Why the Mass is Idolatry

Part Two

Read Part 1

by John Knox 1550
Precised by Colin Melbourne into contemporary English from; Selected Writings of John Knox: Public Epistles, Treatises and Expositions to the year 1559
© 01-08 Born-Again-Christian.Info

All Service or Honouring of God Done With an Evil Intent or Purpose is an Abomination

The Mass is performed with evil purpose and is therefore an abomination.

It is not enough to offer the right sacrifice to God, it must also be done with right intent and purpose or it is detestable to Him.

As in Isaiah 1:13-14;

Stop bringing me meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations,
I cannot bear your evil assemblies.
Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates.

They did the specified things, but their attitude was wrong.

And Amos 5:21-23;

I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

Why did God reject the offerings and procedures that He had instituted? Because as Isaiah 66:3 says;

They have chosen their own ways and their souls delight in their abominations.

Note these sacrifices were not the invention of man, but the command of God, yet their performance was done with an intent and attitude that made them abominable to God. What was the evil attitude? It was that in the outward work of fulfilling God's command they could purchase favour with God and pay for their sins by these sacrifices.

They missed the vital truth that these sacrifices were a foreshadowing of the only sacrifice God accepts for sin, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. The Lord in His forbearance, forgave sins committed under the Old Covenant, knowing their full payment would be met only under the New Covenant.

The intent of the people was wicked because they truly believed their sins to have been remitted by virtue of their sacrifice. A payment for their guilt, not reliant upon God's mercy and His Sacrifice. So they sinned, bought sacrifices, offered them as prescribed, thought they were absolved, then continued to sin, and repeat the sequence.

But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, "We are safe" safe to do all these detestable things? Jer.7:8-10

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Is. 55:2

Their false prophets taught them to cry; "Peace, peace!" But they had no peace in their consciences. (Jer. 6:14, 8:11) Micah 6:6-7 plainly teaches us that no outward work, no matter how perfect, will cleanse from sin and give us peace.

With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

So an evil intent added to what God commands is abomination to God. Idolatry is not only to worship something that is not God, but also to trust or depend upon something that is not God, and is therefore insufficient.

That is why Paul calls covetousness, idolatry, because then confidence is in riches, not God. How much more idolatrous then it is for people to offer sacrifices to pay for their sins.

The Mass is Performed with Evil Intent and Purpose

Is the intent and purpose of the Mass evil?

Catholic law declares, also the words of the Mass proclaim, and participants understand, that the purpose of the Mass is to make sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead. And that in performing it, these sins are remitted by God following the priest's actions.

The words of the prophets in the previous section confirm the Mass to be abomination because they show that remission of sins comes only by the mercy of God without any deserving or work on our part. As Isaiah wrote in Is. 43:25;

I am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remember your sins no more.

Do long Catholic traditions, or multitudes of popes, cardinals and priests nullify the clear evidence of God's Word, and sanctify idolatry? Of course not!

In the Roman Catholic Mass, who offers the sacrifice, and what is it? "The priest offers Jesus Christ to the Father." They reply. Then I ask, "Can a man offer God anything more precious than Himself?" Paul thinks not for he says in Ro.12:1;

Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.

Likewise, Jesus had nothing more precious to offer than Himself. If Paul was aware of another sacrifice we should make more acceptable to God, than the putting to death of our sinful natures by faith in Christ, would he not have told us?

Jesus offered Himself a Sacrifice to God for us, and to claim any mortal man may offer Christ again is blatant pride.

God declares; By one sacrifice he (Jesus) has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. Heb.10:14

In Heb. 10:18 God states, And where these (sins) have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.

It is plain enough... there's no need of any further sacrifice for our sin. God says so.

Catholics may claim this means no more need for the Levitical sacrifices, but God denies this:

No longer any sacrifice for sin.

Jesus endorsed this Gospel fact in His dying words on the Cross;

It is finished! Jn.19:30

Meaning, whatever is required by the Father for reconciling man to God is completely finished, paid for, and no more sacrifice is needed for sin.

"Listen Catholics! Two witnesses speak against your Mass that you falsely and vainly claim is a sacrifice for sins. The Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ together affirm that the death of Christ is sufficient, and no more is needed.

What do you say?

Answer! Repent or be condemned.

Sometimes they plead it is not another sacrifice, but the same one repeated and renewed. But this the Holy Spirit proves false by stating not only that there's no other sacrifice for sin, but that the one Sacrifice (Christ) who was offered once and for all, and may never be offered again.

When this priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Heb.10:12

If it were to be offered again, it would show it was no better than the blood of bulls and goats offered under the Law. The Levitical priests were mortal, and needed successors to continually offer blood sacrifices. Our High Priest, Christ, is eternal and needs no successor. Levitical priests needed to repeat their sacrifices because they could not remove sins, but the sacrifice of Christ is perfect, and needs no repeating. To claim that it needs be, is a blasphemy, implying imperfection of the Saviour and His finished work of redemption.

Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, that came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever. Heb. 7:27-28

What could be plainer? The Holy Spirit confirms that Christ need never be offered again.

Some say, 'It does no harm to offer Christ again. But the text is clear, that only Christ can offer Himself, and that Sacrifice is sufficient, and never needs offering again.

Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Heb. 9:25-26

"Ah, but men sin every day, so sacrifice must be offered daily." Is the papist's plea. Not so!

Because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. Heb. 10:14

His death is the only and sufficient sacrifice required to make any believer perfect forever. That is God's opinion. To contradict this is blasphemy.

God plainly speaks against the Mass, declaring that there is no other sacrifice for sin other than Christ's death, and that nobody can offer Him, nor may He offer Himself any more.

In excuse, Rome claims that the Mass is a memorial sacrifice, offering Christ again to the Father. What? Has God forgotten that He gave His own Son to pay for your sins, such that you need to remind Him?

Consider how Satan has blinded you Catholics. You clearly lie and do not see it. You blaspheme God's own word, and refuse to repent. You cry, "Come, come to the Mass, buy with money and possessions remission of your sins. We will offer Christ to the Father as an acceptable sacrifice for your sins."

This is the Catholic Church's teaching, and it is utter blasphemy and abomination before God.

So decide for yourself if the purpose and intent of the Mass is not vain, false and deceitful. Priests caused you to believe, dear Catholics, that it was a sacrifice by which you obtain remission of sins. But now you can clearly see that there never was, nor ever need be any other sacrifice for sin but the death and blood of Jesus Christ. The sacrifices of the Levitical Law were mere figures of the true sacrifice of Christ, and they did not remit or purge sin in any way.

The Blood of Christ once offered, remains forever for the cleansing of sins, and so there remains no sacrifice in the Mass

So what will you do Catholic priests? There is no sacrifice still to be offered for sin. That which you perform being blasphemy and idolatrous. For when God's own Word is the final authority, you can never resolve these arguments.

Further Points

If, as the Catholics claim, the Mass is a sacrifice for sin, in which they offer Jesus Christ to God, then what follows from this reasoning?

If Christ be offered in sacrifice, He must be killed again. If alive, there is no sacrifice. For remission of sins, the Scriptures plainly teach that Christ had to suffer, shed His blood, and die. So each time a priest performs the Mass, he must therefore be slaying Jesus Christ again. It is useless to say that you do not mean to harm Christ. The doctrine of the Mass necessitates this repeated slaughter of the Messiah, when God's Word says He can die no more. (See Heb. 7:25, 9:27-28, 10:14)

Be not alarmed dear Catholics, for no man has the power to slay Christ, death can never prevail over the resurrected Lord of Glory. But you have been deceived by the priests. Let not your eternal destiny hang on the opinion of man, but trust only in the eternal Word of God. Repent and embrace the true Gospel!

The Mass is Not the Lord's Supper

Do not confuse the Mass with the Lord's Supper, they are in express conflict. The Mass being blasphemy against the death of Christ.

First; The Lord's Supper was instituted to be a perpetual reminder of the benefits of Christ's death to believers.

Second; Only by God's mercy and goodness in offering His Perfect Son in our place have we been redeemed. Which the Lord's Supper reminds us of, and causes us to love Him who first so loved us.

In contrast, the Mass is instituted to be the actual sacrifice for sins of adherents. By the ritual of man, they claim God is bound to remit our sins, and give us whatever we ask. Masses being performed for all manner of favours. For peace in war-time, rain in drought, even to cure ailments of farm stock. Such perversity, vain priests!

The Lord's Supper is the gift of Jesus Christ to remind us of His death until He returns, and the riches of God's loving mercy to us who despised Him so. In contrast, the Mass is a sacrifice that we offer to God, so that God will love and help us.

The Mass is blasphemous in that it makes Christ's work imperfect and unfinished unless made perfect and finished by the Mass finally purging sins. How this disgraces the Lord Jesus Christ who made perfect sacrifice for sins once and for all. (See Heb. 7:25, 9:28, 10:10-14)

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Heb. 10:11-12

Finally, in the Lord's Supper we recognize our eternal debt to God, and know that we can never repay for His infinite blessings. But in the Mass, we make God the debtor, obliging Him to grant our requests of forgiveness of sins by the performance of the diabolical invention.

In the Lord's Supper there's no difference between the minister and the congregation, all sit at the same table, no pre-eminence of rank. But in the Mass, the 'priests' gather at one altar with no Scriptural basis. They wear special clothes, ornaments, and even have shaven heads [(in Knox's day, priest's heads were shaved. Ed] of which no mention is made in the Scriptures.

Consider also, in the Lord's Supper, we offer thanks for the benefits we receive from God. In the Mass, the priest compels God to grant all that the priest asks of Him, on the basis of the sacrifice offered, implying God should thank the priest!

In the Lord's Supper, participants claim themselves redeemed only by Christ's blood, once offered. In the Mass, the priest claims to make a sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead.

Conclusion

The Mass in its greatest purity is nothing but the invention and creation of man, set up to honour God without any authority of God's Word, and so it is idolatry. To it is added an evil purpose and intent, which is, that by it remission of sins is obtained. Therefore it is an abomination before God. It is contrary to the Lord's Supper, distorting the sole purpose of the Lord's Supper, which is, remembrance of Christ's death and finished sacrifice once and for all. Therefore it is blasphemous to Christ's death.

Notice, I have not even mentioned the wickedness of buying and selling of the Mass by priests, but only of it in its 'purest' form as said by Pope Gregory.

I declare before God, and you, that I have recorded these facts plainly, not for personal gain, nor honour, nor malice or hatred of any person, but I act only out of obedience to God, proclaiming His Word in love for all men, so that they may be saved. For I know the Catholic Mass to be so abominable to God, that unless you stop partaking in it, you cannot obtain eternal life. I implore you to flee from such idolatry, and escape God's wrath.

My dear friends, flee from idolatry! 1 Co.10:14