I've already addressed that. Once an item is paid for, it's paid for. I don't have to keep showing it to the cashier over and over and over again.
Do you think “the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world” is making the same sacrifice as that of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God?
The Lamb is Christ.
He is not making a sacrifice over and over again.
If we can impress upon you one thing is this:
The sacrifice was made at Calvary.
Hebrews calls it a one time sacrifice.
Jesus's last words were tetelestai...it has been finished.
The implication in the Greek means something that happened in the past has impact going forward. This is for tetelestai.
In the passages we've been quoting from Hebrews, most of the verbs are in the aorist tense. It usually describes an undefined action that normally occurs in the past.
So when Roman Catholics say it's an ongoing sacrifice, this is why I disagree.
The actual sacrifice was done around 33 AD. The impact of the sacrifice is still being felt in 2019 and will continue to be for eternity.
IT. IS. NOT. REPEATED. NOR. REPRESENTED.
This is why the Scriptures say, "do this in REMEMBRANCE of Me".
I'll try to give a more detailed exegesis later this weekend.
It's an inapt analogy. There is no element which is comparable.
First: the Catholic Church rejects the idea that the sacrificial death of Jesus happens over and over and over again. That idea is excluded from the get-go.
Second, neither does the "bill" have to be paid over and over again, and we don't have to keep showing the "receipt" to the "cashier" over and over again. (Repellent commercial-transaction image., BTW. Almost incomprehensibly far from a true Catholic understanding.)
Even if this "show me the receipt" playacting were a true description of *something,* it would not be a description of the Divine Liturgy. It would apply more nearly to a Protestant "Lord's Supper," where it's acknowleged that nothing is actually happening, but we'll still do a re-enactor thing regardless, though this accomplishes not one thing.
I do not claim to be an expert in your religion, as you claim to be an expert in mine. But at least at the Lord's Supper services I have attended in Protestant churches, there is no element there of Earth and Heaven rejoicing together because of the mighty thing God has done, with men and angels singing of the most profound act of Love that ever happened in the history of the Universe.
I am not putting down Protestants and their Lord's Suppers for that reason. They showed themselves reverent and respectful. And I remain respectful as well. But a Divine Liturgy, where Angels and archangels and the entire angelic host rejoice with us and heaven touches earth --- is not what the Protestant Lord's Supper is--- nor is it claimed to be.
So that's why the analogy fails.
" The Lamb is Christ.
He is not making a sacrifice over and over again.
If we can impress upon you one thing is this:
The sacrifice was made at Calvary.
Hebrews calls it a one time sacrifice.
Jesus's last words were tetelestai...it has been finished.
OK! You convinced me! I now agree with all that!
Seriously, and --- as we FReepers say, seriesly ---I agreed with all that before you even put it on my screen. It's good Catholic doctrine. You can find it in the Bible and in the Catechism which faithfully reflects the same.
Christ's death is over. It is finished. It was a one-time thing. It happened in ca. 30-33 AD on a hill called in Hebrew "Skull Place," directly outside the Old City Wall in Jerusalem. He's not dying anymore, folks. He has overcome sin and death, and death has no more dominion over Him --- as I will never tire of saying.
What you haven't dealt with, though, is that this has a time/space bound aspect --- it happened at one identifiable, historic time and one identifiable, geographic place, and no, Jesus will not bleed out on a cross and have his heart gashed open by a lance, ever again. Amen.
What you're not dealing with, though, is the aspect that transcends earthly time and place. We have this is the Biblical testimony, that: