The Great Reformation of the 16th Century, which we tend to commemorate each 31st October in thankfulness to the Lord, involved reformers making a radical break with the Roman Catholic Church. Lately there’s been a push to “heal the break” and to reunite. A key date in this push for unity was 1994 when a declaration of unity by prominent Evangelicals and Roman Catholics was published as a springboard for further unity. The declaration’s title says it all: Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium. Such unity glosses over the fundamental differences, not least of which is the difference between the Lord’s Supper and the Mass.
In the 16th Century Reformation, reformers broke with the Roman church’s false teachings about continual sacrificing of Christ in the Mass, meritorious sacraments (the idea that using a sacrament contributes to your salvation), prayers to Mary and other saints, purgatory, the pope’s headship of the church and his infallibility, etc. Unlike the reformers who stressed that salvation was through faith in Christ alone the Roman church taught, in effect, that salvation depended on Christ plus our good works. But today, wherein there is so much emphasis on unity, Evangelicals and Roman Catholics are prepared to sacrifice the true doctrine and focus on what unites rather than what divides. They acknowledge there are still differences but don’t want those differences to stand in the way on unity.
Rev. G. Nederveen, in a recent sermon about Holy Supper,[i] said that as more and more churches melt into one, the Reformed community is increasingly becoming isolated from the mainstream, and that brings with it some weighty responsibility. It means that we must know what we believe and why we choose to embrace and live this separate existence. He adds, “it is not so much our choice as God’s compulsion on us to remain true to his Word. Therefore it is good to hear about the difference between the Lord’s Supper and the papal Mass which highlights the difference between the spiritual and physical presence of Christ in the sacrament.”
Although both Roman Catholics and Reformed agree that Christ is present in the sacrament, the burning question, says Rev Nederveen, is: “How is Christ present? Are the bread and the wine changed into the real body and blood of Christ so that he is physically present? Rome teaches that in some miraculous way the bread or wafer changes into the flesh, and the wine changes into the blood of Christ. The priest then kneels before the sacrifice to worship Christ in the bread and wine.” However, we Reformed believers say: “Christ is not physically present, and we do not kneel before a sacrifice; we lift our hearts on high and worship Christ in heaven where he is seated at the right hand of his Father.”
Therefore, while Rome says Christ is bodily present at the Lord’s Supper, we say His presence is spiritual. Rev. Nederveen says, “He is present with his Holy Spirit who is the author of our faith. And it is therefore also quite logical that the Spirit is present at this meal to affirm us in the faith. Through the working of the Holy Spirit who dwells in Christ as the head and in us as his members, Christ is working in us. Through his Spirit, Christ pours out his life-giving blood to wash us clean. Through his Spirit, the Saviour comforts contrite sinners with God’s forgiveness in Christ, or he warns the unrepentant sinner that there is no forgiveness if there is no repentance.”
Moreover, Rome claims that Christ doesn’t cleanse us of all sins. It teaches that dead people are still in their sins and those sins need to be purged away in purgatory, a sort of intermediate state between earth and heaven where we are cleansed and purified before we enter heaven. In other words, for Rome Christ’s sacrifice is incomplete.
Rev P Holtvluwer, in a sermon on Lord’s Days 29 & 30,[ii] illustrates this when he says that Rome calls the Mass a perpetual (ongoing, never ending) sacrifice. Whilst Hebrews 10 says “Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people”, Rome says that the Mass is “the sacrificial memorial in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated …” (Roman catechism, Sect. 1382). In other words, in the Roman Catholic Mass, Christ’s sacrifice continues as one, long, ongoing sacrifice.
Really, what Rome teaches regarding the Mass has similarities with the Old Testament. Rev Holtvluwer says: “In the Old Testament temple system there was a perpetual line of daily sacrifices. It wasn’t one single sacrifice miraculously brought into the present moment, but it was a string of the same sacrifices made daily for the same purpose.” Well, that’s in effect what Mass does too. In both the O.T. and the Mass you have a series of sacrifices brought day after day, year after year without end.
But Jesus’ death stopped that! Why? Because, says Rev Holtvluwer, “a continual series of sacrifices obviously couldn’t accomplish anything, otherwise they would have stopped being offered! The very ceasing of the sacrificing is critical to securing the forgiveness of sins, critical to making perfect those who draw near to God.” Hebrews 10 makes this clear when it says, “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God . . .” (vs. 11,12). Rev. Holtvluwer says: “Over against the perpetual offering of sacrifices in the temple stands the one sacrifice of Jesus. It is not an ongoing sacrifice! The author of Hebrews stresses this: Christ offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, and then he went on to sit at the right hand of God. Jesus is not on the cross anymore! He’s moved on from that completed task to now reign as king at the Father’s right hand! Jesus’ death on the cross really, truly is one and done!”
An accursed idolatry
The Heidelberg Catechism calls the Roman mass an “accursed idolatry”. Some reformed churches have deleted this from the Heidelberg Catechism, finding it offensive. Yet the statement is true. As Rev Holtvluwer says: “Since the Roman Catholic church teaches that Jesus is actually there in the form of bread and wine, they worship the bread and the wine—maybe you’ve seen Roman Catholic believers genuflect (bow their knee) when the bread or wine passes by. That is an act of worship because they think that’s Jesus’ there. This is the same mentality as the Israelites bowing down to the golden calf at Mt. Sinai—they believed Yahweh was present in the calf! And yet God condemned that in the strongest terms. Listen to Peter Kreeft, a Roman Catholic writer who discusses this point: ‘If the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist were not true, this adoration would be the most momentous idolatry: bowing to bread and worshipping wine! And if it is true, then to refuse to adore is equally monstrous.’[iii] You can’t sit on the fence on this one: either worshipping the species of bread and wine is idolatry which is always cursed by God, or it is a demand of the Lord and we all should do it.”
With the mass and other errors Rome takes us down the path of superstition. How much richer we are with the Lord’s Supper! Rev Holtvluwer says: “This sacrament [of Lord’s Supper] is not Jesus making his sacrifice present to us, it is Jesus setting a meal for us to share in the joy of his salvation! It is not perpetuating the crucifixion but it’s declaring the crucified one as having finished his suffering, having gained the victory over sin, and passing on to us all the benefits of that victory! We don’t eat lamb’s meat as if the sacrifice needs to keep on going but we eat bread and drink wine because the Lamb of God no longer needs to be sacrificed! At this table our host is Christ and He is calling us to remember and believe what He accomplished once for all time! And that’s why, brothers and sisters, the Lord’s Supper is truly a meal of celebration—your salvation and mine is an accomplished fact!”
In the search for unity, we may never compromise God’s holy Word. There are serious deviations from Scripture in much Roman Catholic doctrine. What’s so serious about its doctrine of Mass is that it devalues the work of Christ. He is not presented as the complete Saviour that He is. Instead, in the Mass it becomes: Christ plus something we must do to be saved. As if Christ has not already completely paid for our sins! And as the Heidelberg Catechism says, it’s an accursed idolatry; it obligates its adherents to worship bread and wine as the real body and blood of Christ. While Roman Catholics hold to such devious doctrines, believers who wish to be faithful to Scripture would be deceived if they thought that there can be true ecclesiastical unity with Rome without offending Christ our complete Saviour.
[i] Rev. G Nederveen, FRC Mt Nasura, 20 October 2024, in the afternoon church service.
[ii] Rev. P. Holtvluwer, read in FRC Mt Nasura 11th April 2021 Christ’s Supper celebrates an accomplished fact – YouTube
[iii] Cited in Kevin DeYoung, The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism , p. 148.