Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther began the fragmentation of Christendom. Since then, more than 43,000 ambitious Protestant men have successfully turned their Marketing Plans into Protestant denominations. Each Protestant denomination has this common denominator: “We can get to Heaven without being Catholic.” A deeper truth: Jesus divides the living from the dead.
Jesus’ made His purpose clear in Luke 12:51 and Mt. 10:35, “I have come to divide . . .” His most often repeated Instruction tells us how Jesus separates the living from the dead: “If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood you do not have life in you.”With those words, Jesus separates the living from the dead.
Later, at The Last Supper, He did turn bread and wine into His Body and Blood.
Common sense tells us that Jesus wanted people in every generation to be able to “have life in” them. So, He ordained priests in The Only Church He Founded with the power to forgive sins and bring about The Miracle of Transubstantiation in every Mass. That way, His chosen could choose to do what He said was necessary to “have life in you”. That is why Catholic priests had to be ordained with the power to change bread and wine into the actual Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
43,000 Pastor Bobs disagree. They are not among those chosen to take His words “If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood you do not have life in you.” seriously enough to obey. They insist: “Jesus didn’t mean that! He was speaking symbolically!” Are they doing His will by dividing people between those who obey and those tho do not?
Catholics conclude from the 33 verses between John 6:33-66. “A dozen times, Jesus repeated and repeated and repeated words to the effect that ‘If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood you do not have life in you.’ He gave those instructions twelve times in 33 verses! How can anyone claim to be an obedient Christian, much less a Christian minister, and not believe that Jesus’ orders should be obeyed, no matter how bizarre they seem?”
Catholics ask that question in actual astonishment. It is hard for us to understand how someone could claim to be a Christian minister and disobey Jesus! How can anyone claim “I preach the Word of God.” and ignore or twist the clear, though bizarre, words that Jesus said again and again and again about the only people to whom He promised “life in you”.
The only explanation we find: “Jesus repeatedly said ‘I have come to divide.’ He is separating those with the faith to become practicing members of The Only Church He Founded from those who do not have that faith. The safest bet? The safest for my immortal soul is to obey the instructions from He Who Fulfilled the Prophecies: “If you obey My commands you are My friends.”
