Jack answers your questions on a variety of Bible topics. Updated daily. Have a question? Send it to questions@gracethrufaith.com Q. My question regards the teaching of Jesus in John 6:51-58. I hear Catholics say that they are taking these verses literally. Hence at their communion ceremony they are only following the word of God. And if they are using these words to their literal meaning, then the rest of us are not. And, we are supposedly the ones who believe in a literal translation of the Bible. So what is Jesus really saying here? How would I respond to a Catholic on this point? A. I assume you’re talking about the Catholic doctrine of trans-substantiation, wherein the communion wafer supposedly becomes the actual body and blood of Christ at the moment it’s taken. In John 6:53 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.” But Genesis 9:4 specifically prohibits the consumption of blood. Jesus is the exact representation of the God who issued that prohibition and therefore could not advocate the violation of his own laws. By this we know that He was speaking metaphorically. And if that’s not good enough, at the last supper He made it unmistakably clear. The bread symbolized His body and the wine His blood. We’re to partake of the symbols, not the real thing. So why did He seem to be intentionally misleading the people? This discourse came on the heels of His miraculous feeding of the 5000. In John 6:26, after a large group had followed Him to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, he accused them of following Him just because He fed them, not because they believed in Him. When He tried to explain that He was giving them Himself, and not bread, many went away disappointed. He was separating the true believers from those who just wanted a free meal. Tags: Faith, Spiritual Life Q. Re: Mark 9:38-41. “Teacher,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.” In this passage John appears concerned about some nonbelievers (“not one of us”) casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and tells them to stop. Jesus rebukes them for doing so, and goes on to imply some church recognition of these (apparent) nonbelievers (“for whoever is not against us is for us”). Is Jesus indicating there is a reward for nonbelievers friendly/helpful toward the Church and it’s members? Am I reading this correctly? A. I view this passage somewhat more narrowly, that John was saying the man driving out demons was not one of the Disciples, and therefore ought not be acting like one. Remember, the disciples themselves had only recently failed in their attempts to drive a demon out of an epileptic boy (Mark 9:17-18) and were perhaps indignant that an outsider would try. As for the cup of cold water, the assumption is that anyone being kind to a follower of Christ in those times when Jesus was thought to be a blasphemer worthy of death, would have to be a believer himself. In the parable of the Sheep and Goats of Matt. 25:31-46 the Lord told us that the same conditions will prevail at the end of the age. Since salvation is based on what we believe and not how we behave, it’s unlikely that He would have been hinting at some kind of reward for non-believers.
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Flesh And Blood Or Bread And Wine?
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Does Mark 9:38-41 Refer To Unbelievers?
No Tattoos
Q. I would swear I remember a prohibition against marking your bodies like the pagans do somewhere in the Bible but for the life of me I cant find it. Are you familiar with it?
A. Leviticus 19:28 says,
“Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.”
Lots of people will say, “That’s in the Old Testament. We’re not under the Law” It’s true, but in Ephesians 2:10 God calls us His workmanship (handiwork, work of art). Most people wouldn’t go around defacing a human being’s art work. Why do we think it’s OK to deface the Lord’s?
