ORR MINISTRIES

CATHOLICISM

SAVED TO THE UTTERMOST!!

THE MASS & EUCHARIST

"For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily like those high priests to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. Because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak but the word of the oath which came after the Law appoints a Son made perfect forever."

Welcome

Verse 26 tells us He does not need to suffer repeatedly. Hebrews 10:10 continues this theme further:

He came, He made one sacrifice which perfected forever them that are sanctified. Jesus made one offering for all, never to be repeated, in contrast to priests repeating over and over and over sacrifices which can never take away sin. There's only one sacrifice made one time by one person that can take away sin. It is that sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then He allowed the Romans to destroy the temple in 70 AD, putting an end to the sacrificial system. By destroying the altars, smashing the entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament, and all the records of all the genealogies of all those in the priestly line, He put an end permanently to the priesthood. There are no more sacrifices. There are no more altars. And there are no more priests as a special order to offer sacrifices.

A missionary, witnessing to a Catholic priest, got a response that best summarizes the problem. "Through the course of the conversation, I asked him the hypothetical question: “If you were to die right now and appear before God and He asked you why He should let you into heaven, what would you say?” His answer was very eye-opening, yet very sad. He was humble enough to recognize that he was a sinner before a holy God and that he didn’t deserve to go to heaven. So far so good. But his next answer was very shocking (but not really too surprising to me, having been educated in Roman Catholic doctrine). He said he believed in purgatory, and that he would have to spend some time there being purged of his sins. He hoped that through the offerings of the mass, the prayers of the saints, and the performing of the sacraments, that God would grant his grace on him and allow him into heaven!?! There was no confidence in his voice or answer that he was certain God would give him eternal life in heaven. There was no mention of faith in Christ to get him in, except for a vague reference to the mass. I told him that I too was a sinner and did not deserve to go to heaven myself. However, I was confident that God would let me in, not because of any goodness on my part, but because of God’s promises in the Bible of forgiveness, justification, and redemption through faith in Christ as Savior, that His sacrifice completely paid for all of my sins. I stated this in several different ways and tried to make the gospel as clear as possible. Afterward the priest just kind of nodded his head as to acknowledge my answer, but didn’t really seem to know what to make of it." This priest has no assurance of salvation. And, neither does anyone who holds to the teachings contained in the Mass/Eucharist.

Salvation does not rest in ones participation in the Mass. One does not need a priest to intercede in their behalf. One’s salvation does not rest in the endless stream of rituals and demagoguery. One gains salvation by putting their trust in Christ's finished work on the cross. There He paid the penalty for our sins, and there we find eternal salvation, complete and full. On the Cross Jesus paid for our sins in full, period.For a more detailed study on this subject, read the linked documents by John MacArthur: Explaining the Heresy of the Catholic Mass.

"For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, that is some earthly temple, some earthly sanctuary, some earthly altar, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us, nor was it that He would offer Himself often as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world, but now...here's that word again...once at the consummation of the ages...that is, the culminating point of the ages, the very event of His own death and resurrection...once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await Him."

This is at the core of the Roman Catholic religion’s teaching. Millions upon millions of individuals around the world have been taught that observance of the Mass - Eucharist is an essential part of their hope for any salvation, yet are never given the assurance. It produces a lifelong stream of works, of which the Scriptures worn over and over again will provide no-one salvation. This teaching is instituted in an attempt to keep people in the religion, thereby guaranteeing its survival. However, the Bible is clear on the salvation issue - salvation is by grace through faith alone. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Salvation is completely by grace, not by anything we do or don't do.

To begin with, in laying the groundwork, I want to discuss the nature of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In Hebrews chapter 7, verses 26 thru 28, we find the following passage:

"By this will...(that is the will of God...which Jesus came to do as it says in the prior verse 9), by this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." (Sanctified meaning separated from sin in a saving sense, as well as an ongoing sense.)"And it was accomplished through the offering of Jesus Christ, the offering of His body, once. Every priest in contrast...(verse 11)...stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins, but He having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God."

John MacArthur accurately states, "Any sacrifices being made today are unbiblical and unable to accomplish anything. Any priests today are false claimants to a special priesthood, a special order of priests since now we are all priests. We are a royal priesthood, all believers. We need no mediator, we all have immediate access to God. We need to make no sacrifices because there is no temple, there are no altars, there are no sacrifices and we are not in need of any priests."

John again states, "They have reestablished what God Himself destroyed. And it is a variation of the Levitical priesthood, it is an illegitimate variation of that priesthood. I say variation because it is mingled with cultic pagan mystery and idolatry. The Mass is a sacrifice which can be made only on an altar of some kind and only by a priest."