I'm here in the beautiful island nation of Fiji. That's filled with exotic animals, beautiful vegetation, and spectacular scenery. The people here are some of the nicest in the world, but it hasn't always been that way. This was known as the "Cannibal Isles", the Fijian warriors were some of the fiercest in the South Pacific and greatly feared. You can understand why. This is one of the weapons that they use for breaking the neck of their adversaries. Long before, they were killing and eating missionaries. They were fighting with, killing and eating each other. In fact, as you go to the different tourist locations on the island, they'll sell you remakes of some of the forks they use for eating human brains.
In fact, there was one cannibal chief, Ratu Udre Udre during the 1800s, that is in the Guinness Book World Records for having killed and eaten the most victims. He brags that every time he killed someone, he set a stone aside. By the end of his life, he had a pretty big pile of stones. It's estimated he ate somewhere in the neighborhood of 900 people, oh, my.
The Fijians were not the only ones that had a monopoly on cannibalism. In fact, the bible says that we are all capable of being cannibals. Galatians 5:15 says, "If we bite and devour one another, we may end up consuming one another." That's talking about destroying people's reputation by mean gossip.
One famous missionary named, Paton. When he was preparing to go to Cannibal Isles, his friends and family begged him not to go. They said, "You'll be eaten." He said, "It doesn't matter to me if I die and I'm eaten by worms or if God wills that I'm eaten by cannibals, as long as I'm doing the will of God. Well, he went to the Cannibal Isles and brought many to Christ and died peacefully in his old age.
Some of the ancient cannibal cultures believe that when you killed and when you devoured your enemy, you would somehow take within you their spiritual strengths or powers, but that's really absurd. There is kind of cannibalism endorsed in Scripture, that's right. Jesus said in John 6:53, "Except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you." You don't need these tools to do it. What you need is to read his word and learn about his life. Except by faith, he sacrificed in your place and you can have a new heart and be a new creature. You can even do it right now.