- 57 - As you already know, a single word was left out of the Greek text, thereby completely changing the sense of the passage. Instead of ‘them’ the original text had ‘you’. Whence the passage would read: ‘If you forgive the sins of others, yours will be forgiven. If you retain (or do not forgive) them, your own shall be retained (not forgiven).’ In these words, Christ voices the same teaching that is contained in the words of the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us’, and in the words that he uttered immediately after the Lord’s Prayer: Matthew 6: 14-15: ‘For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, your heavenly Father will not forgive your trespasses either.’ Inasmuch as the power of remitting sins, such as is claimed by the Catholic Church, does not and cannot exist, it was never either taught nor exercised in the early days of Christianity. Hence the Christians of those times were never required to confess their sins to a priest, but were urged, in accordance with the teachings of Christ, to confess their sins to one another, namely those sins which they had committed against each other. They were expected to acknowledge the wrongs that they had committed against their neighbours to the neighbours themselves and thereby to effect a reconciliation. For this is, after all, the only and the quickest way of making atonement. If a person who has offended you comes to you and admits that he was in the wrong, you will gladly give him your hand in reconciliation. It is this that Christ is requesting when he says: Matthew 5: 23-24: ‘If, when you are offering a gift at the altar, you remember that your brother has a grievance against you, leave your gift before the altar, and first go and be reconciled with your brother, and then come back and offer your gift.’ If confession before a priest and absolution by him were necessary for the remission of sins, Christ and the Apostles would not have neglected to point this out again and again. It would have constituted the most important part of the Christian teachings, since without forgiveness of one’s sins no one can enter the kingdom of heaven. • Nevertheless, neither Christ nor the Apostles make any mention of confession before a priest, nor of absolution by him. Confession and absolution by a priest are human institutions that do not make the road to God any easier for the believer. Instead, they make it more difficult by lulling him into a false sense of security. He confesses, receives absolution from the priest, and goes his way, thinking that he has made his peace with God. He thus becomes the victim of a great deception! • Every error in the truth of Salvation is like the wrong path taken by the wanderer that leads him away from, rather than toward, his goal.
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