On salvation of man

Holy Week is fast approaching, so it is a fitting time to refute this claim. Once again, Mr. Chito Germino has proposed a very dangerous claim based on his reading of the Bible.

He began his latest article with contradicting statements, saying that the Bible should be given importance by Christians while maintaining that it should not be entrusted to organized religion. He goes on to say that religion has used the Bible to control people. Those words could not be further from the truth.

To him, we are brainwashed for believing that we are sinners. And he makes the absurd claim that Jesus did not take away our sins. How could that be true when the same Bible he likes to quote says, “This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loves us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.” (1 John 4:10)

He says that God created us perfect and that by our own capacity we can be free from sin. Humanity was perfect until our first parents chose to sin, and so death and suffering came with it. That is the exact reason why the Father sent us Jesus Christ; to save us from sin.

Mr. Germino does not remember the words of Jesus Himself, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, he came to serve and to give his life to redeem many people.” (Mark 10:45) Everytime we go to Mass, we hear the Scripture passage saying, “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) Nothing could be clearer than that.

That is why we believe that without Jesus, we can’t be saved from sin. For what else did He come to earth for? He did not come to be a political figure or a philanthropist, He came to offer His life for all men so that they might have forgiveness of their sins. It doesn’t mean though that we will do sit and do nothing, we must obey God’s commands which prevent us from sinning. If Mr. Germino thinks that we can do away with sin by ourselves, then why bother asking forgiveness from God? That is simply illogical.

On a last note, Mr. Germino is mistaken when he says Jesus didn’t believe in organized religion. Matthew 16 (“...on this Rock, I will build my Church..”) is proof that Christ established One Church and that Church has existed since then until now. What Jesus condemns in Matthew 6:5-6 is a shallow religiosity that does not translate into works.