Question about transubstantiation!!!?

Question

As far as I know, transubstantiation is when a Christian drinks wine during a religious ceremony. The belief is that the wine becomes the blood of Jesus. From my perspective (non-Christian), this seems a little barbaric.

My question: What would you think about another group of people if they tried to drink their savior's blood as part of a ritual?

(I'm not trying to be offensive. I'm just trying to point out that transubstantiation seems strange from an outside perspective.)

Answer 1

Most Christians don't buy transubstantiation. It's pretty much just the Catholics. The rest of us think the communion is a memorial service, a commemoration of the Last Supper.

Answer 2

I am not much of a theologist, but I think you have a couple of things a bit off. As far as I know, only Catholics believe in transubstantiation. I am not sure about Episcopals/Anglicans, their beliefs are very close to Catholicism. Transubstantiation is the belief that during the Mass, the Eucharistic Prayer specifically, bread and wine become the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ. It is not a symbol.

I describe myself as a Catholic and I do not believe that a saltine and some merlot literally become the flesh and blood of a guy dead 2,000 years. Maybe I'll go to hell.

I agree that we Catholics have some strange beliefs. Like praying to saints, too close to idol worship if you ask me. I am all for forgiveness but why do we have to confess to a Priest? Is being sorry not enough? Anyone who says that the Catholic church doesn't treat women as second class citizens is not paying attention.

Answer 3

Transubstantiation is believed by 2/3 of all Christians in the World, but numbers don't prove anything.

Transubstantiation may seem strange from an outside perspective, however once someone understands this better, it becomes less 'strange'. We receive Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist and Jesus feeds us spiritually.

Just like regular food gives us physical energy, the Eucharist gives us Spiritual energy. Jesus tells us that unless we eat His flesh and drink His blood, we have no life (c.f. John 6). This echos back to the Passover in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the Jews had to actually eat a lamb in order to have life (as opposed to Death via the destroying angel). In the New Testament, Jesus is the new Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We must consume this New Lamb (the perfect sacrificial lamb) in order to have life.

We do not consume Jesus in a bloody, cannibalistic manner, but rather in a Sacramental manner using bread and wine. Although we receive Jesus Sacramentally, it doesn't mean he is not actually fully present providing us with grace.

Answer 4

Roman Catholicism believes in transubstantiation. Most all other Protestant faiths do not... They believe it is just a symob of remembrance of the great sacrifice that Christ made for us all. Jesus told his disciples to "Do this in remembrance of me." We are to remember his death. When loved ones die, we remember their deaths by marking the burial place with a stone or bring flowers to their grave, or by talking about them. Jesus wanted us to remember him too. So He asked us to celebrate his life and death in the 'communion service' We are not really eating his flesh or drinking His blood. We are remembering his broken body, and remembering his shed blood. The doctrine of transubstantiation was an added belief that can probably be traced back to the popes....

Answer 5

Another Christian mythological ritual.

Answer 6

The point back then was to be offensive, too. Blood was strictly verboten to first century Jews.

Answer 7

that would be the catholics that believe that and i don't know where they got it. i am a christian and i do not believe that and cannot think of any place in the bible that supports that viewpoint. communion is symbolic. it symbolizes the sacrifice of Christ, his body and blood. but it is only a symbol for our remembrance.