:On the ''[[sola scriptura]]'' principle that scripture interprets scripture, the biblical metaphor of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of men is found all throughout the Bible to refer only to the violence done to the innocent, the orphan, the widow and the poor by the wicked oppressor, by corrupt nations and peoples, evil kings, governors and judges, by the tax collector and the landlord, "''who eat up my people as if they were eating bread''" ([http://biblehub.com/multi/psalms/14-4.htm Psalm 14:4]); and it also refers to the merited destruction inflicted on those oppressors in return by almighty God, in reprisal for their repressive and destructive policies and their acts of evil rapine in raids, invasion and war. Numbers 23:24; Deuteronomy 32:42-43; Psalms 27:2, 30:9, 76:4; Proverbs 29:10; Isaiah 49:26; Jeremiah 19:9, 46:10; Ezekiel 11:3-11, 39:17-20; Daniel 7:5; Micah 3:2-3; James 5:3; Revelation 19:18, 21.
:"''...consume them in wrath, consume them till they are no more...''" Psalm 59:13a; "''...I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.''" Isaiah 49:26a; "''That day is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, to avenge himself on his foes. The sword shall devour and be sated, and drink its fill of their blood.''" Jeremiah 46:10a. <br>The words of Jesus promise that those who eat his flesh and drink his blood have eternal life, and warned those listening to him that if they do not eat his flesh and drink his blood they do not have life.
:Those who eat the flesh and drink the blood of the sinless Jesus in worship of God are not those who are punishing him (''eating him up as if they are eating bread, and getting drunk on his blood by beating him to a bloody pulp'') in reprisal for any evil he has ever inflicted on mankind. He testified to the Father that those who crucified him knew not what they were doing, and asked him to forgive them. St. Paul stated that if the rulers of the world knew the secret and hidden wisdom of God, they would not have crucified him (1 Corinthians 2:8). But they did this out of envy and hatred for him (Matthew 27:17-18). John wrote that the Jews persecuted Jesus all the more because he called God his Father (John 5:16-18). None of these loved him.
:Simply on the basis of the biblical text alone, the interpretation that Jesus was using a metaphor is not supported by the clearly plain and evident pattern of metaphor as used in all the rest of the Bible, a metaphor signifying '''''oppressive violence and cruelty''''' and the effect of the divine wrath of retribution inflicted on evil persecutors. If the strictly literal physical term ''trogon'' in the context of John 6:26-59—''in violation of Greek grammar and vocabulary''—of necessity allowed ''only'' a metaphorical interpretation (it doesn't) then Jesus would be saying that only those who hatefully persecute him have eternal life (John 6:53-57), “Most certainly I tell you, unless you viciously persecute the Son of Man, you do not have life in yourselves. He who viciously persecutes me has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is indeed food, and my blood is indeed drink. He who viciously persecutes Me lives in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he who viciously persecutes me, he will also live because of me.” (Compare Matthew 25:41-46; Romans 2:5-11; Wisdom 2:12-24.)
:Partaking in Communion of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread and wine is also seen as the complete fulfillment of all the [[Foreshadowing|prefiguring]] Levitical sacrifices made at the altar of the [[Tabernacle|Tabernacle in the wilderness]] and the [[Temple of Jerusalem|Temple]], in which, after the offering is made, a portion of the consecrated sacrifice is given (back) to the worshipper to eat (Leviticus 1 through 8).
:Fundamentalists and many Evangelical Christians firmly and devoutly maintain that repeatedly offering Jesus as a sacrifice again and again in worship condemns to [[hell]] those who do so, "''seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh''" (KJV Hebrews 6:6b, in the context of Hebrews 6:4-8). They denounce as [[apostasy]] the "incredible doctrine" that Orthodox and Catholic priests actually have authority to compel Jesus to come down from heaven to lie helplessly on the altar as bread and wine to offer himself under their hands, to repeatedly submit to them, to suffer repeatedly, and to be killed on the altar of sacrifice again and again by the priest and congregation as a sacrifice of atonement to God in reparation for their sins. They point with horror to the fact that the [[liturgy]] actually refers to Jesus on the altar as "the sacrificial victim", "this pure victim, this holy victim, this spotless victim, the holy body and blood of Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ". It is held to be evidence of a "''[[Apostasy|falling away]]''" from the pure doctrine of Christ into [[Paganism|pagan]] blasphemy and superstition , as part of the [http://www.thecatholictreasurechest.com/apostasy.htm '''Great Apostasy'''], which they consistently teach began as early as the beginning of the second century. <br>See the Fundamentalist article [http://thegreatapostasy.com/ "The Apostasy: An Era of Spiritual Darkness"]. They ardently warn that anyone who dies believing in this doctrine as truth will surely perish in hell.
:This warning has been seen as a distorted [[misrepresentation]] of the actual orthodox catholic doctrine of the sacrifice of the Eucharist, as part of an unswerving continuation of [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] [[polemic]] in the fight against all forms of Catholicism. :[[Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox]], Catholics and Protestants who believe in the Real Presence, who together constitute the majority of Christians, [[Apologetics|respond ]] that it is Jesus himself as the High Priest who offers to the Father and presents in worship of Him simultaneously at the altar on earth and in heaven his one, unique , everlasting sacrifice of himself, made once only in a bloody manner for all time for all sinners, in [[Eternal|eternity]], and in unbroken, ceaseless continuity through all centuries. He is now by his own power made present in an unbloody manner whenever worship is offered, as in the upper room on the night he was betrayed, as both sacrifice and food for all his people in every time and place, that they all might "''see the Son of Man''" and "''partake of the divine nature''" (John 6:36, 40; 2 Peter 1:4). These Christians firmly and boldly declare according to their reading of the literal word '''τρώγων''' in the text of John 6 that to "eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood" in [[Eucharist|Eucharistic Communion]] '''''is''''' to be physically and spiritually united to him entirely in communion by fully accepting his person and his doctrine personally, with heart, soul, mind and strength (body) entirely accepting Jesus as their own personal Savior and living the life of Christ (Galatians 2:20), thus drawing spiritual nourishment from him by the power of the Holy Spirit, in body, soul, spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). For them, to receive Communion unworthily is to be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 10:15-17, 11:29; Hebrews 12:18-24; 2 Peter 1:4; Acts 20:28).
:According to the orthodox [[catholic]] Christian doctrine of [[apostolic succession]], only a validly ordained Christian priest acting ''[[in persona Christi]]'' as the Lord's own fully authorized representative ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:18-20) can consecrate the bread and wine in sacrificial worship so that Jesus himself as High Priest, through the ordained priest as His instrument at the altar, makes the [[substance]] of the bread and wine into the substance of his own body, blood, soul and divinity under the [[sign]]s of the visible forms of bread and wine; and therefore those who are not validly ordained as priests—and who, as ordained ministers and pastors, do not teach this doctrine—are not committing sacrilege or blasphemy by treating the symbols of the bread and the cup of the Lord's Supper, which they use as ordinary bread and wine or grape juice sanctified by prayer and blessing (1 Timothy 4:4-5), which some call "the emblems", as a [[symbol]] and [[ordinance]] in remembrance of the Lord's sacrifice in their own forms of Christian worship, as obedient acts symbolizing their own commitment as disciples of Christ.