For those Christians who do not believe in Transubstantiation?

Question

What does this mean to you?

Jesus said, "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" (John 6:53)

Does this not point towards the "Real Presence" of Christ in the Eucharist?

The "Temple" Jesus was speaking about was Himself sir. He did indeed hold to that promise.

Answer 1

Well, you can read the Bible literally or you can read it symbolically. If you always read literally, it will mess you up: you'll believe that the seven days of Creation to God was the same as our seven days, you'll be that women should be subservient--so much so that they should be segregated during menstruation, you'll believe in all sorts of weird stuff that simply does not square with rationality.

I don't believe God set the universe up to constantly confound our reason, so I think it's permissible to read symbolically. Thus, the passage becomes a striking statement that we need to adopt Christ's ways of thinking in order to truly be alive.

As a supporting passage for Transubstantiation (a debate that most Protestant Christians barely even know about), it works. But I don't think we are required by God to believe in it by that passage. If it seems like a good way to understand the passage to you and it strengthens you to believe in Transubstantiation, great! But don't flatter yourself into thinking you hold the One True Meaning of the passage.

Answer 2

I would like to address this question with my answer to an earlier posted question concerning basically the same thing.

Question:

Christians.....?
When you do the whole drink the blood of Christ and eat his flesh thing in mass, do you truly believe that the wine and the bread is the body and blood of Christ or is it merely a metaphor of sorts

Answer:

It is real...and this is why.....

In the Gospel of John, Chapter 6 we see the Bread of Life discourse and if read properly we see the real meaning.

Chapter 6 starts with the story of multiplying the fishes and loaves. We see Jesus has the Apostles distribute this food to the crowd. He also instructs them to collect all the food that was not eaten. Interestingly enough, when they did collect back up what was left they filled Twelve (12) baskets (John 6:13). This distributing of bread and then collecting the unused is also done in the Catholic Mass with the host. Whatever is not used is taken and stored in the tabernacle. So what we see here is an early Mass and Eucharist being conducted by Jesus Christ himself.

After this in John 6:22 we see the beginning of the Bread of Life Discourse. At verse 26 Jesus basically tells everyone they continue to follow and seek him because they ate of the loaves of bread, and were filled. A little later at verse 32 Jesus tells them that "My Father gives you the true bread from Heaven. (Jn 6:33) For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Jesus was telling them, and us, He is the bread from heaven that brings us all life.

John 6:48 "I am the Bread of Life." John 6:51 " I am the living bread that came down from Heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

John 6:53 shows us Jesus saying to the disciples, "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you." and then at verse 55 He says plainly, "For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink."

Now when the other disciples and followers grumbled and complained saying this was a hard thing to follow and started to disperse and leave, Jesus did not stop them, but simply turned to the 12 and asked them if they would also leave.

Almost all of Jesus' teachings had been in Parables. And each time He told a Parable he had to follow up with explaining in clear and plain language what it meant. When He told of His body and blood being true food and true drink, he did not stop the followers from leaving and explain it had only been symbolic...only a Parable that really meant something else. He let them go because what He had said is real...not symbolic.

In the Mass when a Priest consecrates the hosts of bread and wine, Jesus becomes literally present in the Eucharist with his body and blood. The hosts maintain the properties, as we can physically observe, of wine and bread, but through transubstantiation have taken on the divine properties of Christ's body and blood. It still looks and tastes like wine and bread, but it is now truly and substantially the body and blood of Jesus Christ. It has to be, because Jesus said what he meant, and he meant what he said.

And finally, take a look at 1 Corinthians 11:23-32 where Paul is warning the followers to discern the body and blood of the Lord or they eat and drink condemnation and judgement on themselves.

1 Corinthians 11:23-32
23For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, 24and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 27Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. 28Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. 30For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. 32But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

Answer 3

I'm guessing that you are taking the Catholic stance that this is proof that communion is a sacrament rather than an ordinance. If you read verse 51, you see that Jesus is saying that he (Jesus) is the bread. Not that the bread is him. The significance of that is tremendous. It shows that what Jesus is saying in the following verses is referring to how to be saved by accepting him rather than the communion. They are simply taking the communion as a picture of what they are doing with christ. So you can see that Jesus is speaking metaphorically about the bread, just as the bread is a metaphore of christ body. God bless

Answer 4

When Jesus the second member of the Godhead said that the folks He was talking to had a HEAD religon, Jesus was talking about taking the Him to HEART, to eat the flesh of Jesus and drink His blood is Taking the Word of God that He was talking about to heart, Loving God with all our hearts and all our power, God is not however talking about eating real flesh. Free bible lessons www.itiswritten.com God bless.

Answer 5

In my opinion, Jesus wasn't talking about a form of cannibalism. I take this to be symbolic; remembering how he gave his blood and body as a sacrifice. The scene in the Upper Room can be recreated, but instead of transubstantiation, I believe in the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, not changing one element to another in some magical way.

Answer 6

Hello!

This bible verse supports what Jesus said in verse 48 --"I am that bread of life". "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 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 6:50-51).

The bread and the wine (which is actually grape juice, not literally fermented wine) we eat to conmemmorate Christ's dead are to be a symbol of the meat and blood of Jesus.

May God bless each one of you!

Answer 7

Find yourself a really good Ancient Greek scholar and get them to translate from the greek language. See what it says then. After all, did Jesus tear down the temple, the building, and rebuild it in three days?

Answer 8

Transub is the actual changing of wine into blood, and bread into the body, correct? The wine tastes like wine, and the bread just tastes like bread. It kind of is symbolic no matter how one feels about it, because you can actually see no physical change.

Answer 9

They say those are just symbolic words.

Fortunately you have your Church to interpret the real meaning of those all-important words.

Just politely ignore or report (your choice) the above 2 answers).

Answer 10

You're really starting to creep me out, Mary Magdalene, or whatever you're supposed to be. I stay out of the "Religion and Spirituality" category, but when your question just pops up I am compelled to answer because I can't help feeling there's something disingenuous about you.

As for Jesus' allegoric prattle, I can't for the life of me comprehend why you even think about such stuff.