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Eucharist = Jesus? Protestant Doubts vs. the Bible

Eucharist = Jesus? Protestant Doubts vs. the Bible

Last updated on: June 13, 2026 at 1:06 pm by Dave Armstrong

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Eucharist = Jesus? Protestant Doubts vs. the Bible 2026-06-13T13:06:48-04:00 Dave Armstrong

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This is a transcript of the main presentation (minus additional discussions) of the video, “Can JESUS be in the Eucharist? Protestant Doubts vs. BIBLICAL Faith!” (Catholic Bible Highlights, with Kenny Burchard, 5-29-25). François Turretin’s words will be in blue.

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François Turretin (1623-1687) is widely considered by Reformed Protestants to be their best theologian and apologist after John Calvin himself. I cite his most important and well-known work, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, from Vol. 3. I use RSV for Bible verses. He wrote:

The body of Christ reclined at the table in the first Supper, so therefore it could not have been handed to the disciples; rather the bread which was set before them on the table was handed to them. . . .

When a literal interpretation involves an absurdity and a contradiction, we must necessarily have recourse to the figurative sense.” Since the human intellect cannot comprehend how a thing can be and not be at the same time, it is forced to recur to a figure. Now it is evident that the sacramental words, taken properly and literally . . . involve a thousand absurdities and contradictions . . . (19th Topic: The Sacraments / 28th Question: The Corporeal Presence of Christ in the Supper . . ., from the translation of George Musgrave Giger, edited by James T. Dennison, Jr. (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company: 1997)

This is an unbiblical argument, because it limits God in His omnipotence. God is everywhere and simultaneously can be said to be “in” certain things and indeed, everything. Yet we are to believe that Jesus (Who is God) can’t physically enter into bread and wine in a miraculous way: the same God Who became a man? This exhibits a lack of faith in God and His omnipotent power.

Jesus, in fact, raised Himself from the dead, as the Bible asserts in John 2:19-21 and 10:17-18, because He had, according to Philippians 3:21, “the power . . . to subject all things to himself” — and because “in him all things were created” and “in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16-17). Hebrews 1:3 also affirms that Jesus is “upholding the universe by his word of power.” Jesus’ followers also had rather extraordinary and unusual miraculous gifts. Philip bilocated:

Acts 8:39-40 the Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip; and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. [40] But Philip was found at Azo’tus, . . .

Philip was in Gaza with the Ethiopian eunuch when he was “caught up”. Then he appeared in Azotus, which is modern-day Ashdod: about 17 miles from Gaza. So a created human being could do that, by God’s power, and the prophet Elijah could stop rain for 3 1/2 years (that’s in James 5:16-18), but God the Son, Who is omnipotent, supposedly cannot do whatever amazing thing He desires to do, including entering into the bread He is holding in His hand? This is, with all due respect, ludicrous and thoroughly anti-biblical.

Ephesians 1:23 describes Jesus as “him who fills all in all” and C****olossians 3:11 declares that “Christ is all, and in all.” That includes the eucharistic bread and wine after they are consecrated.

Turretin refers to “various figures” in Hebrew thought, including those in the Jewish feast of Passover. But this is a poor example for Turretin to use, since Jesus was literally the Passover lamb (Jn 1:29, 36; Acts 8:32; 1 Pet 1:19; Rev 5:6, 12; 12:11). Passover lambs were real lambs with real blood. 1 Corinthians 5:7 states that “Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed”. But Turretin continues with his skepticism and writes:

[the] Unless this had come into their minds that the bread was figuratively called a body, how could they have helped being disturbed by a thing so monstrous? . . . how could they have been so ready to believe what all reason repudiates—that Christ was reclining at the table in their sight and that he was invisibly included under the bread?

They didn’t have to fully understand; at this point they were not yet indwelt with the Holy Spirit, as all Christian believers are. But they were called to accept His mysterious word because He was God and had proven that He was to them over and over with signs and various teachings. What they needed to do, therefore, was to believe in faith.

This is precisely what they did do as described in John 6, after other followers – called “disciples” — objected to Jesus’ “hard saying” that they claimed no one could “listen” to (Jn 6:60) and “did not believe” (6:64), with the result being that they “drew back and no longer went about with him” (6:66) because He taught the Real Presence. But St. Peter, still faithful, said:

John 6:68-69 “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

They did what Job did in the face of his profound suffering and perplexity: they believed God — despite being confused — because He was God. This point is made over and over in the book of Job, and the text refers to the God “who alone stretched out the heavens” and “who does great things beyond understanding, and marvelous things without number” (9:8, 10). God Himself states: “Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?” (38:33) and “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?” (40:2). At length, Job realized his mistake and declared in 42:2-3:

I know that thou canst do all things, . . . Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, . . .

This is what Turretin needed to conclude, too, but didn’t, and what Reformed Protestants, or Calvinists, and indeed any Protestant who denies the Real Presence, need to do today. The Bible alone is more than able to lead anyone to that point. The Eucharist was intended by God as a different kind of miracle from the outset, as opposed to the “proof” of empirical, observable miracles.

But in this it was certainly not unique among Christian doctrines and beliefs – most agreed with by our Protestant brethren. The Virgin Birth, for example, cannot be observed or proven, and can’t be explained by reason alone, as Turretin tries to do with the Eucharist, and is the utter opposite of a demonstrable miracle.

Many Christian beliefs require a great deal of faith; even relatively “blind” faith. Protestants believe in doctrines like the Holy Trinity, God’s eternal existence, the power of prayer, the Second Coming, etc. Why is the Real Presence singled out for excessive skepticism? And why does the exercise of faith have to end there?

This pervasive and excessive anti-eucharistic bias smacks reminds me of the Jewish and Muslim belief that God becoming a man is an unthinkable and impossible task for God to undertake. For them God couldn’t or wouldn’t or shouldn’t become a man. Likewise, evangelicals think God wouldn’t become bodily present under the outward forms of bread and wine. I think the dynamic is the same. “Coulda woulda shoulda” theology isn’t biblical theology.

Every Christian exercises faith in things that are very difficult to grasp by reason alone, because they’re revealed to be true by God in the Bible. I think Protestants inconsistently require a higher criterion of “proof” where the Holy Eucharist is concerned.

Related Web Page

Eucharist, Sacrifice of the Mass, & Liturgical Issues

Related Book

Biblical Catholic Eucharistic Theology (Feb. 2011, 222 pages)

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Practical Matters: I run the most comprehensive “one-stop” Catholic apologetics site: rated #1 for Christian sites by leading AI tool, ChatGPT — endorsed by popular Protestant blogger Adrian Warnock. Perhaps some of my 5,000+ free online articles or fifty-six books have helped you (by God’s grace) to decide to become a Catholic or to return to the Catholic Church, or better understand some doctrines and why Catholics believe them. If you believe my full-time apostolate is worth supporting, please seriously consider a much-needed monthly or one-time financial contribution. “The laborer is worthy of his wages” (1 Tim 5:18, NKJV).

PayPal donations are the easiest: just send to my email address: [email protected]. Here’s also a second page to get to PayPal. You’ll see the term “Catholic Used Book Service”, which is my old side-business. To learn about the different methods of contributing (including Zelle and 100% tax-deductible donations if desired), see my page: About Catholic Apologist Dave Armstrong / Donation Information.

You can support my work a great deal in non-financial ways, if you prefer; by subscribing to, commenting on, liking, and sharing videos from my two YouTube channels, Catholic Bible Highlights and Lux Veritatis, in partnership with Kenny Burchard (see my own videos), and/or by signing up to receive notice for new articles on this blog. Just type your email address on the sidebar to the right (scroll down quite a bit), where you see, “Sign Me Up!” Thanks a million!

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Summary: We defend the literal meaning of “This is my Body” with Scripture, logic, and faith— showing how belief in the Eucharist is not only reasonable and biblical, but essential.

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