No you don't and that is sacrilegious to even compare the Bible to the elements of Bread and Wine where Christ real presence is. If you don't partake of the Euchrist you do not have eternal life in you nor does any evangelical that does not partake. So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. No Eucharist, no life period. You all fool yourselves daily. You all are dead indeed
There you go denying my testimony and my Life in Christ which began so many years ago [[70?] and continues today. You should be careful when you "... darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" Job 38:2
I won't deny that people can blessed when they take communion in Catholic churches or in Protestant churches... if in their hearts they are right with God and truly believe that what they are consuming is his flesh and his blood. I don't know all of the hearts, but I have partaken of communion in both places and what I received was real to me and for me... but not with precisely perhaps the same understanding of it that you may have.
Consider who Jesus is:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1
"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." John 1:14
This is the 'flesh', which we are to eat:
"Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." John 6:53-57
Well men listened to Jesus after he was crucified and came back to them in his resurrection as they had listened God for many centuries previously to receive inspiration to write what is written for us to read in what name the scriptures. They were inspired, but what is written is not meaningful to a person being led by his own spirit rather than by the Holy Spirit as he reads the Bible. [If you don't believe this consider the conclusions drawn by unbelieving atheists who know the Bible well.] But then just reading the Bible can be a good thing because of the inspiration, but to receive all that God put in it for us Apostle Paul's words can help us... if we can understand him...
That atheist I mentioned above can and does read the letter of the New Testament [NT] and also of the Old Testament [OT] but all he gets is the dead, unresurrected body of Jesus on the cross. Rather than writing it all anew I have copied my response to a dear sister in Christ, who was called on forums, [8 years ago on another forum], Gentlewind (remembered by several others here by other names), which follows here:
You have it right that both Jesus and scripture are the Word of God, but there is a very definite difference. The difference is that Jesus was always alive as a result of being filled with the Spirit of God. The scripture is the Body, but while it remains in the book unread it is a dead carcase. When God breathes (as per Ezekiel 37) into the dead carcase, which we have ingested (heard, studied or read scripture), it comes to Life just like Jesus.
"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." II Cor 3:5-6
If someone simply studies the Bible, he has a lot of good pieces of information, but the same thing is true if he studies the Encyclopedia Britannica. Our carnal mind is not sufficient of itself to discern what God is saying to us (His Word Alive) unless we also have the Spirit, that is, His Spirit giving Life, quickening the scripture ingested.
We must both eat His flesh (scripture) and drink His blood (Spirit)
"Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." John 6:53
"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:63
In other words, a Bible student will have no profit from his studies without the Spirit of God. Communion services where people eat a bit of bread and drink a bit of the juice of grapes is nice, but it is not what we need to have Life.
"But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Matt 4:4
We are to live by the Living Word of God. That, in effect, is the Spirit enriched scripture.
