HAD: Yet you refuse to believe Jesus when He said


Jesus said, "I solemnly assure you that unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him" (John 6:53-55).

RESPONSE: Actually, I do believe it, Had. But that has nothing to do with the Supper. It had to do with His being the Passover, the last Passover, that year. The temporal Passovers--the lambs of sin sacrifices--were only the shadow of the true coming Passover--which was the Lamb promised from the Foundation of the World. The Supper is a post Passover occurrence. The Passover Christ was for remitting sin. The Supper is a thanksgiving sacrifice for His having remitted sin, and symbolizes His death He accomplished on that Passover long ago. It is a reminder to those partaking of the Supper, that He remitted all sin, and that now the sacrifice for sin is no longer in existence--not even the one to be "re-presented".

HAD: John 6 is the classic Eucharistic passage which, along with Jesus' words of consecration at the Last Supper (Matt 26:26-28, Mark 14:22-24, Luke 22:19-20), Catholics point to to demonstrate the Eucharist in Scripture.

RESPONSE: John 6 had nothing to do with the Supper, but was about the Passover.

HAD: There are several facts which demonstrate that Jesus was speaking literally, not figuratively, in John 6.

RESPONSE: Since the first premise is faulty--that John 6 was about the Supper--then all of that has no bearing on it. Suffice it to say however, that the Bread of Heaven is the Gospel--not His literal flesh and blood. His flesh and blood did not come down from Heaven--only the Word came down from Heaven. His flesh and blood were formed here on earth in the womb of a virgin.