I was a Roman Catholic all my life. I think God has led me to become a Protestant and Presbyterian. What started as a study on the Protestant Reformation has led to a conversion to Protestantism for me.
There is a major difference in the Lords Supper btween Presbyterian Reformed Protestant doctrine and the Roman catholic teaching on the Lords Supper.
I began doing an extensive study of the Protestant Reformation from the perspective of Protestant writers and Theologians. I centered a lot on the reformers Luther, Calvin and Knox. I studied Luther's Doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone and I began concentrating on the Reformed Theology of Calvin and Knox. I then read the Westminster Confession of Faith and the short and long catechisms of the Presbyterian Church. I started to attend services a 3 different Presbyterian churches a few months back. Recently I have joined 2 of them in the Lords Supper. I now believe in the Presbyterian reformed teaching of The Lord's Supper. That it was instituted by Jesus the same night he was betrayed, to be only a symbolic remembrance of the sacrifice of himself in his death and for our spiritual nourishment, and growth in him, and as a bond and pledge of our communion with him, and with each other. I submit and believe as a Protestant and a Presbyterian that there are only 2 sacraments, Baptism and the Lords Supper, not 7 as I was taught in the Roman Catholic Church. I use to believe as a Roman Catholic that the bread and wine became the body and blood of Christ at the mass. They call that Transubstantiation. It is a Roman Catholic doctrine, which maintains a change of the substance of bread and wine, into the substance of Christ's body and blood, commonly called transubstantiation, by consecration of a priest. I now renounce that belief and I now believe it is repugnant not to Scripture but even to common sense and reason. It destroys the true nature of the ordinance or sacrament of the Lords Supper. I now am able to see the notion and teaching of Transubstantiation, the bread and wine becoming the body and blood of Christ is ludicrous and a denial of Christ dying for all our sins. Now that I have understood the Protestant doctrine of Justification I also can see the apostasy and blasphemy of the Roman Catholic Eucharist and the mass. The adoration of a "bread wafer in a monstrance is in itself idolatry. I now believe as a Protestant that the Mass is the greatest possible blasphemy of the once for all; all sufficient, all atoning, all completed blood shedding of Christ on the Cross. The teaching of Transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the Mass I now believe is an abomination. I renounce the practice of both, as did Calvin and many other reformers.
I started the project to discover and know myself better as a Christian. As a Christian my life faith journey was Roman Catholic and catholic school educated. I was a history major in college and my study of the reformation and the reformers was generally more from the Roman Catholic perspective. I have now studied the Council of Trent from the perspective of conservative mainstream Protestant writers and I am now seeing a view of that council as a knee jerk reaction to the Reformation and the authority of Rome. I am now studying the theology of the Presbyterian Church. I also began reading the theological perspective of the way Protestant theologians view Catholicism what I have read has been very eye opening. I realize now I do believe in the Protestant doctrine of faith by Justification. I have decided to become a Presbyterian.
