---

---

Explaining the mass to a Protestant

by Greg Krehbiel on 26 March 2005

This is supposed to be a rather quick and easy review of the mass for an Evangelical. I believe this is the end of the series, unless some other issues come up. Here’s a basic summary of the topics covered, with links to the MP3 files.

Part 1 — Approaching the church. Why do Catholic churches look the way they do? Why do they have statues and stained glass and all that paraphernalia?

Part 2 — Inside the church. What’s that “holy water” thing? Why all the art? What are the stations of the cross? Why are there candles in front of the statue of Mary?

Part 3 — The start of the mass. Why’s everybody kneeling? What’s with the funny gestures? And why do we invoke Mary in the confession of sin?

Part 4 — The Bible in the church. Why do Catholic Bibles have those extra books?

Part 5 — the sacrifice of the mass. I briefly touch on Real Presence, but spend most of my time on the Evangelical objection that the sacrifice of the mass downplays the significance of Christ’s “once for all” sacrifice on Calvary.

Part 6 — wrapping up. I speak briefly about why missing mass is a mortal sin, what “mortal sin” means, why Catholics have priests if all Christians are priests, and why the mass is so repetitive.

I don’t pretend to be able to explain the mass to Catholics, who know it better than I do. Of course I’m happy if Catholics get anything out of these talks, but what I’m really trying to do here is explain all those wacky Catholic beliefs and practices from an Evangelical perspective in a way that Evangelicals can understand. So if you know any Protestants who might be interested in hearing any of this, please forward the links. I hope the messages are instructional and not confrontational or threatening in any way.

Other notes and audio files on related topics are availble on this page.

2005-03-26  »  Greg Krehbiel