Transubstantiation

Transubstantiation is rejected by Lutherans for several reasons: It is a philosophical explanation for a work of Christ's almighty Word, which we can only believe, not explain. In seeking to explain a mystery, it changes the plain and simple meanings of God's Word. Scripture refers to the elements as both bread and wine and body and blood (1 Cor. 11:26-27).

The Roman doctrine of transubstantiation is a clumsy attempt to define the mode of Christ's presence in the Eucharist. It is only a monstrous distortion, not a denial of the truth. It distorts, not by taking away, but by adding. The Church of Rome goes far beyond the truth, while Zwinglians and others deny it in open contradiction of Scripture and of the testimony of the early church.

Henry I. Schmidt