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Okay. So we do not have to take everything Jesus said literally. You all didn't mean it when you said it. That was bait. I bit.

(project: find out if bait and bite share a root.)

Now the next thing is, how do we discern. You all will say, "Scripture interprets scripture."

Here's what I say: Fine, but who gets to say which verse, passage, book interprets and which IS interpreted?

No doubt you will say, "Same old tactics," to which I will respond, "If they work, why change 'em?"

But here is SVITW, an ardent proponent of dispensationalism. Are you all dispensationalists? DO you all think, as she does, that at some point for some folks works WILL 'count' toward salvation?

Somebody isn't "rightly dividing." How can I tell who is and who isn't? seriously.

My guess is that you would say, 'That's between the individual and God," am I right?

Maybe it is, but this individual, prayerfully, at personal cost, divided the best he could and came up a Catholic. And I'd like to think that I know better what I think and believe as a Catholic than those here who insist that they know better than I.

Well, gotta go clean up for my idolatries. I hope you get what I'm asking? How do I know which of you is right?

No time to proof.

Mad Daw, I'll give you three scriptures that explain dispensations in the simplest way possible.

"Wherefore remember, that ye being IN TIME PAST Gentiles in the flesh..."(Eph. 2:11,12)>

"BUT NOW in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." (Eph. 2:13).

"That in the AGES TO COME he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:7).

There is a TIME PAST, BUT NOW, and the AGES TO COME. At its most basic.

Also, Ephesians 3:2,3,5,6,9 speak plainly of the DISPENSATION OF THE GRACE OF GOD given to Paul. There are 4 times the word is used in the NT (1Cor 9:17, Eph. 1:10, 3:2; Col. 1:25. If you want more on dispensations let me know. Otherwise I'll stop with these 4.

Ok, then this is what it appears that Catholics believe from what can be gleaned from this thread. John 6: 43-51

Take this one not literally, because men have free will.

43"Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. 44"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

This one is up for grabs, since it does say *It is written*

45It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.

These two likely literal....46No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.

This one not literal because Jesus was not the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

48I am the bread of life.

This one literal.

49Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died.

This one not literal since men still die.

50But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.

Ahhh, this one. The first sentence is not literal since bread doesn't live, the second sentence not literal since people still die, but the third sentence IS literal since it supports Catholic doctrine.

51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

These ones have to be literal because it supports Catholic doctrine again, not because one follows the rules of grammar and being consistent in applying them to one passage.

53Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven.

But this one NOT because nobody lives forever.

Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."

And then, of course, in the Last Supper we have the same problem. When Jesus calls the cup His blood, He's being literal and when immediately following, He calls it the fruit of the vine, He's being figurative.

We just have to "know" what He meant for each sentence He spoke and the Catholic church is here to interpret it for us.

How convenient.