Example of a Eucharistic Procession parade displaying the wafer-god for worship on the streets of Salvador, Brazil.

Bible believers know that revival is the only real answer to the corruption and debauchery that has blossomed in the Western World. Until men’s hearts are changed by the Holy Spirit, government policy-making and social justice campaigns are no match for the evil imaginations that men are capable of.

At nearly the same time as the Republican Convention in Minneapolis, another 50,000 people gathered in Indianapolis for a “Eucharistic Congress,” part of a new national Roman Catholic program called the “Eucharistic Revival.”

So, is this “Eucharistic Revival” a step in the right direction by this supposedly Christian Church?

The Eucharistic Congress was the culmination of a National Eucharistic Pilgrimage where the wafer-god was mounted on a sunburst monstrance and paraded through major cities in the US. These pilgrimages and congresses are fairly common in Roman Catholic countries. But the last ones in America occurred over 80 years ago.

Since this “revival program” originated from the Catholic “church,” a generally accepted Christian “denomination,” should Bible believers join the effort?

To begin, how does this “Eucharist” fit into genuine revival? Different religious groups have significantly different interpretations of the doctrine of the Eucharist commonly known in Protestant circles as communion. Most agree that it originated at the Last Supper that Jesus had with His disciples just before He was crucified.

The Apostle Mark’s gospel quotes Jesus as saying, when He broke off pieces of bread for the disciples: “Take, eat: this is my body.” Then he passed around the wine cup stating: “This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.” (See Mark 14 and Luke 22.)

In the centuries that followed, there grew up a considerable divide over the interpretation of these short statements. At first there was no historical indication that it was believed to be anything other than symbolic of what His death on the cross represented.

The book of the Acts of the Apostles and the letters from the Apostle Paul to the churches do not seem to support any other interpretation. Yet in the early centuries, a quite different view emerged. It denied that the bread and wine were simply symbols to help us remember Christ’s sacrifice for our sins and the new covenant of redemption through that sacrifice.

Roman Catholicism began to teach that their leaders had special powers to convert the bread and the wine into the actual body, blood, and divinity of our Savior. This became known as the doctrine of the Real Presence and lifted the whole proceedings into an entirely different realm.

If the bread was now the actual body of the Savior, it required a complete makeover. It became known as the “Host” with a very specific recipe that included wheat flour. The Catholic Church also claimed that the wafer was now Jesus and should be venerated and worshiped.

This is the history surrounding the central focus of the Eucharistic Pilgrimages and the recent Eucharistic Congress. But there is more to the story.

There was a time several hundred years ago when this “denomination,” the Roman Catholic Church (that still preaches the Real Presence view), declared that those who refused to accept that the wafer was now Jesus, were heretics and torched many of them at the stake. Not until the 1960s did they switch the terminology from “heretic” to “separated brethren.”

In the last 60-year blip in history, this “denomination,” this Roman Catholic “Church,” has succeeded in “cancelling” centuries of history of hostility to the scriptures and Bible believers. Satan’s henchman do not give up easily.

This reviving in the U.S. of the pilgrimages and Eucharist-focused conventions should trigger alarm bells. The switch from “heretic” to “separated brethren” is only window dressing. The popes have done nothing to realign Roman Catholic teachings with the preserved words of God.

This “Eucharistic Revival” campaign is nothing other than a cunning diversion from true biblical repentance. Satan is again stirring up his counterfeit “church” to create confusion and blunt the momentum toward true revival.

Chick Publications has published numerous books, tracts, and comics exposing the unbiblical teachings and brutal history of Roman Catholicism. Yet, too many Evangelicals have swallowed the friendly sweet-talk that this is “just another Christian denomination with a somewhat different worship style.”

Equip yourself to give an answer to anyone who asks you to join in or support this fake revival. Learn how to point Catholics to the real truth as presented by scripture, not man-made traditions and false religion.