“but that they insist that all must partake of this sacrament in order to be saved”
John 6:53Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
I think protestants like the passage you gave because it seems to support their rejection of the Catholic Church.
I don’t doubt your sincerity, boatbums. From all you said in your post, you’re almost there:)
Jesus did not ever make a disclaimer to the words He spoke in John 6 and on the night before He died, He showed the Apostles how this “hard saying” would come to be.
Ezek 3:1-3 "Then he said to me, 'Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.' So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll. And He said to me, 'Son of man, feed your stomach, and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you.' Then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth.
I don't believe Jesus needed to make a "disclaimer". In fact, I absolutely believe what he said that we MUST eat his flesh and drink his blood or we cannot be saved. Yet, Roman Catholics interpret this to mean that somehow the bread and wine (now just bread) is mysteriously and miraculously changed into Jesus' actual flesh and blood and even though the "elements" do not appear to be changed, they just are. And that everyone MUST physically eat and drink these elements in order to be saved. Also, that doing this once is not enough to be saved, it must be repeated as often as one can, but that even if they do it every day, it STILL isn't enough if good works are also not accompanying it. Plus confession, plus penance, plus beatitude, plus...
On the other hand, I said I agree that we MUST eat and drink Jesus' actual flesh and blood in order to be saved. But I differ from the RC line. First, I believe as Jesus said we should, that BELIEVING in Him IS RECEIVING him. We ARE in this sense eating him and drinking him as he stated repeatedly we must believe that he is God, believe that he saves us, believe that he is our redeemer, believe that his body and blood were the sacrifice for our sins. I also believe Jesus that we WILL never die - and that of course MUST mean SPIRITUAL death. We receive him and we ARE saved. We WILL NOT come into condemnation, but HAVE passed from death unto life. That is why I do NOT believe that observing the Lord's Supper/Communion/Eucharist is propitiatory. It is done in REMEMBRANCE of him, what he did, what he gave us - eternal life.
I wish you a peaceful and blessed night.
If we go to John 5-6 we see Jesus on route to celebrate the passover in Jerusalem . As He travels He is attracting crowds that He is teaching ... He sees they are physically hungry and He feeds them with a few fish and loaves of bread .
After that miracle the crowds continued to follow Him. But they were not following Him because they were looking for a Savior, they followed Him to be fed by another miracle .
At this point Jesus rebukes them and He draws a Passover reference for them (remember that is where He was going ) He told them that Moses and the bread were a "type" pointing to Him.. The Israelites were fed manna in the desert as they followed Moses, that fed them physically.. But the He is the bread that will give men eternal life that the Father has sent .
We see that the unleavened bread of the Passover meal, that was done as a memorial of the salvation of the Jewish people in the desert , is a sign..a prophetic meal pointing to Christ.
Now move to the final passover meal..it is final because the prophesy is fulfilled shortly after it
Jesus holds up the bread...the remembrance of the manna in the desert and reveals the prophetic nature of it..He says THIS is my body ... He then tells them to now do this in memory of HIM no longer the passover. The passover is fulfilled
The Lord did not hesitate to say: “This is My Body”, when He wanted to give a sign of His body” (Augustine, Against Adimant). He [Christ] committed and delivered to His disciples the figure of His Body and Blood” (Augustine, on Psalm 3).
> [The sacraments] bear the names of the realities which they resemble. As, therefore,in a certain manner the sacrament of Christ's body is Christ's body, and the sacrament of Christ's blood is Christ's blood” (Augustine, Letter 98, From Augustine to Boniface).