Immediately after Jesus talks about the eating of His flesh and the drinking of His blood, in John 6:63 He says, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." It seems clear He was speaking to them in spiritual terms, but they were confusing it with physical terms. He was pointing that out to them, but they were stuck on the physical and would not/could not hear it.
Jesus did not clarify them as symbolic nor did He try to stop them from leaving.
Actually, He did clarify, as I pointed out above.
If God is able to create from nothing the entire world, i.e. everything seen and unseen, why is He not also able to make Himself present in the bread and wine?
No one is saying He can't. We are saying He doesn't. Don't get stuck on the physical - Jesus words are Spirit.
Is God omnipotent and omniscient? Has He knowingly allowed millions of people to be damned eternally for following Catholic beliefs?
I'm not one who believes that belief in the "real presence" is going to damn one to hell if they otherwise have received Jesus as their Savior and Lord. But drinking some wine and eating a bit of bread isn't going to save anyone. It's Christ who saves.
I have posed these questions before to no response.
You can't say that any more. You might not agree with my response, but you did get one. :)
Yes I did and I thank you.
The flesh profiteth nothing.
Just as Jesus foretold the Eucharist when He spoke this to Satan, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”, what Jesus says about the flesh and the spirit does not diminish the value of His flesh in anyway. This directly relates to the true natures of Jesus and puts to rest any question as to whether He was truly man and truly God. For had Jesus been merely human, He would not then have been able to atone for humanity’s sins. It quite clearly is His way of solidifying the truth that He is present in the bread for without Him, God, we have no salvation.
As far as getting stuck on the physical, I think it is Protestants who do this and not Catholics. After all, we accept that though the physical appearance and taste of the bread and wine remain, they are in fact what Jesus claimed they are, His body and His blood.
The admonition sounds a little like Gnosticism or is it Manicheanism? I can never keep those two heresies straight.
Whatever, it was OUR flesh which profits us nothing. Jesus is saying, “What I am giving you is spirit and life, for through the spirit, (The Holy Spirit) we have His flesh and His blood which He told us we need to have life.
Do you not see the contradiction is saying that eating bread and drinking wine will not save anyone Christ saves, yet it is Christ under the guise of bread and wine which saves us. I agree that the bread and wine or grape juice consumed in Protestant services does in fact not save. I remind you once again of Jesus’ words, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
Jesus is the only Word breathed by God and the only one whose presence in the Eucharist can save us.