Gospel Presentation Preparation
1. What is the dominant religion in your area?
Roman Catholicism is still the dominant religion in our country.
2. What are their primary beliefs?
Roman Catholic beliefs are codified in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. If we are to summarize
what they believe about salvation, Roman Catholics think that they will be saved if they do enough
good deeds in order to outweigh their sins. This includes fulfilling their sacramental duties, doing acts
of charity and making sure that they do not commit mortal sins. Though they say that this is by the
grace of God, they actually mean that salvation is achieved by God’s work plus man’s work to reach
the requirements of righteousness.
As to their source of authority, Rome believes that the Bible (66 books plus Apocrypha), tradition and
the church are equal sources of teachings. As such, they have practices that contradict clear
teachings of the Bible such as Marian worship and devotion to statues, images and relics.
Roman Catholics, however, are Trinitarians—worshipping the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as one God
in three persons. They also have clear Christology about Jesus being fully divine and human, and who
came to earth at the incarnation to die on the cross for the sins of humankind. In addition, however,
they view Jesus’ sacrifice as a continuing act every mass with the celebration of the eucharist. Here,
they believe that the bread and wine supernaturally transform into the actual body and blood of
Jesus through transubstantiation.
When talking about sin, Roman Catholics usually categorize sins as either venial or mortal. Essentially,
venial sins are the “lesser” sins that do not endanger a person’s entry in heaven. Mortal sins are the
more grievous sins that are willfully done by a person. These sins will shipwreck a person’s salvation
and would require the sacrament of penance or reconciliation in order to be resolved.
3. How would you begin a spiritual conversation with someone in your community?
Because Filipinos are religious by nature, it is not so difficult to speak about Spiritual things with
people. This can be done by directly asking about their beliefs or sharing one’s beliefs and eliciting
opinions or reactions.
Another open door are religious celebrations like Christmas and Holy Week. During these times, it’s
easy to talk to people about spiritual things. In fact, we can be very direct during these seasons in
sharing about our faith and beliefs.
Lastly, I often open discussions about a church message or a Bible passage and ask their opinion
about it. Because it is common to hear sermons and preaching on a weekly basis, it’s not too difficult
to engage people in spiritual discussion through these avenues.
4. What are the key points within Christianity that you feel are necessary for a proper understanding of
the Gospel message?
There are three aspects of the Christian faith that will help Roman Catholic Filipinos understand the
Gospel better. These are a) sin, b) faith or repentance vs good works and c) Jesus’ death on the cross.
Often, Filipinos use other people as standard in measuring their sinfulness. Because of the teaching
on venial and mortal sins, they have the tendency to feel at ease thinking that there are more sinful
people that themselves. That is, instead of seeing even just one sin as punishable with death, they
tend to think that they can get away if they only commit small sins. And because they think of a scale
when it comes to their standing with God, they sometimes try to make up by doing additional good
deeds. It is crucial to clarify the nature of sin, that even a single sin merits eternal judgment in hell
because it is an offense to a holy God. That is, only a person who has never sinned will be able to
stand before God’s presence at judgment. That is why they need a Savior—Jesus.
Second, when we talk about the response to Jesus’ offer of salvation, it is good to emphasize the
Biblical teaching of justification through faith or repentance and all by grace. That is, God grants us
the grace to believe in what Jesus has done. And by this trust in the finished work of Christ, we
receive the gift of forgiveness, righteousness and salvation. It is a response that happens once and
that a person must make. Faith is essentially trust. It is an admission that we cannot save ourselves
and so we rely solely on Jesus’ means of salvation. Repentance is a turning away from one’s former
ways of sin to live a life pleasing to God. The important thing is one’s willingness to repent and his or
her act of surrender before Jesus. By God’s grace, when a person humbles himself and embraces the
Savior, he or she is justified or saved. Good works are the evidence, not the prerequisite of salvation.
When one is saved by grace through faith, he or she is able to do good deeds. It is not the other way
around where one needs to earn his or her salvation by his actions.
Lastly, the death of Christ on the cross, specifically its efficacy and scope must be clarified. Many
Filipinos mistakenly think that when Jesus died on the cross, His death meant pardon for all of
humanity. This is a kind of universalist view of salvation. They think that when Jesus died, He
cancelled the debt of their past sins. But people are now responsible in dealing with the present and
future sins. It is good to clarify from Scripture that Jesus’ death is sufficient for all but is efficient only
for God’s chosen people—that is, those who respond by grace through faith. And His death covered
not just past sins but past, present and future. When Jesus died, He paid for the all the sins of all who
will ever believe in Him as Savior and Lord by grace. Thus, this death is not a universal pardon but a
pardon only for believers. And if one desires such forgiveness, he or she should also trust in Jesus
alone for salvation.
