Transubstantiation before Constantine. Some Protestants here have suggested that the Roman Emperor Constantine invented Roman Catholicism. I have countered that it is easy to show that before Constantine the Church believed and taught Catholic doctrines, not Protestantism. Ive challenged Protestants here to tell me what date they think Constantine founded Catholicism, but they run from that question. Ive asked them to show me Protestantism before the Reformation and the best they could come up with was heretical sects like the Cathars, who clearly did not hold Protestant viewpoints. When asked to affirm the Cathars doctrines as Protestant (such as the endura, the promotion of suicide for the healthy and the forced euthenasia of babies and elderly) they evaded the question. So we will assume that Protestants cannot find evidence of Protestantism prior to the Reformation, as I suggested. That debate is lost by them. Moving on, then, I will show from historical texts that the primitive Church prior to Constantine held Catholic doctrines. Since no Protestant will give me a date I found this on the web: The Roman Emperor Constantine established himself as the head of the church around 313 A.D., which made this new Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. O.K. So we will take 313 A.D. as the date when they think Catholicism was founded. All I need to do is find proof of Catholic doctrines prior to this date to refute them and prove that Catholicism was the religion of the primitive Church. I will repeat this challenge with several key doctrines. Transubstantiation. This is the Catholic dogma that the bread and wine given at Communion become the body and blood of Jesus Christ when they are blessed. I don’t think anyone questions that the Bible came before Constantine. John 6:55 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Mark 14:22 And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” Note, he said this IS my body. Not this symbolizes my body. 1 Corinthians 11 27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. Now to other historical texts prior to 313 A.D.: “I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible” (Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans 7:3 [A.D. 110]). “We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [i.e., has received baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus” Justin Martyr,First Apology,66(A.D. 110-165),in ANF,I:185 He acknowledged the cup (which is a part of the creation) as his own blood,from which he bedews our blood; and the bread (also a part of creation) he affirmed to be his own body,from which he gives increase to our bodies. Irenaeus,Against Heresies,V:2,2(c.A.D. 200),in NE,119 For the blood of the grape--that is, the Word--desired to be mixed with water, as His blood is mingled with salvation. And the blood of the Lord is twofold. For there is the blood of His flesh, by which we are redeemed from corruption; and the spiritual, that by which we are anointed. And to drink the blood of Jesus, is to become partaker of the Lords immortality; the Spirit being the energetic principle of the Word, as blood is of flesh. Accordingly, as wine is blended with water, so is the Spirit with man. And the one, the mixture of wine and water, nourishes to faith; while the other, the Spirit, conducts to immortality. And the mixture of both--of the water and of the Word--is called Eucharist, renowned and glorious grace; and they who by faith partake of it are sanctified both in body and soul. Clement of Alexandria,The Instructor,2(ante A.D. 202),in ANF,II:242 There is your evidence, Protestants. If Constantine invented these doctrines they should not have existed prior to his invention. Here is proof that the Catholic dogma is that of the early Church and not that of Protestantism.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 15:57:10 +0000