With a heart of true repentance,confess your sins to the lord, and you will be forgiven. Nowhere biblically will you find that a priest is needed for the confession of sins.
The finished work of Christ accomplished that. 1 John 1:9 , Acts 22:16
To continue the work of the Levitical priesthood is to deny Christ’s work. For 15 years I confessed my sins to a priest, always dreading that day of confession.
Now I confess daily, with a salvation from Jesus, not the Catholic church.
Ryan
To us Catholics, at confession, the priest is Christ on Earth, Christ’s spirit in the Priest listening to us and telling us what we must do for penance and what to do not to sin the same sin twice. It grants one on one in the flesh time with Jesus to ask for forgiveness and to really know that he forgives us, not just tell him in our heads and just hope that he does forgives us.
Devoted child
Can you back up your claims with scripture? What you have told me is contrary to the scripture that I gave, and only the wisdom of man. Have you not read…
Col 2:20-23 1Cor 2:4-5 Col 2:23 Is 2: 17, 21, 22
Ryan
No, I don’t have any claims with scripture because far as I know, its not in the bible. I have read and heard plenty of the bible from church and what you say is correct but I am very sceptic of any who trys to interpet it without knowledge from the original language it was traslated from, the Catholic bible is translated from the original herbrew transcripes far as i know. That makes a difference in interpetation due to what the words mean in herbew and the history behind it.
What I talked about is a manner of tradition and a matter of faith that the Church holds.
I am not trying to pick a fight with you, I am merely trying to get you to see and understand our point of view.
aaa
Really? I have some articles on my blog which refute your line of thinking. Here, read these and see if you can maintain your errant position.
“I Find No Sacraments In the Bible” he said.
Catholic Confession
Scriptures About Penance
Nothing you pointed to in 1 John 1:9 or Acts 22:16 claims that there is no need for confession and sacramental resolution. I bet you were hoping we wouldn’t look those two verses up.
The bottom line is this: Christ told the church “he who hears you, hears Me” and “he who rejects you, rejects Me.” He breathed on the leaders of His church and told them to go and hear confessions, that whatever they bound on earth would be bound in heaven, and whatever they loosed on earth would be loosed in heaven.
Do you reject the church, rwaechter? Do you confess as Christ directed?
Ultimately, when I read your post, what I see is that you think Christ lied about the authority granted to the church and to the apostles. Unfortunately, I don’t think Christ was a liar, so I can never come to your position.
Have you not read…
I always hate when someone starts out a line like that. The catholics have played apologetics with the bible for millenia more than your church has, guarunteed.
Col 2:20-23
Warns against asceticism, not confession.
1Cor 2:4-5
Paul is saying he’s speaking with the Authority and wisdom of God, not man. This actually BOLSTERS the claim that the leadership of the church acts with the authority of Christ. I bet you were hoping I’d take your word at it and not look this one up…
-]Col 2:23/-]
You listed the same verse twice. Sneaky sneaky…
Is 2: 17, 21, 22
Are you trying to say you’re hanging out in a cave? Cool cave if it has internet connection!
But… this verse has nothing to do with confession either.
So you’ve quoted a bunch of verses to us that have nothing to do with confession at all.
Let me quote one for you… (emphasis mine)
So let me go back to that first question: Do you reject the governance of the church, or are you part of the sects which have broken from the church and now assault her?
Moreover, Acts 22:16 says…
And now why tarriest thou? Rise up, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, invoking his name.
Which has nothing whatever to do with confession of sins (especially as applied to St. Paul’s conversion, since it says nothing at all about confessing!), but does in fact confirm the sacramental nature of Baptism and therefore its necessity because the verse plainly states that it washes away sins.
[BIBLEDRB]John 20:21-23[/BIBLEDRB]
passed down through Apostolic Succession
Actually, there is an example of someone where God asked him and her to directly confess their sin but the result was disastrous.
Here it is, from Genesis 3:
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
From verse 11, God knew Adam had sinned, so here he asks the question and is actually asking Adam to confess what he had done. And verse 12 is Adam’s response…and his response actually makes the sin worse, he blames another, Eve, for him being disobedient. So instead of owning to his sin, or admitting the sin (confessing) which God was looking for, he blames another. So the result is disastrous.
Same with the Eve…when God asks Eve in v13, God knows Eve has sinned, God is asking Eve to own up to her disobedience. And you can see Eve’s response…she blames the serpent. So, another disastrous response.
From the examples cited above, you can see the when you go directly to God, there is a lot of rationalization, of second guessing, whether we sinned or not.
Do you think this is what God wants? Don’t you think God knows our human nature (well, He created us) very well, that in wishing for us to truly repent, with no rationalization, that He would not give us the process to truly confess our sins, with no second guessing, no rationalization our part?
For starters, your lack of grace and use of phrases, such as
Are you trying to say you’re hanging out in a cave? Cool cave if it has internet connection!
are not the words I would expect from someone who has recieved the holy spirit, and has Christ working through their life. I appreciate educated dialogue where interpretations can be weighed through scripture. Why ever would you think that I would hope that you would not look up these verses? I am glad you have, as nothing else carries authority, especially our sinful opinions and assumptions.
To answer your questions
Do you reject the church, rwaechter? Do you confess as Christ directed?
No and yes. I reject the authority the Catholic church assumes it has, but recognize the authority which Christ has given to His church through elected elders and deacons as detailed in Timothy and Titus and many early Acts church examples.
I do confess as Christ directed, but not to a priest. That is why you will not find confessions in any of the verses I gave, as you pointed out.
This passage below you gave does not give the apostles the authority to forgive sins, but to preach the gospel and allow the power of the holy spirit to either bring repentance, or not.
I can’t find the verse telling the apostles to “hear confessions”. Please include that in your response.
The bottom line is this: Christ told the church “he who hears you, hears Me” and “he who rejects you, rejects Me.” He breathed on the leaders of His church and told them to go and hear confessions, that whatever they bound on earth would be bound in heaven, and whatever they loosed on earth would be loosed in heaven.
My main point lies on the premise that the Catholic church, through imagination of what the regulative principle ought to be, and gross misinterpretation of scripture to support an authority never given to the church, has invented Its own institution complete with new rules of government, worship, salvation, and most importantly transubstantiation.
All of these, I understand, are each a separate debate.
I would be willing to discuss what I feel is the core issue, and that would be the apostolic authority presumed to be given to Peter, (Mat 16:18) which I have been told is verse which Catholics anchor the entire faith on.
Ryan
For minor sins, no, but for serious mortal sins, yes. It is definitely in the Bible.
The finished work of Christ accomplished that. 1 John 1:9 , Acts 22:16
The finished work of Christ has nothing to do with the consequences of sins.
To continue the work of the Levitical priesthood is to deny Christ’s work. For 15 years I confessed my sins to a priest, always dreading that day of confession.
Now I confess daily, with a salvation from Jesus, not the Catholic church.
No, you have been misquided by Protestant traditions. The Catholic Church teaches that salvation comes from Jesus, and you have been taught another false Protestant tradition. The there is the Protestant tradition of abolishing the New Testament priesthood. Where is that in the Bible???
There is nothing wrong with confessing sins directly to God, but lets see some verses about confessing sins to the priest.
James 5
[14] Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. [15] And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man: and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him.
[14] “Let him bring in”… See here a plain warrant of scripture for the sacrament of extreme unction, that any controversy against its institution would be against the express words of the sacred text in the plainest terms.
[16] Confess therefore your sins one to another: and pray one for another, that you may be saved. For the continual prayer of a just man availeth much.
James 5:16 - James clearly teaches us that we must “confess our sins to one another,” not just privately to God. James 5:16 must be read in the context of James 5:14-15, which is referring to the healing power (both physical and spiritual) of the priests of the Church. Hence, when James says “therefore” in verse 16, he must be referring to the men he was writing about in verses 14 and 15 – these men are the ordained priests of the Church, to whom we must confess our sins.
There is a reason you cannot find confession in these verses. It’s because the sacrament does not fit your belief system. Obviously, confession to the priest is in the Bible.
Here is a list of more verses your system has blinded you to:
scripturecatholic.com/confession.html
Please forgive the harsh tone of my post, but I tend to react that way when someone insults my beliefs “in the name of Jesus”.
There are a lot of people who leave the Catholic Church for emotional reasons, not theological ones. Most of the time they leave because of a new circle of friends gives them acceptance and recognition they never got before. If their self made theology is more attractive, then why are Protestants losing their best scholars to the Catholic Church?
(A) Why do adult converts to Catholicism say their existing faith is enriched?
(B) Why do ex-Catholics become anti-Catholics?
Can you see the difference between A and B??
Hey rwaechter,
as one doing the opposite of you; that is converting to the Catholic Church, i can state quite honsetly this was at one stage a bit of a sticky point for me to!
catholic.com/library/Forgiveness_of_Sins.asp
catholic.com/library/Confession.asp
The above mentioned articles cover this in more detail than the average post can.
You may also want to check out the original Catholic encyclopedia’s article on the sacrament of penance. newadvent.org/cathen/11618c.htm
I apologise for the amount of reading here, but as you are correct in demonstrating, its a big topic and all of us here know these things take a lot of study!
All the best 
Lincs
Does confessing to a priest nullify any forgiveness God may otherwise grant?
For 15 years I confessed my sins to a priest, always dreading that day of confession. .
I find this very sad. But I cannot argue with what you say you have experienced.
My experience is exactly the opposite. I was Protestant for 44 years and never confessed my sins to anyone (unless I had to apologize to someone for something)–I confessed only to God. Now, 12 years a Catholic, I can honestly say that the sacrament of reconciliation is one of the things I most love about the Cathollic church. Instead of dreading it, I look forward to hearing those words of absolution–which the priest says because Christ has given him the authority to say them–and to HEAR that my sins are absolved and forgiven, forgiven BY GOD, acting in the person of His priest.
What a gift.
Ryan, the concept prevalent among the Evangelical community (I’ll take the liberty of presuming you’re an Evangelical and not a mainline Protestant (PC-USA, ELCA, Episcopalian, etc. as a lot of them don’t believe their is anything like sin) is that sheeplike Catholic dolts (including such luminaries as Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Clement, Aquinas, Dun Scotus, Sheen, Peter, James, John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Paul, etc.) never read the Bible. It is true that the last 7 on my list didn’t, but nonetheless, the current crop of dolts have no idea what is in the Bible and therefore continue in their semi-pagan ways of practice. That is, relying on an an Old Testament type priesthood, etc.
Well, my friend, that is an incorrect, rather sophomoric view. I suggest that you go to Catholic.com (the sponsor of this board) and search for all your questions as they are fully answered there.
By the way, since you’re a “Bible only” guy. What’s that rascal say about divorce and remarriage? How is that at variance with your opinion? How about your pastor’s opinion? I bet your’s and his is: “Divorce is regrettable but sometimes necessary, and Jesus provides a firm exception in Mattheew for remarriage. There’s certainly no reason for divorced people not to remarry based on scripture.” How close am I to right?
Oh, and what do you and pastor have to allow about in-vitro fertilization? What’s the Bible say about fertilizing ovum outside the womb and then killing the ones you don’t use? Does it say anything? That in-vitro is pretty much a Godsend for people who can’t have children but what to fulfill their desires isn’t it? What’s that Bible say about the origins of life and when God knew you?
This is certainly true. Even mortal sins can be forgiven through an act of perfect contrition (that is, truly repentant and determined never to commit that sin again).
Nowhere biblically will you find that a priest is needed for the confession of sins.
This is saying too much and so is not true. Others have provided the scriptural references to answer this objection.
The finished work of Christ accomplished that. 1 John 1:9 , Acts 22:16
Yes, the justice of God has been fully satisfied by Christ’s death. However, this says nothing about personal sins committed after baptism. There are other verses you need to balance with this one, such as:
1John.2:1 My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous…
Jas.5:16 Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.
If there was no further need of forgiveness of sins we wouldn’t need to confess them to anyone.
To continue the work of the Levitical priesthood is to deny Christ’s work.
The priesthood of Christ is not the Levitical priesthood with it’s need for daily propitiatory sacrifices, so no one is in any danger of denying Christ’s work. The sacrifice of the Mass is a re-presenting before the Father the one sacrifice of Christ, which is completely effective and eternal.
For 15 years I confessed my sins to a priest, always dreading that day of confession.
Now I confess daily, with a salvation from Jesus, not the Catholic church.
Ryan
You’ll not misunderstand me if I say that a bit of dread is a good thing. We are to fear the Lord–to fear displeasing him. Having a bit of nervousness over confessing to a priest should not keep anyone from availing themselves of what Christ himself established for our benefit. When we confess to the priest we are confessing to Christ himself in the person of the priest, so it’s really just like confessing in private prayer except another human being hears it, as well. And that’s a good thing because it is far too easy for us to deceive ourselves one of two ways:
thinking we aren’t in need of absolution
thinking we are too bad to ask for absolution.
Both have their root in pride not in righteousness. All have sinned and therefore all need absolution. And, none of us have sinned greater than the grace God freely pours out on us in confession. So, there’s no need to be afraid and no reason not to go to confession.
2Tim 3:16
I think this sums up your questions. The bible is silent on nothing. Including the Catholic “timing method” of family planning.
Ryan
Really? Where does the Bible speak of nuclear weapons, computers, and automobiles?
So what is your response to the Biblical articles that I linked for you in my posts earlier?