John 6:51 - Jesus' Flesh and Blood?

by David J. Stewart | April 2005

"I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." -John 6:51

I recently received an e-mail from a Catholic named Craig...

"Your website has lots of errors.  The Roman Catholic Church follows the words of Jesus.  We eat his body and drink his blood because he said so.   John 6:51, "I myself am the living bread come down from heaven.  If anyone eats this bread he shall live forever; the bread I will give is my flesh for the life of the world"   The bread is his body for us to eat for eternal life. 

I will pray for your conversion.   Jesus is the way the truth and the life.
 
Please correct the Roman Catholic Church section of your website."

The problem Craig is that you've taken John 6:51 out of context (which is no doubt what you have been taught by the heretics of the Catholic religion).  If you back up just a couple verses to John 6:47-48, you'll find the context, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.  I am that bread of life."  Jesus was speaking about salvation.  To teach that Jesus meant for us to literally digest His body is not only absurd, but is also inconsistent with the rest of the Bible.  In John 10:9 Jesus claimed to be the "door."  How do we go through this "literal" door?  Does the Catholic religion have a secret door somewhere that we must all walk through.  The "door" which Jesus spoke of is NOT a literal concrete object, but abstract (cannot be perceived with the 5 senses).  The Bible simply means that the door to heaven is THROUGH Jesus Christ!  If John 6:51 is to be taken as literal instead of spiritual in meaning, then John 10:9 would make no sense at all. 

When Jesus tried to explain to Nicodemus that he needed to be "born again" in John chapter three, Nicodemus took Jesus literally and was dumbfounded.  Nicodemus was baffled, asking, how can I go back into my mother's womb and be born again?  He looked at Jesus like he was crazy.  Nicodemus was not thinking on a spiritual plane, but earthly.  Jesus was trying to teach Nicodemus a spiritual truth, but Nicodemus just didn't get it.  Just as Nicodemus FAILED to understand Jesus' Words of Truth, so also do the Catholics FAIL to comprehend the simple Word of God.  John 6:51 has nothing to do with eating Jesus' flesh and blood, it simply means that we need to believe upon the Lord for salvation. 

In John 11:25 Jesus claimed to be the "resurrection."  Are we to go bury ourselves alive in the cemetery?  Jesus claimed to be the vine, the light, the shepherd, etc.  Matthew 10:38 reads, "And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me."  Does God mean that we should literally carry wooden crosses around over our shoulder?  Of course not!  This would be as ridiculous as the Catholic teaching of transubstantiation (the heresy that the food taken at mass literally becomes the flesh and blood of Jesus when digested).  Can you imagine one billion people being deceived by such a lie of the devil?  One billion Catholics around the world sincerely believe that they are eating Jesus.  Satan is always mentioned in the Bible as being a liar and a deceiver.

What's very sad to me is that so many people are going to burn in hell one day because of the Catholic's demandable heresies.  In the e-mail I quoted you earlier, Craig said...

"The bread is his body for us to eat for eternal life."

Listen friend, you can eat all the communion bread in the world and still go straight to burn in the fires of hell.  You had better get born again and stop fiddlin' with religion.  Jesus is the bread of life, not some stupid wafer or a glass of juice.  Jesus obviously wasn't claiming to be a physical OBJECT when He declared that He was the Door, the Vine , or the Water of life...so why make the fatal mistake of thinking that Jesus is a loaf of bread?  What really astounds me is that anyone would be naive enough to believe such nonsense.  There is NO magical power or mystical event happening at the Lord's Supper, the Bible commands us to observe it only as a REMEMBRANCE of Jesus shedding His blood and suffering upon the cross for our sins.  The Lord's Supper is an ordinance, NOT a sacrament.  Nowhere does the Bible refer to the Lord's Supper as the "Eucharist" (a Catholic teaching).

I did NOT write this article to be unkind to Craig, but to WARN all who may otherwise be led astray by this damnable heresy of Roman Catholicism.  Salvation can ONLY be obtained by coming to Jesus Christ, the Saviour, and asking Him to forgive you of all your sins.  If you don't get your sins forgiven, then you will sadly burn in hell someday.  God does not want ANYONE to burn in hell (2nd Peter 3:9).  Won't you come to Jesus now to be saved.