#12717 Every Protestant Objection to John 6—Answered - Karlo Broussard
Catholic Answers Live
Catholic Answers
4.8 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
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Summary
Do Catholics interpret John 6 consistently, or are Jesus’ words about eating His flesh just symbolic like calling Himself the “gate” or the “vine”? In this episode of Catholic Answers Live, Catholic Answers apologists respond to some of the strongest Protestant objections to the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist. The discussion examines whether John 6 should be interpreted metaphorically, how the surrounding context affects Jesus’ teaching, and what Christ meant when He said “the flesh is of no avail.” The episode also explores why many disciples walked away from Jesus in John 6 and whether their reaction supports or undermines the Catholic doctrine of the Real Presence. A deep and biblical defense of the Eucharist rooted in Scripture, theology, and the words of Christ Himself.
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Questions Covered:
- 06:23 – Catholics aren’t consistent in their interpretation of John 6. They interpret Jesus’ words about eating his flesh and drinking his blood literally in John 6, but they don’t do that when it comes to his words about being the “gate” in John 10:9 or the “vine” in John 15.
- 15:52 – Catholics ignore the preceding context in verse 35 where 3. Jesus uses the metaphors of eating and drinking for coming to and believing in him. If Jesus used those images as metaphors there, then he must have used them as metaphors when he speaks of eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
- 30:05 – Catholics ignore verse 27 where Jesus moves away from a physical mentality and takes things in a spiritual direction. Here’s what he says, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” This distinction between spiritual and physical food serves as the basis for interpreting Jesus’s words about eating his flesh figuratively rather than literally.
- 35:50 – Catholics argue that Jesus never clarified his audience’s literal thoughts. But that’s not true. He does it in John 6:63, where he says, “It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
- 50:20 – Catholics argue that because Jesus let his disciples leave based on their literal interpretation of his command to eat his flesh and drink his blood that meant Jesus meant the words literally. But the disciples didn’t leave because of Jesus’ teaching. Rather, they left because of Jesus’ teaching in verse 65 that no one comes to him unless the Father draw him.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Buying or selling your home, real estate for life can connect you with a pro-life real estate agent. |
| 0:05.2 | When Real Estate for Life receives a referral fee, they donate 65% to Catholic Answers. |
| 0:11.5 | Learn more at realestateforlife.org. Hello and welcome to Catholic Answers live. |
| 0:32.1 | This is weird. Dr. Carla Roussard back in studio with us today. |
| 0:36.4 | In the house. I know. Usually I'm looking that direction on a video screen and you're in Oklahoma and here you are sitting right next to me. I hope I can get used to it. It's nice to see you. It's good to see you as well, man. Yeah, thank you. Amen. Thanks. It's just great when you're here. I'm glad you're back. I love it, man. Yeah. The energy is through the roof. Yeah. It's crazy. Well, you know, it's not like that |
| 0:55.0 | when you're not here, though. Like, I wonder how much, how much of that you bring, you know. I don't know. It's just, it's such a delight to be here, be in the hall, seeing everybody, passing everybody, seeing their smiles. It's so much joy in the building. I appreciate it. It's a gift from God. It is a gift for God. |
| 1:10.8 | And I'm grateful for it. |
| 1:11.8 | We get to be around each other, and we sure miss you, since you found |
| 1:16.5 | people you like better than us. I don't know. I'm not exactly sure the reason you left. I know there's |
| 1:20.0 | more to it than that. Hey, we're going to talk about John 6 today, and we're going to answer every |
| 1:26.1 | Protestant objection to John 6. |
| 1:30.2 | And okay, you... |
| 1:32.6 | Qualifier. I think that's a bit hyperbolic, perhaps. So just in case there is some |
| 1:37.8 | other objection to our interpretation of the bread of life discourse that we did not cover, |
| 1:43.4 | understand that we're not claiming to |
| 1:46.1 | exhaust all the objections. |
| 1:48.1 | I think that's what you have to do for YouTube now, though. |
| 1:51.1 | You have to be like answering every objection to John 6, destroy every, that kind of step. |
| 1:57.0 | So that's the spirit in which we give that. |
| 1:59.1 | But we are going to try to take seriously |
| 2:02.2 | Protestant objections to the Catholic interpretation of John 6, in which we say Jesus, when he |
| 2:08.4 | talks about drinking his blood and eating his body, is talking about drinking his blood and |
... |
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