THE EUCHARIST, Part 2

Introduction

This article should be read in conjunction with our main writing on the Eucharist. 

At the very heart of Roman Catholicism is the Mass. For Catholics worldwide, this is sacred ground and woe be to anybody who dares to come along and query its legitimacy on Biblical grounds (2 Tim. 2:15.)   

For my part I only consider it to be a symbolic event, much like that of baptism. However, for me to say this openly, like I am now, I risk being consigned to eternal Hell by the so-called ecumenical and seeker-friendly church, for which I was a member for 15 years of my life: 

"If any one denieth, that, in the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist, are contained truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ; but saith that He is only therein as in a sign, or in figure, or virtue; let him be ANATHEMA."    

Rome can retain her medieval and bigoted curse (there are 124 others too), because as far as I am concerned, I believe the folly of the Mass to be a religious hallucination but if you want to believe it, that's your business; for I am all for the freedom of conscience-not like the Church of Rome's 600 bloody years of wicked and cruel inquisition (please see our article on this monumental crime against humanity.) But what gives this bachelor priesthood the right to dish out curses to millions of children of God that don't hold to this nonsensical doctrine!    

(During the 1960s Second Vatican Council each of the rulings from the Council of Trent were upheld.)    

The following 10 points are as unbiased as possible, when it comes to detailing the major and sensible facts of what John 6 is actually speaking about, not what the Catholic Church thinks it says.  

10 Quick Points about John 6  

1. Verse 29: Believe He is the Christ in order to be saved (Rom. 10:9.)

2. Verse 41: Unbelieving Jews murmur because He claims to be deity, i.e., came down from Heaven and later on, some of them try to kill Him (John 10:32,33.)

3. Verse 47: Re-affirms faith in Him alone for Salvation (Acts 16:30,31.)

4. Verse 51: The metaphor of Him being the bread of life is synonymous with His flesh and work on the Cross, for it is faith in each of these things that saves a sinners, i.e., His flesh/body hung on the cross (1 Cor. 15:13, 14.)

5. Verse 60: The unbelieving Jews again complain about His requirements of them and others.

6. Verse 61: Jesus finally confronts their moaning, for up till now He has been testing them to see who would stay and who would remain. This is later portrayed when after a 3-year ministry in which tens of thousands have thronged to Him and followed His every move, when push came to shove, they all fell away and only 120 were found to have lasted the course in the Upper Room. This is a picture of the very few who will be saved on Judgment Day (Matt. 7:13,14.)

7. Verse 63: Christ makes it crystal clear that His words are only SPIRITUAL, i.e., figurative - the Holy Spirit does the work of regeneration (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:4-6), NEVER human endeavours (Rom. 4:4; Eph. 2:8,9.)

8. Verse 66: Unbelieving Jews depart from Him, because they weren't prepared to be identified with Him in such a personal way.

9. Verse 68: Peter correctly understands that Jesus' words are eternal life, and that faith in His name warrants eternal life, not holy communion (Acts 4:12.)

10: Verse 70: Christ states He knows who are His and one of His chosen 12 is a devil.

Conclusion 

The fact of the matter is whether a person believes in the hypothesis of the bread and wine changing into the literal body and blood of Christ, is immaterial. Because the Bible repeatedly teaches that faith in Jesus' death, burial and resurrection is what saves a man from Hell (1 Cor. 15:17), not church attendance, keeping feast days or other activities (Gal. 3:2,3.)   

I would also like to add, that there are many other occasions in the Bible, when Jesus spoke to those around Him in metaphorical language, and nearly every time they failed to understand that He was speaking to them spiritually, not literally.  

"Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up [spiritually speaking.] Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? [literal understanding.] But he spake of the temple of his body" (2:18-22.)  

On both occasions, they totally failed to recognise what He was talking to them about and He didn't one time correct their ignorance. He left the first group under judgment and the second person, was probed with more questioning until He was able to have her understand who He was and what He wanted. 

"But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life [spiritually language.] The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw" [literal understating] (4:14,15.)

"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the FLESH PROFITETH NOTHING: the WORDS THAT I SPEAK UNTO YOU, THEY ARE SPIRIT, and they are LIFE" (John 6:63.)

By now, one might hope that the average person could differentiate between taking a passage literally and spiritualising it. One can only wonder why Rome for so long, has failed to do this?    

Finally, I wish to allow former Roman Catholic, Peter Ruckman the last words on this brief but necessary article: "Now, if you are a Roman Catholic, I'll tell you what to do. The first thing you need to do is get rid of your religion. You get rid of it as quick as you can, drop it, and trust Christ as your Saviour. Then you need to get you a Bible and read it. Everything in your religion that matches the Bible; keep it. Every time that your religion crosses that Bible; drop that part of your religion. You cannot partake of the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. I would not have you to have fellowship with the Lord and with devils. You cannot sit at the Lord's table and the table of devils" (The Mass, 1981, pg. 23.)

James G. Battell,

2nd August 2006

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