Essential Truths of the Christian Faith

The word inspirationalso calls attention to the process by which the Holy Spirit superintendedthe production of Scripture. The Holy Spirit guided the human authors so that their words would be nothing less than the word of God.

Although Scripture came to us from the pens of human authors, the ultimatesource of Scripture is God.

More important than the controversy surrounding transubstantiation was the issue concerning the human nature of Jesus. Body and blood belong to the humanity of Jesus, not to His deity. Since the Mass is celebrated in different parts of the world at the same time, the question is, how can the human nature of Jesus (body and blood) be at more than one place at the same time? The power to be omnipresent, of being equally present everywhere, is an attribute of deity, not humanity. For the human nature of Jesus to be spread over the world would require the deification of the human nature. Both Luther and Roman Catholics taught that the divine nature of Christ (which does have the attribute of omnipresence) communicates this power to the human nature so that the human nature, though normally localized, can be present at more than one place at the same time.

But to Calvin and others, this idea of the communication of divine attributes to the human nature was seen as a violation of the Council of Chalcedon (a.d. 451), which affirmed that the two natures of Christ, human and divine, are united in such a way as to be without mixture, confusion, separation, or division, each nature retaining its own attributes.So for Calvin and most of the Reformers, transubstantiation manifested a form of this heresy.

This is the miracle of transubstantiation. The elements of bread and wine change into the substance of the body and blood of Christ. Meanwhile, the accidents of bread and wine remain. Therefore, in the Mass we have the substance of the body and blood of Christ without the accidents of body and blood, and the accidents of bread and wine without the substance of bread and wine.

Roman Catholic church teaches the doctrine of transubstantiation. Transubstantiationmeans that during the Mass a miracle takes place by which the substance of the ordinary elements of bread and wine changes into the substance of the body and blood of Christ. To the human senses the bread and wine exhibit no perceivable change. But Roman Catholics believe that although the elements still look like bread and wine, taste like bread and wine, smell like bread and wine, etc., they become the actual flesh and blood of Christ.

There is no more solemn or sacred moment in the life of the church than the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. It is called Holy Communion because during this meal a special meeting takes place between Jesus and His people. At that moment Jesus is present with us in a unique way.

The Roman Catholic church teaches the doctrine of transubstantiation. Transubstantiationmeans that during the Mass a miracle takes place by which the substance of the ordinary elements of bread and wine changes into the substance of the body and blood of Christ.

When we meet Him at the Lord’s Supper we commune with Him. By meeting us in His divine presence, we are brought into His human presence mystically, because His divine nature is never separated from His human nature. The divine nature leads us to the ascended Christ, and in the Lord’s Supper we have a taste of heaven.

What is noteworthy about this reference is that it assumes infant baptism to be the universal practice of the church. If infant baptism were not the practice of the first-century church, how and why did this departure from orthodoxy happen so fast and so pervasively? Not only was the spread rapid and universal, the extant literature from that time does not reflect any controversy concerning the issue.