- 6 - • But the things that have been preserved from the documents of the New Testament have undergone a few changes at numerous places. The transcribers changed words and parts of sentences and omitted a word here and there and replaced them with other words thus distorting the meaning of a sentence, all according to what suited them. They tried to created a source of evidence in the Bible that fitted their opinions at that time and this made them grasp for the means of falsification. They were not always aware of the gravity of their incorrectness. They rather thought that they did religion a service. This is how the populace was led astray. A lot pf people feel deep inside that they are not on the correct path, even though they do not have the opportunity to gain clarity about it. The inescapable result from this is that a Christendom uprooted like this can no longer have a fruitful effect. Because every doubt about the truth hems its effect.” I asked with trepidation: “May I ask you to quote a passage from the New Testament where a distorting change or omission produced a falsification?” “He replied that: This is indeed not a suitable point in time where I want to deal with individual falsifications. I will do so later on when I will explain the Bible to you in regards to this. I will however grant your wish and I will quote two passages to you; one passage where one word was replaced through another and one passage where one word was omitted. You know the exclamation made by the apostle Thomas according to your present day Bible: ‘My Lord and my God!’ (John 20; 28). The reality is that he used an expression that the apostles always used when talking to Christ, namely ‘My Lord and my master!’. The word ‘master’ was later falsified with the word ‘God’. I will tell you at a later opportunity why this has happened. One passage where one word was omitted and subsequently changed the whole meaning will be of special interest to you. You are a Catholic priest and you believe that you have the power to forgive sins. What passage from the Bible do you use as evidence that priests have been endowed with such a power?” I quoted the passage: “If you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven” (John 20; 23). He corrected me by quoting the passage literally: “When you forgive the sins of others, they will be forgiven them” and he continued: “The word that you translate as ‘them’ is also the word ‘self’ in Greek. The original text included the word ‘you’ in front of the word ‘self’. So that what you translate these days as ‘them’, is in reality ‘yourself’. The original text literally went: • ‘When you forgive the sins of others, they will also be forgiven yourself. You can see the distortion of meaning the omission of the word ‘you’ created. Christ said nothing else but what he said on numerous other occasions, namely: You should forgive the mistakes and the sins your fellow men commit against you from your heart, so that you gain forgiveness for your sins from God. ‘Forgive us our sins the way we forgive the sins of those that trespass against us.’ To forgive is the most difficult thing in your life. This is why you receive God’s special help. Christ also said at this particular point: ‘Receive a Holy Spirit!’ When you forgive others their sins, they will also be forgiven for you. But when you hold onto the them, namely in your heart, your own sins will also be held onto, namely by God. – Did you understand this?” I answered quite oppressed and contemplative with a gentle “yes” and immediately added: “Does this mean according to your opinion, that as a priest, there is no value in me accepting the confession of sin from others if I cannot give them absolution? That I would have to abandon the whole thing.” “You don’t have to do this” he replied. “As the Christians that belong to your Church hold the opinion that they have to confess their sins to a priest in order to gain absolution from them, you can hear their
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