Coke Bear said:
BusyTarpDuster2017 said:
It's becoming very frustrating how you can't follow the arguments. The argument was NOT that the disciples didn't take him literally. Some might have. It doesn't matter to the point. The point was that YOUR argument is a non-sequitur - you're arguing that because the disciples took it literally, and then left, and because Jesus let them leave, that it necessarily means that Jesus did in fact mean it literally. That isn't true. Your argument is false. You're completely leaving out the possibility that Jesus let them leave, WITH the misunderstanding of what he said, just as he said he was going to do (Matthew 13:13).
Fair enough. I'll amend my argument for you …
I claim that Jesus meant what he said literally in John 6 when he said "eat my flesh and drink my blood".
- Jesus says this 6 times in John 6 during the Bread of Life Discourse.
- He stresses this fact when he uses the phrase, "Amen, amen" or "Verily, verily."
- When the disciples grumble, he ratchets up the language to ensure they, the disciples, knew exactly what he meant.
- They again question. Jesus affirms their concern and does NOT change their interpretation of his words.
- Jesus does not correct their thinking. He doesn't need to because he said what he meant and meant what he said.
- We know this because Jesus says in verse 64
- Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him.
Jesus is the greatest teacher in the world. My Jesus wouldn't mislead thousands of his followers with a misinterpretation.
None of what you are saying here necessitates a literal interpretation. As I keep saying, you are making non-sequiturs.
For example, Jesus does not correct the wrong thinking of the woman at the well, who thought Jesus was talking about literal water that she can draw from a well and drink, when he was talking about the Holy Spirit. Neither does he correct the thinking of those who misinterpreted him when he said "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up". They thought he meant the literal temple, but he meant the temple that was his body. In both these cases, Jesus left it as a mystery to those who heard it and didn't correct them. You obviously can not conclude that their respective literal interpretations were correct, simply because Jesus didn't correct them. And I can give the same kind of argument for each item in your list.
Jesus doesn't "mislead" his followers, but as scripture even says, he often spoke in difficult to understand parables that undoubtedly they would misinterpret as a fulfillment of prophecy (Matthew 13:13). So yes, in a way, Jesus would indeed "mislead" many people - not that he was being deceptive, but that in their hardness of heart, they wouldn't get what he's really saying. And some might misinterpret him at first, but later come to realize the truth of what he was saying, like when he said he'd raise the temple up in three days. It wasn't until after the resurrection three days after he was crucified when they realized it.
Now here's an argument that DOES necessitate ABANDONING the literal interpretation: if you take John 6 literally, then his words that "
whoever eats my flesh HAS eternal life" and "
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you" has to be taken literally too, which means that no matter what a person believes, their entire salvation rests upon whether they can obtain a piece of Jesus flesh, which you say is the Eucharist bread and wine, and eat and drink it. If you are a believer, then your faith doesn't matter - if you don't eat this bread, you aren't saved. If you AREN'T a believer, then no matter, as long as you eat this bread you are saved. It would mean that the whole world can be saved this way, regardless of their belief. It would completely divorce salvation from one's belief or faith and relegate it entirely to a physical act of eating and drinking something. This obviously doesn't make sense, as it clearly contradicts what the bible teaches about salvation. Also, if you take the literal meaning, then you're left with some dilemmas - how did the thief on the cross get saved? There is no way he was able to eat the Last Supper bread. Did a fleck of Jesus' flesh happen to fly into his mouth while he was on his cross? And on that same note, since Judas apparently took part in the Last Supper, shouldn't he have been saved? Scripture seems to say that he wasn't.