Posted on 07/23/2016 9:19:23 AM PDT by Salvation
Eucharist in the creed?
Msgr. Charles Pope
Question: The true presence of Christ in the Eucharist is central to our Catholic faith, and many converts say it was essential to their conversion. If this is so, why is the true presence not mentioned at all in the Nicene or Apostles Creeds? Should it not be added at the end where we state things like our belief in the Communion of Saints, the resurrection of the body and so forth? — Jerry Roventini, via email
Answer: There are many things that are not mentioned in the Nicene Creed. There is no mention of the Ten Commandments or grace; neither are we told what books belong to the New Testament or that we should care for the poor, etc. The creed is not a catechism; it is a statement of certain key doctrines that were disputed at the time of its composition in the fourth century.
The creed was composed in response to debates about the divinity of Jesus Christ and the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. While there are a few concluding statements related to ecclesiology and eschatology, the Nicene Creed remains preeminently a statement of faith in the one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The belief in the true presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist was not widely disputed at the time. And to the degree it was, the need to definitively teach on the divinity of Christ was an important foundation in order to establish his true presence in the Eucharist.
In the Sacred Liturgy, many signs and words indicate the Real Presence. The words of the consecration, which are Jesus’ own words, say, “This is my body … my blood.” The priest later says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” There are also signs of the Real Presence in our reverence of kneeling and genuflecting. And, as Communion is distributed, there is the simple creedal declaration and response: “The body of Christ. Amen.” Therefore, in the wider liturgy of the Mass and devotions such as adoration, the Church proclaims her belief in the True Presence.
While it would not intrinsically hurt to add to the Nicene Creed, one might wonder where it would stop. Further, since the creed is shared by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, adding to the ancient creed might harm attempts at unity.
Pope Paul VI wrote a longer “Credo of the People of God” which does speak to the Eucharistic presence, but it is too long to recite at Mass.
There was no controversy about the Eucharist when the Nicene Creed was written in the fourth century!
Monsignor Pope Ping from the OSV column.
“Descended into hell” missing compared to Apostles’ Creed....where in the Bible does it say Jesus went to hell first?
The Symbol of Faith (Creed) suffered one very unfortunate addition (the “Filioque) a millenium ago and Christianity has paid dearly ever since.
What was good enough for the fathers at Nicea is good enough for me.
True. Despite never being practiced by Apostles, Peter warned about false teaching as early as the First Century:
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.
1 Peter 3:18-19?
"There is not even one instance in the life of the NT church of an apostle or pastor being distinctively called a priest, or engaging in a unique sacerdotal function, let alone even officiating at the Lord's supper and offering up the elements as a sacrifice for sins, nor are they ever charged with doing so in the life of the NT church. For instead the primary charge and active function of pastors is that of preaching the word. (Acts 6:4; 2Tim. 4:2; Col. 1:28) And which, unlike the Lord's supper, we are told in Acts and onward (which is interpretive of the gospels), is said to be spiritual "milk," (1Co. 3:22; 1Pt. 1:22) and "meat," (Heb. 5:12-14) and to nourish souls, (1Tim. 4:6) and build them up. (Acts 20:32)Nor is there is any theological discourse on what Catholicism erroneously believes the gospels teach, that of transubstantiation, which certainly Paul (for one) would have majored on as a salvific doctrine. Instead Paul only reiterates the simply words of Christ, "take eat.." which Catholicism construes into a form of endocannibalism, but Paul explains this meal by which they remember/"show/proclaim" the Lord's death for the church by their charitable inclusive sharing of food in this communal meal, treating each other as blood-bought members of the body of Christ, which some were hypocritically not doing by eating independently, even to the full, while ignoring others. (1Co. 11:17-34)
Moreover, rather than being the "source and summit of the Christian faith," "in which our redemption is accomplished," as the central sacrament around which all else in church life revolved, the Lord's supper is only manifestly described in just one epistle to the church (besides the "feast of charity" in Jude 1:12), that of 1 Corinthians. And in which it is the church as the body of Christ that is the focus, not the nature of the elements, and thus they are censored for not actually coming together to eat the Lord's supper, as they failed to effectually recognize other believers as members of the blood-bought body of Christ, by eating independently in what was to be a communal feast and ignoring others, even to the full and to the shame of them that have not. As explained here by the grace of God.
Nowhere is the Lord's supper set forth as a supreme source of spiritual nourishment versus simply communal fellowship with Christ and each others, like as pagans do with their dedicatory feast have fellowship with devils, but which was not by consuming their flesh and blood. (1Co. 10:15-21)
If the mere mention of breaking of bread in Acts is speaking about the Lord's supper then it is simply "breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart," (Acts 2:46) with no priests or even focus on pastoral ritual. Of course, this is only one aspect of Catholicism that is not seen in the life of the NT church in Scripture.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3444900/posts?page=55#55 - post by daniel1212
Christ tells the Good Thief — today you will be with me in Paradise. He wasn’t talking about heaven, because Jesus was the first person into heaven.
He was talking about the waiting place where the good people of the Old Testament were waiting for the Messiah. This has been translated to “He descended into Hell” — the place of the waiting dead who were bound for heaven. It’s the only word that they had then
Thank you.
Beat me to it!
I did get a kick out of this:
“Further, since the creed is shared by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, adding to the ancient creed might harm attempts at unity.”
“Might”, Msgr. Pope?
Indeed.
Msgr. Pope doesn’t want to offend by overcommitting. As the sage Jimmy Buffett says, “Never forget that you just may wind up being wrong.”
here we go. Buckle up.
:)
Jesus taught that where two or more are gathered in His name, there is He in the midst of them. This happens simultaneously all across the globe every day. This is a very good indication that HIS SPIRIT is the Presence of Him in our midst, thus not the physical body, blood that the catholic Mass teaches adherents that they eat at Mass. The real PHYSICAL Body Jesus now occupies does not have blood distributing The Life in HIM.
The Life of the creature is in the blood. The blood is not The Life, it is the carrier of The Life. That is the method God designed for life in the creature. But a day is coming when believers will be transformed, to be as Jesus, not using blood to spread The LIFE throughout their physical bodies.
You need to be blind and a contortionist to believe Roman Catholic theology. Thank you for rightly dividing the Word of Truth!!
Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church on the apostles, the first Bishops.
When was your church founded?
All credit for that post goes to daniel1212. I just copied it from one of his posts and added it to this discussion.
Many thanks to Daniel1212!
Jesus Christ founded his Church in eternity past in the Counsels of God.
Every believer who has entrusted himself to Christ alone for salvation, is part of that eternal church.
Every one is baptized into the Body of Christ at the moment of salvation.
Every one is indwelt by the Holy Spirit as a pledge of the rest of his inheritance at the moment of salvation.
Lift your eyes above and trust HIM alone Salvation!
WWW.thebible.net does a good job of explaining the church's founding from a biblical perspective. The following are excerpts:
Not only is Christ the founder of the church but he is also the foundation of the church. Christ said, "Upon this rock I will build my church" (Matt. 16:18). What was or is the rock on which the church of Christ is established? It is the bed-rock foundation fact that Peter had just acknowledged -- namely, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. In Matthew 16:16 Peter said to Jesus, "Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God." Following this statement Jesus said that upon this rock he would build his church. The rock was not the apostle Peter or any other man; rather it was Christ and his divine relationship to God- the fact that he is God's Son. The apostle Paul makes this abundantly clear when he states, "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:11). Any church built on a name or some special religious doctrine or some form of church government is built on the wrong foundation and will not stand. The church our Lord established is built on him - on the fact that he is God's Son. That is why every person who becomes a member of the church must confess his faith in Christ as the Son of God (Acts 8:37). The church is said to be a spiritual house made up of lively or living stones. Before a person can be placed on Christ the foundation and made a stone in that house he must believe that Jesus is the Son of God (1 Peter 2:5,6).
The church Christ established and which is founded on him was started in the city of Jerusalem on the first day of Pentecost following the resurrection of Christ (Acts 2). The prophets had long predicted the coming kingdom of the Messiah (Isaiah 2:2-4); Daniel 2:44). This kingdom was not a physical kingdom but a spiritual one (John 18:36) and was realized in the founding of the church by Christ.
After his resurrection Christ appeared to his apostles and said, "Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in my name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:46,47). Then in Acts 1:8, just before he ascended back to heaven, Christ said to the apostles, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Observe in this statement that Jesus said the apostles would receive power (power to preach the gospel in all its fullness, resulting in the coming of the kingdom or church) when the Holy Ghost came upon them. In Acts 2:1-4 we find the Holy Ghost coming upon the apostles and their being empowered to preach the gospel in the languages of the people gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost. As a result of the apostles' preaching, people were pricked in their heart and asked what to do to be forgiven of their sins (Acts 2:37). They were instructed, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:38). "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls" (Acts 2:41). Thus, the kingdom or church of our Lord came with power (Mark 9:1). It was established in the city of Jerusalem in the year 33 A.D. by Christ upon the bedrock foundation truth that he is the Son of God. On every occasion thereafter when people heard of Christ, believed in him, repented of their sins, confessed Christ to be the Son of God, and were baptized for the remission of their sins, the Lord added them to his church. "And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved" (Acts 2:47).
It is a great privilege to be a member of the church Christ established and of which he is the foundation. By being a faithful member of that church one can have eternal life in heaven when his life here on earth is over.
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