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Friday, January 4, 2008

"How Dumb Can Your Popes Get?"


J writes: The original churches of the New Testament which were founded by the Christ, did you venerate the bread of the Lord's Supper.BTW, "The Lord's Supper" is what they called it because that's what our Lord NAMED it.Then your popes and your "church fathers" came alone and began to venerate the bread so much that it became "worship." Jesus did not originate the Lord's Supper so that you would worship the stupid bread. He refered to Himself as the "bread" only FIGURATIVELY--NOT LITERALLY!!!!! HOW DUMB CAN YOUR POPES GET?Then God raised St. Martin Luther to break the power of these popes who HAD CHANGEDTHE NAME AND THE MEANING:FROM THE LORD'S SUPPER AS A MEMORIAL TO CALVARYTO "THE MASS" AS AN OFFERING THE EUCHARIST TO GOD FOR THE SINS OF MAN.THE POPES HAD PERVERTED CHRISTIANITY AND LUTHER CORRECTED IT

My response: Ouch! Is that what you truly believe or something you picked up in a Jack Chick tract? Wow, OK let me take this one thing at a time. First, Catholics don't "venerate bread" we worship Jesus Christ. The Eucharist is explained by Jesus in scriptures.
Jesus said in John 6:50 "This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” 52 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” 53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me."
Now Jesus is the one who said He IS the 'bread' that came down from Heaven and that those who "feed on" Him have eternal life and abide in Him. There is nothing "stupid" about the Eucharist and I am dearly sorry you feel that way, but perhaps it's because you don't yet understand the teaching and once you do, you will feel differently. I hope so anyway.
I am not aware that Jesus "named it the Lord's Supper" but fail to see the problem with calling it Holy Communion. Many non-Catholic Christians and their churches refer to the Lord's Supper as "Holy Communion", I am guessing you don't belong to one of these groups. Regardless of what you call it, both terms mean the same thing and the action of participating in "the Lord's Supper" or "Holy Communion" is seen in scripture. If you prefer to call it "the Lord's Supper" then by all means do so. I prefer Holy Communion because it is a holy Communion with God, but that's just me I guess. Why get all worked up over something like these two terms for the same thing? Moving on...
Jesus did not refer to himself and I quote you "as the "bread" only FIGURATIVELY". Jesus was specific in his words. He uses the Greek word "trogon" which is a literal word for 'chewing'. This isn't figurative at all but very literal and descriptive. In John 6:66 we see what those who rejected the teaching of the Eucharist did, they walked away and didn't follow Christ anymore because they couldn't believe a literal Eucharist just like you. Had they taken Jesus' teaching as figurative only as you are suggesting those people would not have walked away from Christ. Why walk away from a figurative description? You wouldn't, but if it was literal and you couldn't wrap your mind around it you would walk away and that is what we see in John 6:66. Interestingly, that the number for those who don't believe the Eucharist is also the number given in Revelation for the mark of the Beast.
After Jesus was crucified and came out of the tomb the disciples didn't recognize him until when? When they saw the Eucharist! Luke 24:35 "Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread." They saw Christ in the Eucharist, that is what scripture says. You have free will to accept the Word of God or reject it. It is what it is.
Moving on again...what was next on your list? Oh yeah, "How dumb can your popes get?". Well, I can't personally speak for any Pope but as human beings I'd say we all have our occasionally 'dumb' moments in life wouldn't you? But when a Pope is speaking of the faith and Church teachings he is not "dumb". The Holy Spirit guides the Church in it's teachings and there is nothing "dumb" about the Holy Spirit. Enough of that, I think.
Next you say "God raised St. Martin Luther to break the power of these popes". First, I don't know of any one declaring Martin Luther a "saint"- not even his own Lutheran Church, so I guess I can't say much more about that. (Perhaps a Lutheran will comment on that). And the only "power" any Pope has is what Christ gave them and you can find that in scripture. (Mt.16:19, Mt.18:18, Mk.16:17-18, John 20:23 etc.). Luke 9:1 "When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out demons and to cure diseases,".
Hope I answered all of your misconceptions about the Catholic faith and what is really said in scripture about each of these matters to your satisfaction. And I really hope one day you have a better view of the Catholic Church and it's teachings.

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