Category Archives: Eucharistic Sacrifice

Priests of the New Temple Sacrifice, part 2

April 5, 2026 Timothy F. Kauffman 3 Comments

“…none shall appear before me empty” (Exodus 23:5)

We continue this week with an examination of the New Testament sacrificial priesthood that is found in the writings of the ancient Church. Let us begin again by acknowledging the aversion Protestants typically have to the idea of “priests” in New Testament worship, an opinion with which we are sympathetic and to which we are equally averse. Nevertheless a “priesthood” is found in almost all the ancient writings, just as we find evidence of an ancient “sacrifice” on an ancient “altar.” In fact, the “bishop” of the ancient church was sometimes called “high priest.” As we suggested last week, let us set aside (for a moment) the objection to having priests, and focus instead on what those priests are found to be offering. Once we discover the substance of the offering, we find an implicitly Protestant liturgy in which the chief objective of corporate worship was to glorify God according to a “pure religion” that worships in spirit and in truth, while caring for the material needs of the widow, the orphan and the stranger (James 1:27). In their new spiritual temple a New Covenant priesthood is found offering spiritual sacrifices (1 Peter 2:5), and in that paradigm, the New Covenant clergy was considered a limited conceptual analog of the ancient Levites, in which the clergy, as well as “the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow” could “come, and shall eat and be satisfied” (Deuteronomy 14:29) from the first fruit offerings of the people. So they cast aside the propitiatory sacrifices of the Old Testament, and offered their praise and the fruit of their labors to the Lord out of gratitude for what He had done for them. And they called these New Covenant sacrifices their Eucharist and prayers.

Continue reading Priests of the New Temple Sacrifice, part 2 →

Altars, Priests

Priests of the New Temple Sacrifice, part 1

March 20, 2026 Timothy F. Kauffman 10 Comments

Harvest — “An odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.” — Philippians 4:18b

Most Protestants, either by conviction or force of habit, have an aversion to priests in New Testament worship. Some ancient writers felt the same way, boasting that such Jewish trappings had been abandoned under the New Covenant. Nevertheless, priests, altars and sacrifices were not altogether missing in the writings of the apostles and descriptions of the ancient liturgy. Just as we have on other occasions encouraged Christians to become familiar with New Testament sacrifices as an apostolic imperative (Philippians 4:18, 1 Peter 2:5), Christians will also do well to understand why some early writers embraced the idea not only of sacrificial altars but also of a sacrificial priesthood, and even “high priests,” to minister at them. Let us set aside (for a moment) the objection to having priests, and focus instead on what those priests were supposed to be offering. Once we do that, instead of finding the later Roman Catholic medieval aberrations, we find an implicitly Protestant liturgy reflecting a desire to live out the new role of Christians as a peculiar, royal priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices in a spiritual temple (1 Peter 2:4-9). Under that construct, ancient Christians celebrated both the end of all propitiatory sacrifices for sin and embraced Malachi’s prophecy of an acceptable well-pleasing sacrifice of New Covenant worship (Malachi 1:10-11), complete with priests, high priests, altars, oblations and, in a figurative sense “incense” to accompany the sacrifices. Continue reading Priests of the New Temple Sacrifice, part 1 →

Liturgy, Transubstantiation

Unleavened Bread Shall Be Eaten

March 9, 2025 Timothy F. Kauffman 22 Comments

“In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.” — Ezekiel 45:21

As we noted in our previous post, Jesus’ Last Supper was a Passover meal of unleavened bread, without a lamb, at evening, at the beginning of the Day of Passover (Nisan 14). The Gospel writers described it as the day “when they killed the passover” (Mark 14:12), the day “when the passover must be killed” (Luke 22:7). They were referring to the 14th of Nisan, the day on which the Law prescribes the Passover lamb to be sacrificed in the afternoon, toward the end of the day (Exodus 12:6). The fact that Jesus’ Last Supper occurred on the day they killed the Passover lamb does not mean that His final meal was a Passover lamb. It only means His last meal took place on that day. In fact, His last meal at the beginning of the day was a supper of unleavened bread as the Law required for that time of day, which is why the Gospel writers called it “the day of unleavened bread” (Mark 14:12; Luke 22:7).
Continue reading Unleavened Bread Shall Be Eaten →

Eucharistic Sacrifice, Transubstantiation

Ye Shall Eat Unleavened Bread

November 11, 2024 Timothy F. Kauffman 23 Comments

The Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke—indicate that Jesus reclined at the table to keep the Passover the evening before He died (Matthew 26:20, Mark 14:17-18; Luke 22:14). But John’s Gospel says the Last Supper occured “before the feast of the passover” (John 13:1). Further, at the time of Jesus’ arrest, John says the Passover still had not yet occurred, for the Jews would not enter Pilate’s hall of judgment, lest they be defiled and be unable to “eat the passover” (John 18:28). Indeed, Jesus’ arrest, trial and execution all occurred before the Passover sacrifice, for when Pilate reminds the Jews of his custom of releasing a prisoner “at the Passover” (John 18:39) it is still early in the morning. An enduring perception of inconsistency between the Synoptic Gospels and the Johannine Gospel has therefore persisted for many centuries, but there is a simple and elegant solution to which the Scriptures plainly attest.

Continue reading Ye Shall Eat Unleavened Bread →

Church Fathers, Church History, Eucharistic Sacrifice

“Tens of Thousands of Pages,” Part 2

May 28, 2023 Timothy F. Kauffman 5 Comments

“…of making many books there is no end…” — Ecclesiastes 12:12

We continue this week with our analysis of the works of Ignatius of Antioch (d. 107 AD). Last week, we assessed the methodology of a typical Roman Catholic apologist who claims to have been “red pilled” into the truth by his writings. Mr. Joshua T. Charles, former White House speech writer, former Protestant and now apologist, reminds his Twitter followers repeatedly that he has read “tens of thousands of pages” of the Early Church Fathers and was surprised to find Roman Catholicism “absolutely everywhere.” As we showed last week, however, Mr. Charles is either highly selective in his reading or highly selective in his use of data—either rejecting that which contradicts his preconceptions, or reinterpreting contrary data as if it supported his position, and in many cases naïvely receptive of data known to be spurious, redacted and fraudulent.

As we noted last week, Mr. Charles claimed that he was surprised to find “profoundly [Roman] Catholic doctrine” in Ignatius’ letters, “point by point.” Of the ten “points” he identified, we will address two today:

1. The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist;

3. Christian worship = the sacrifice of the Eucharist;

Continue reading “Tens of Thousands of Pages,” Part 2 →

Eucharistic Sacrifice

The Collapse of the Eucharist, Part 5

September 20, 2020 Timothy F. Kauffman 13 Comments

“Let us all take up our sacrifices, observing distribution to the poor…” — (Athanasius, *Festal Letter* 45)

With this post, we conclude our series on the creative but unconscionable rewriting of the early liturgies to make them conform to the late-4th century novelty in which Christ is said to be offered to the Father in the Eucharist. From the earliest days of the Church, the Eucharist was a sacrifice of thanks and praise to the Lord, a tithe offering. It was followed by an “Amen” (1 Corinthians 14:16) and then bread and wine from the thank offering were taken and consecrated for the Lord’s Supper. The moment of Consecration originated as a simple recitation of Christ’s words of institution: “This is My body, broken. … This is My blood, shed…”. It later came to be called “the Epiclesis,” literally, the Invocation, the liturgical moment when God—the Spirit, the Son or the Trinity—is asked to make the bread and wine into a spiritual meal for His people. And thus, a very simple liturgy prevailed for three hundred years: A Eucharist. An Amen. An Epiclesis. At the end of the 4th century, the order changed and the Epiclesis was moved before the Eucharist offering, which changed a simple tithe offering for the poor into a sacrifice of consecrated bread and wine. Thus was born the abominable Roman Catholic liturgical sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood. That discontinuity in the history of the liturgy puzzled and confounded scholars, historians, translators and apologists who could not explain why the early liturgy was so fundamentally different from the medieval one. Attempting to establish retroactive continuity, the academic community therefore engaged in a reprehensible campaign to edit, redact, mistranslate and subvert the early liturgies to “correct” the ancient writers and force them into conformity with the late 4th-century novelty. The effect of the historical revision has been to make the ancient Eucharist consecratory, essentially collapsing the ancient Eucharist into the Epiclesis, and thus creating the appearance that the ancient Eucharist offering of the early church was itself the Consecration.

Continue reading The Collapse of the Eucharist, Part 5 →

Eucharistic Sacrifice

The Collapse of the Eucharist, Part 4

August 23, 2020 Timothy F. Kauffman 2 Comments

*“…it is the Eucharist whence the baptized are anointed with the oil sanctified on the altar…” — Cyprian of Carthage, Epistle 69*

As we have noted in this series, from the earliest days of the Church through the end of the 4th century, the Eucharist was a thank offering to the Lord, a tithe, an expression of gratitude for the Lord’s provisions to His people. It was followed by an “Amen” (1 Corinthians 14:16) and then bread and wine were taken from the tithe offering to be consecrated for the Lord’s Supper. That Consecration came to be called “the Epiclesis,” or invocation. And thus, a very simple liturgy prevailed for three hundred years: A Eucharist. An Amen. An Epiclesis. But by the end of the 4th century, the order was changed and the Epiclesis was moved before the Eucharist, turning a simple tithe offering into a sacrifice of consecrated bread and wine. Thus was born the abominable Roman Catholic liturgical sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood, an offering utterly foreign to the Scriptures and the Apostolic Church. That sudden 4th-century shift in the liturgy puzzled and confounded scholars, historians, translators and apologists who could not explain why the early liturgy was so different from the medieval one. So the rewriting of history began, and the academic community participated in a painstaking campaign to establish retroactive continuity. Early liturgies were translated, edited, reinterpreted, mistranslated and even rewritten to “correct” the ancient writers and force them into conformity with the late 4th-century novelty. The effect has been to give the appearance that the ancient Eucharist offering was itself the Consecration, essentially collapsing the Eucharist into the Epiclesis.

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Eucharistic Sacrifice

The Collapse of the Eucharist, Part 3

August 10, 2020 Timothy F. Kauffman 6 Comments

*“And we have a symbol of thanksgiving to God in the bread which we call the Eucharist”* — Origen, *Against Celcus*, Book VIII, 56

As we have noted in this series, for three centuries, the Eucharist—which is to say, the thanksgiving or the tithe offering—was followed by an “Amen” in accordance with 1 Corinthians 14:16, at which point bread and wine were taken from the thank offering and consecrated for the Lord’s Supper. A Eucharist. An Amen. An Epiclesis. But that order changed at the end of the 4th century, and the Eucharist was moved after the Epiclesis so that consecrated bread and wine began to be offered as a liturgical sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood. As a result, the “Amen,” instead of a corporate affirmation of gratitude to God, became an affirmation of the Consecration. The academic community could find no explanation for the shift, and so through creative editing, translation and redaction of the ancient evidence, revised the early liturgies to conform to the later novelty. That editorial revision of history created the false impression that the medieval Roman Catholic liturgical sacrifice of consecrated bread and wine had been handed down from the Apostles.

The mode of the revision was to collapse the early Eucharist into the early Epiclesis, essentially combining two distinct, ancient liturgical events into one. The effect has been to hide the evidence and give the impression that the ancient Eucharistic prayer was actually the Consecration, suggesting that the ancient tithe offering was really a liturgical sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ. It was not.

Continue reading →

Eucharistic Sacrifice

The Collapse of the Eucharist, Part 2

August 1, 2020 Timothy F. Kauffman 758 Comments

*“Likewise, if someone makes an offering of cheese … “*
— *The Eucharistic Anaphora of Hippolytus* (215 A.D.)

We continue now with our series on the liturgical shift that occurred in the latter part of the 4th century, three hundred years after the Apostles. For three centuries, the Eucharist—which is to say, the tithe offering—was followed by an “Amen” in accordance with 1 Corinthians 14:16, at which point bread and wine were taken from the tithe offering and consecrated for the Lord’s Supper. A Eucharist. An Amen. An Epiclesis. What was offered in the Eucharist was simply the unconsecrated first-fruits of the harvest and the grateful prayers of the saints. What was consumed in the Lord’s Supper was consecrated bread and wine. Unconsecrated food was offered as a tithe as a fulfillment of Malachi 1:11 and consecrated food was consumed as a memorial meal, in accordance with the instruction of Christ at His Last Supper. The Apostolic “Amen” separated those two liturgical events. But that order changed at the end of the 4th century, and the Eucharist was moved after the Epiclesis so that consecrated bread and wine began to be offered as a liturgical sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood. The academic community—men of every stripe—were puzzled and confounded by that sudden shift, and instead of acknowledging and discerning its significance, opted instead to bury it. The early liturgies have for centuries been handled in such a way—through editorializing, mistranslation, redaction and suppression—as to collapse the Eucharist into the Epiclesis, essentially combining two distinct liturgical events into one. The effect has been to hide the evidence and give the impression that the ancient Eucharistic prayer was actually the Consecration, suggesting that the ancient tithe offering was really a liturgical sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ. It was not.

Continue reading The Collapse of the Eucharist, Part 2 →

Eucharistic Sacrifice

The Collapse of the Eucharist, Part 1

July 22, 2020 Timothy F. Kauffman 165 Comments

*“And all the meat offering that is baken in the oven … shall be the priest’s that offereth it.” — Leviticus 7:9*

In our previous post, we observed that the Pauline liturgy placed an “Amen” (1 Corinthians 14:16) between the thanksgiving (the Eucharist) and the Consecration (sometimes called the Epiclesis), and that the Scriptures and the ancient liturgies consistently place the Eucharist prior to the Consecration. We also showed that the Eucharist in the early Church consisted of the grateful prayers and the tithe offerings of the Church. These were offered during the Sunday liturgy in imitation of Christ Who gave thanks to His Father at the Last Supper. Those prayers and tithes were understood by the early writers to be the fulfillment of the “incense” and the “pure offering” prophesied by the prophet Malachi (1:11). Only Christians in good standing could participate in that tithe offering, for only in Christ could one bring “the tithes into the storehouse” (Malachi 3:10) with a pure heart and a clear conscience. The unbeliever, the catechumen and the backslider were therefore dismissed from the service at the time of the offertory. The original Sacrifice of Dismissal (oblationem missa) or what eventually came to be known as the Sacrifice of the Mass, therefore, was simply a reference to the tithe offering that occurred immediately after the Dismissal. It did not refer to an offering of consecrated bread and wine.

Continue reading The Collapse of the Eucharist, Part 1 →

Eucharistic Sacrifice

The Apostolic “Amen”

June 27, 2020 Timothy F. Kauffman 143 Comments

The first fruits of the harvest. — *And all … sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.* —Acts 2:44-45

Ironically, one of the most profoundly divisive practices in the history of Christianity is the Lord’s Supper. It separates denominations, one from another, and divides denominations from within. Protestants and Catholics certainly celebrate it differently, Roman Catholics understanding the Supper to be a sacrificial offering of Christ’s body and blood, and Protestants generally, though not universally, understanding it to be a memorial meal rather than a sacrifice. Within the broader classification of Protestants, there are divisions. Anglicans, Lutherans, Baptists and Presbyterians all celebrate it differently, some weekly, others monthly or quarterly. Yet even within denominations there are differences of opinion. Anglicans, for example, historically have been divided on whether the Lord’s Supper, or “the Eucharist”, is a sacrifice or a commemoration.

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2 Thessalonians, Church History, Daniel, Eschatology, Eucharistic Sacrifice, Mariolatry, Revelation

Come Hell or High Water, part 7

June 1, 2017 Timothy F. Kauffman 119 Comments

“And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness…” (Revelation 12:14)

We continue now with our series on Revelation 12, a chapter that is an Exodus narrative in which the Woman is shown fleeing from the error of that proceeds from the mouth of the devil and seeking her place of safety in the wilderness. As we have noted in this series, the Woman of Revelation 12 must have taken her leave sometime between the end of the Diocletianic persecution (313 A.D.) and the rise of Roman Catholicism to the seat of civil power among the fragments of the Roman Empire in the last decade of the 4th century. Continue reading Come Hell or High Water, part 7 →

Eucharistic adoration, Eucharistic Miracles, Eucharistic Sacrifice

The “Protty” Jesus

June 4, 2016 Timothy F. Kauffman 27 Comments

We agree with Mr. Voris when he says that Roman Catholics worship a different god.

The Vortex is a video production of the Roman Catholic ministry called Church Militant, operated by Michael Voris. In his short eight-minute video from May 23, Mr. Voris briefly introduces, and then immediately sets aside, the question of whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God. He does this in order to address what he believes to be a much more pressing question: “Do Protestants and Catholics worship the same Jesus?” His refreshingly honest conclusion is, “Nope,” and such refreshing honesty finds a very welcome reception here at Out of His Mouth. We agree with him. Continue reading The “Protty” Jesus →

Church History, Eucharistic Sacrifice

The ‘Certainty’ of ‘Cumulative Probability’

July 12, 2015 Timothy F. Kauffman 57 Comments

According to Roman Catholicism, Jesus founded His Church upon a cumulative probability of zero. — If Maurice de la Taille is right, then Jesus founded His Church upon a cumulative probability of zero.

Those who have read our recent article, Melito’s Sacrifice, or last year’s Removing Jesus, are by now familiar with the Roman Catholic propensity for moving Jesus’ sacrifice back to Thursday night at the Last Supper. Rome’s sacrifice of the Mass is ostensibly grounded in Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper, and because Roman Catholicism considers the Mass to be a sacrifice, her apologists are ever eager to turn the Last Supper into a sacrifice of Jesus’ body and blood. As we have noted, apologist Art Sippo says “The Last Supper was the real sacrificial offering of Christ for sin” (Catholic Legate, Q&A on the Sacraments), and apologist Scott Hahn says “Jesus’ institution of the Holy Eucharist was nothing less than the sacrifice of the New Covenant Passover” (Scott Hahn, The Bible and the Sacrifice of the Mass, 9:00-9:10).

The Roman Catholic mass sacrifice is essentially meaningless if Rome cannot prove that Jesus actually sacrificed His body and blood on Thursday night. One of the main points in Hahn’s talk on the sacrifice of the Mass was that he did not finally understand this concept until he read the 2nd century work, Peri Pascha, by Melito of Sardis. Yet when one reads Melito’s Peri Pascha, there is simply no reference to a Thursday sacrifice. Every reference to Jesus’ sacrifice in Peri Pascha is a reference to the cross. What we found with Hahn we have found to be typical of Roman apologists—they must first read their beliefs into the Early Church first in order to get the Early Church to reflect their beliefs. Continue reading The ‘Certainty’ of ‘Cumulative Probability’ →

Eucharistic Sacrifice

Melito’s Sacrifice

June 28, 2015 Timothy F. Kauffman 315 Comments

For all of his hand waving, Scott Hahn cannot get Melito of Sardis to move Jesus' sacrifice back to Thursday. — For all of his hand waving, Scott Hahn cannot get Melito of Sardis to move Jesus’ sacrifice back in time to Thursday evening.

One of the more curious implications of the Roman Catholic sacrifice of the Mass is that Jesus actually did not offer Himself as a sacrifice on the cross. Instead, they say, He offered Himself as a sacrifice at the Last Supper. For example, Roman Catholic apologist Art Sippo at the Catholic Legate, explains:

“The Last Supper was the real sacrificial offering of Christ for sin and it certainly was unbloody. Without the Last Supper I defy you to find any reference to the Body and Blood of Christ being offered as a sacrifice for sin in the entire of the Passion Narratives. Christ did not offer his body and blood to God during the passion.” (Catholic Legate, Q&A on the Sacraments)

As we showed in week 8 of our series, Their Praise was their Sacrifice, this concept of the Last Supper as a sacrifice came late in time, and actually originated in the latter part of the 4th century when Gregory of Nyssa was trying to calculate the three days between Jesus’ death and his resurrection. In his 382 A.D. oration, On the Space of Three Days between the Death and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Gregory of Nyssa got creative in his analysis of Matthew 12:40, which says that “the Son of man” must “be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” By Gregory’s reckoning, he could only account for two.
Continue reading Melito’s Sacrifice →

Eucharistic Sacrifice

Their Praise was their Sacrifice (part 8)

February 8, 2015 Timothy F. Kauffman 252 Comments

Until the end of the 4th Century, the early Church considered praise, not the Lord’s Supper, to be the sacrifice of the New Covenant (Hebrews 13:15). — Until the end of the 4th century, the early Church considered praise, not the Lord’s Supper, to be the sacrifice of the New Covenant (Hebrews 13:15).

This week we conclude our series on The Sacrifice Challenge. Continue reading Their Praise was their Sacrifice (part 8) →

Eucharistic Sacrifice

Their Praise was their Sacrifice (part 7)

February 1, 2015 Timothy F. Kauffman 85 Comments

The Early Church understood praise, not the Lord’s Supper, to be the sacrifice of the New Covenant (Hebrews 13:15).

We continue this week with our analysis of Malachi 1:11 as understood by the Early Church. This series is a response to The Sacrifice Challenge, a challenge issued by Roman Catholic apologists who believe that the only possible fulfillment of Malachi 1:11 is Roman Catholicism’s sacrifice of the Mass. The Early Church, however, saw the sacrifice and incense of Malachi 1:11 to be “simple prayer from a pure conscience,” not a sacrifice of bread and wine. Continue reading Their Praise was their Sacrifice (part 7) →