Thanks for the honest question and objection. It is a legitimate one.
Unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life within you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink - John 6:54
Take this and eat, for this is my body, which is given up for you - Luke 22:19
The plain language of Scripture is that you have to eat his flesh and drink his blood.
In a way, it is cannibalism but you have to make the distinction between substance (reality of what it is) and accidents (external appearances). Simple example, the reality is that the earth orbits the sun although the external appearance is that the sun is moving while the earth is stationary.
The substance of the Eucharist is human flesh (in this sense it is 'cannibalism') but the accidents (it's appearance as bread, color, fluff, taste, dimensions etc.) are that of bread so it is actually not cannibalism.
Real cannibalism = substance (human flesh) & accidents (human flesh)
The early Christians also understood the Eucharist to be the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and they should have a good idea of what Christ really meant.
They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. - Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans, 110 AD
110 AD is only 80 years removed from Christ himself, and Ignatius was a very old man when he wrote this. He would know how the Christians actually understood the Eucharist.
Thanks for the honest question and objection. It is a legitimate one.
The plain language of Scripture is that you have to eat his flesh and drink his blood.
In a way, it is cannibalism but you have to make the distinction between substance (reality of what it is) and accidents (external appearances). Simple example, the reality is that the earth orbits the sun although the external appearance is that the sun is moving while the earth is stationary.
The substance of the Eucharist is human flesh (in this sense it is 'cannibalism') but the accidents (it's appearance as bread, color, fluff, taste, dimensions etc.) are that of bread so it is actually not cannibalism.
Real cannibalism = substance (human flesh) & accidents (human flesh)
Eucharist = substance (human flesh) & accidents (bread)
The early Christians also understood the Eucharist to be the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and they should have a good idea of what Christ really meant.
110 AD is only 80 years removed from Christ himself, and Ignatius was a very old man when he wrote this. He would know how the Christians actually understood the Eucharist.