Eastern Orthodox Sacramentology: The Sacrifice of the Mass and Transubstantiation
Contrary to Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions, Eastern Orthodox sacramentology affirms the Sacrifice of the Mass. For example, Decree 17 of what is for them the universally authoritative Jerusalem Council of 1672 states of the Eucharist: "Further, that it is a true and propitiatory Sacrifice offered for all Orthodox, living and dead." They also affirm transubstantiation, again in Decree 17: "But [he is present] truly and really, so that after the consecration of the bread and of the wine, the bread is transmuted, transubstantiated, converted and transformed into the true Body Itself of the Lord... and the wine is converted and transubstantiated into the true Blood Itself of the Lord..." And: "Further [we believe] that after the consecration of the bread and of the wine, there no longer remains the substance of the bread and of the wine, but the Body Itself and the Blood of the Lord, under the species and form of bread and wine; that is to say, under the ...