Cannibalism?

[Boltwave]

Could someone please rationalize the "eating of bread and drinking of wine" communion ritual? Eat of my flesh and drink of my blood? Unbelieving critics are making absurd claims like "this is obviously cannibalism" however I need Christian defintions to what this means and implies. Is there a way to justify for this atoning 'cannibalism'?

Yes I get the whole "Lamb of God" thing and how Christ was to take upon all of the sins of the world by his death but is there any sort of way to explain this symbolically in a logical manner?

In other words, as according to the Christian Dictionary Encyclopedia........

 

[Seekermeister]

The blood and flesh of Jesus is symbolic of what He gave on the cross for us...His life. Communion is symbolic of the acceptance of this by His followers. Only the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox have ever taught transubstantiation...where the bread and wine were transformed into blood and flesh.

 

[JoeV]

I agree with the above post. Eating His (Christ's) flesh and drinking His blood is just another way of saying accepting and believing in Him.

 

[rocklife]

Jesus spoke in parables and symbols sometimes as a way to kind of weed out the ones who are not serious in following Him. Jesus lost many disciples by talking about him being bread and to eat Him. God is encouraging us to be diligent, even if we don't always understand.

It will be helpful for more study if you can also provide the bible verse to show us exactly which one you are referring to. There are several and some are not all referring to the same exact thing. For example, John 6:53-58, the NIV Bible study notes say "Jesus' statement that "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you" (v. 53) is not a direct reference to the Lord's Supper. In this discourse he emphasizes faith in response to testimony (see vv. 35, 40, 47, 51). Flesh and blood here point to Christ as the crucified one and the source of life. Jesus speaks of faith appropriation of himself as God's appointed sacrifice." end quote

one other note to remember, Jesus did not want to always be taken literally. He called the hypocritical teachings of the Pharisees (remember they helped have him crucified), He called their teachings "yeast" (Matthew 16:6), purposely concealing what he was saying.

 

[Boltwave]

Wow rocklife, that was very informative and a great response, thanks.

 

[Tavita]

Quote from a Pastor Pretlow:

"We know then He started to teach them about eating His body and drinking His blood, meaning that our nature has to be converted into Christ-like nature, and His very life is our life, and apart from Him we can do nothing."

 

[Dialyt]

The Bread of Life discourse in John 6 is where Jesus tells us that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to have Life.

He is not speaking symbolically.

To eat someone's flesh and drink their blood symbolically, means, in bible terms, to revile and hate them. There are examples of this in the Old Testament.

I haven't the resources at hand just now, but I will come back to this once I get myself together.

If anyone wants to find out more about what the Catholic Church really teaches about this, a good resource is Catholic.com or indeed the Catechism of the Catholic Church, available online.

 

[BAFRIEND]

Jesus said the bread was his body and the cup was his blood. "Do this in memory of Me".

It is not cannabilism. The blood and body are those of
GOD. Not man.

 

[Rafael]

Jesus body was broken for us, and to partake of His body can also symbolize taking brokeness into ones own life. We are told to embrace the trials of life as though they were a refiners fire making us more pure, like gold, and by comitting ourselves to follow after a broken Savior, we also have to go to the cross and reckon ourselves dead to sin and and alive to His Spirit dwelling within us.
Yes, there is a lot of symbolism that goes deeper and deeper, as we learn, grow, and see how life does bring these trials to us to overcome.

1Pe 1:7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold––though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

Ga 2:20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

 

[tadoflamb]

Cannabilism is the eating of dead flesh. Jesus Christ is Truly Present in the Holy Eucharist, body, blood, soul and divinity. Jesus Christ isn't dead.

Read the Bread of Life discourse in John 6. Even the Jews had a problem with what Jesus was saying. But, notice, Jesus didnt' go chasing after them saying, "Wait, wait, I was speaking symbolically!" No, He repeated His message, "I am the Bread of Life".

I hope this helps,

Tad

 

[Confess]

Could someone please rationalize the "eating of bread and drinking of wine" communion ritual? Eat of my flesh and drink of my blood? Unbelieving critics are making absurd claims like "this is obviously cannibalism" however I need Christian defintions to what this means and implies. Is there a way to justify for this atoning 'cannibalism'?

Yes I get the whole "Lamb of God" thing and how Christ was to take upon all of the sins of the world by his death but is there any sort of way to explain this symbolically in a logical manner?

In other words, as according to the Christian Dictionary Encyclopedia........

For the Catholics, it is called Transubstantiation. This says that the substance changes into Christ's body and blood.

This teaching, for years, was considered cannibolism to those who were outside the faith.

Lutheran's teach that Christ is "in", "with" and "under" the elements. We teach the real presence which says that we are not eating the actual Christ like the Catholics, but Christ is truly present in the Holy Meal.

We take the Lord's Supper because we were commanded by Christ to do this for the forgiveness of our sins. When we eat and drink of it, we are told to do it often in remembrance of what Christ did for us at the Cross.

It is not cannabalism, but the Catholic church certainly makes it seem that way.

 

[BigNorsk]

It can get to be a fine line sometimes to understand things.

Now the first thing to understand is that the Lord's Supper is the visible Gospel. When you think of it, the whole Gospel is there rolled into a short rite. Here is Jesus' body given for you, Here is Jesus' blood shed for you. And the participation with faith is really the acceptance, the belief that the Gospel is true. Those that really claim is is nothing but a memorial really do not do it justice, for how can one accept the Gospel as true and have it be nothing?

Anyway on to the real presence. Many take John 6 as teaching the real presence but that was before the Lord's Supper was instituted, it's a bit of a stretch to take it literally especially when the passage seems internally to be pointing to a figurative meaning.

But the real presence is indeed taught, actually demanded of people.
1Co 10:15-17 NET.
(15) I am speaking to thoughtful people. Consider what I say.
(16) Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread that we break a sharing in the body of Christ?
(17) Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all share the one bread.
Note that the questions are really the same in Hebrew, they demand an affirmative answer from the reader. Is not the cup a sharing in the blood-yes. Is not the bread a sharing in the body-again yes.

The reason that it is so important that the bread is indeed his body is given in verse 17. It unites his people into one body, the body of Christ, his church. Can bread do such a thing, no, no bread can do it, only through the body of Jesus can such a unity be created. It's really the same thing that we are being taught when we are told we cannot be united to idols and to God.

As for the blood, that's really taught elsewhere. Basically the thing is that the blood contains the life. You see this teaching throughout the Bible. And when we receive Jesus' blood we receive his life.

Now some people want to go too far and say that is cannibalism. Well, maybe that case could be made for transubstantiation, but the Bible doesn't teach transubstantiation. If you notice in the passage above, it is still referring to for instance the bread, the bread is not gone. But the bread and wine are united with Jesus' body and blood in a supernatural, sacramental union. We do not know exactly how this all works, but we accept it because it is what the Bible tells us.

It can seem like cannibalism, but that is a rather crude understanding. And it's not just a memorial, that's rather crude as well. The thing is to maintain the correct stance as taught by scripture without falling off either way, which is somewhat difficult but then we were never told the path was wide and easy to follow were we?

Hope that helps.

Marv

 

[tadoflamb]

Thanks Marv, I thought you explained that well. It was helpful for me.

God bless you,

Tad

 

[spiersdodgerblue]

Jesus spoke in parables and symbols sometimes as a way to kind of weed out the ones who are not serious in following Him. Jesus lost many disciples by talking about him being bread and to eat Him. God is encouraging us to be diligent, even if we don't always understand.

It will be helpful for more study if you can also provide the bible verse to show us exactly which one you are referring to. There are several and some are not all referring to the same exact thing. For example, John 6:53-58, the NIV Bible study notes say "Jesus' statement that "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you" (v. 53) is not a direct reference to the Lord's Supper. In this discourse he emphasizes faith in response to testimony (see vv. 35, 40, 47, 51). Flesh and blood here point to Christ as the crucified one and the source of life. Jesus speaks of faith appropriation of himself as God's appointed sacrifice." end quote

one other note to remember, Jesus did not want to always be taken literally. He called the hypocritical teachings of the Pharisees (remember they helped have him crucified), He called their teachings "yeast" (Matthew 16:6), purposely concealing what he was saying.

This is very good and clear....good job.

 

[Utah Knight]

i'll try to explain how i learned

It is symbolism it means accepting acceting Chirist(by eating the bread and drinking the whine) and once you put something in your body it stays with you so it also means carrying him in your heart

 

[prophecystudent]

Christ was speaking symbolically at the last supper. He offered the bread as a symbol of His body, broken for us. The wine in the cup is the symbol of His blood, shed for us.

He said that we should eat the bread (symbol of His broken body) and drink the wine (symbol of His blood) and TO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME.

We take communion in rembembrance of what Christ did for us. It has nothing to do with cannabilism at all. For those who choose to put that interpretation on that portion of scripture, it is not understood in its context.

In addition, as I recall, in the original language of the scriptures, there were portions where it said "to eat the word of God". The actual meaning was to READ AND ABSORB the writings.

See, for example, where John is told to "eat the little scroll" in revelation. It is symbolic of reading the wording on the scroll and understanding the meaning of those words. The words were "sweet in the reading, but became bitter with full understanding."

Fred
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