are taken here with mouth and soul,

In blest reality.

Hymn 310, 3.