[quote:llvek3mh]Ron wrote:By the way, transubstantiation wasn’t proclaimed until the year 1215 by Pope Innocent III – again a tradition of man, not the Word of God [/quote:llvek3mh]

Ron writes lots of things that he has been told by his anti-catholic sources, the problem with his sources is they isolate concepts and ideas out of context from history and in an attempt to mislead people.

Many words not found in the Bible (such as the Trinity) where “coined” or defined by the Catholic Church after the time of the Apostles because of people who challanged or denied what the Church had always held to be true. When Monophosites and Arians began spreading their heretical teachings the Church met in Councils to discuss, debate and settle the issues. We know from the New Testament that this occured in Jerusalem where the Apostles met to discuss and debate the issue of admitting Pagans directly into the Church or if they should first convert to Judaism before entering the Church. At Jerusalem, the Apostles met, they argued their case, both with each other and with Peter and prayed for guidance from the Holy Ghost. When the time came for a decision, Peter stood up, and made the pronouncement as to what they Church (under the guidance of the Holy Ghost) would do regarding the issue.

Just as in the Council of Jerusalem. sucsessive Councils of Bishops, Archbishops, Cardinals have acted as counil to the successors of Peter and studied the issues, and after looking into what has always been held everywhere, arguing the facts, and much prayer come to conclusions which is presented by the council to the Pope, who can confirms the decision of the Council and settle the issue. When people started teaching in error about the nature and essence of the Blessed Sacrament, and issues developed where people strayed from the correct teaching, the issues needed to be defined, clarified and resolved. The fact is that until that time there was no major need for defining the issue, as all Christans believed the same thing as the Pope would now have to define because of the errors that had begun to be spread around that time. So it was not as Ron and his minions would have us believe that the pope invented or proposed something new, but rather that he and the Church stood up and defined what the Church had always believed. If a new term was coined to express what had always been taught and believed, (just as the term Trinity had been coined to express and define what was always believed by Christians prior to the Heretical teachings that where being addressed) this is no more a new teaching or invention as it is a clarification.

Liturgically we see this happening in two places. In the Creed, which is professed at the Mass, and at the Last Gospel, (John 1) (after the Arian heresy and until around 1970) the custom was to genuflect at the words “Et homo factus est” and “Et Verbo caro factum est” (“and He was made man,” and, “and the Word was made flesh”) the origin of these practices was so the priest who was offering the Mass and the people show in an external way their belief in the hypostatic union, or that Jesus is True God and True Man. Protestants may say it was an invention of the Catholic Church, when in fact is was simply a way of expressing the truths that had been held from the beginning of the Church, and the new custom was introduced to counter an error that had occured.