Continuation of previous post
- Pentecostals did not believe in Confession. Believes in praying to God directly for forgiveness of Sin.
We believe that they should be confessed to God directly in prayer because he is the one who forgives sin. We are told in Holy Scripture “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). We believe that when we have harmed others, we should make confession both to God in prayer and to the person or people wronged.
Why Jesus give authority to his disciples to forgive sin?.
This is an authority given to the entire church. All believers have this authority. Part of this authority relates to church discipline. Another part of this authority relates to the prayers of believers as they relate to the remission of the temporal consequences of sin. James 5:13-20,
And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. . . . My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
Sin not only has spiritual and eternal consequences. It has temporal ones as well. It is in relation to the temporal effects of sin that Jesus gave the church the power to forgive or to withhold forgiveness. Through intercession, believer’s can forgive, pardon, and remit the full effects and consequences of sin, so that those who deserve to reap corruption by their actions (Galatians 6:8) would not. This is for the purpose of loosing people from the captivity and bondange that Satan wants to hold them in until they have time to awaken and repent. This is temporary and is dependent on the intercession and spiritual warfare of believers.
There is a point, however, when intercession on behalf of people is no longer in their best interest. There comes a time when people need to feel the consequences of their sins. In these cases, we have power to withhold forgiveness and withdraw our intercession, even to deliver them up to Satan for the destruction of the flesh in the hope that the spirit might be saved (1 Corinthians 5:5). It is the church’s responsibility to discipline unrepentant believers through both informal and formal methods with the goal of restoration in mind.
There was a member of my church who fell into serious immorality. At a Sunday night service, a visiting pastor who knew our church well preached on 1 Corinthians 5. In response, we all gathered around the altar and began to pray in concert. We did as Paul instructed the Corinthians to do to the immoral brother among them. We prayed that the hedge of protection might be lifted and that this man might know the full consequences of his sin and that he be delivered over to Satan for a time so that his spirit might be saved. (As an aside, that man did repent and is still in church, but it took him hitting rock bottom and losing almost everything for his eyes to be open).
I say that to say the following: Pentecostals see John 20:23 and other verses like it as applying to all of God’s people, the priesthood of all believers, the church. And there are examples in church history where other Christians have operated in similar functions. There is a documented history of lay confession in both the East and the West (
The New Catholic Encyclopedia has an entire article on Lay Confession). It is also documented that at various times and places martyrs and confessors were believed to have the power to pardon sin (Hippolytus,
Apostolic Tradition 9.1). We see this in Eusebius’
Church History Book 5, chapters 1-2 where the Gallic martyrs restored apostates back to the church through their intercession:
*45. “But the intervening time was not wasted nor fruitless to them; for by their patience the measureless compassion of Christ was manifested.
For through their continued life the dead were made alive, and the witnesses showed favor to those who had failed to witness. And the virgin mother had much joy in receiving alive those whom she had brought forth as dead.
46.
For through their influence many who had denied were restored, and re-begotten, and rekindled with life, and learned to confess. And being made alive and strengthened, they went to the judgment seat to be again interrogated by the governor; God, who desires not the death of the sinner, but mercifully invites to repentance, treating them with kindness.
. . . . . . . .
- A little further on they say: “They humbled themselves under the mighty hand, by which they are now greatly exalted. They defended all, but accused none. They absolved all, but bound none. And they prayed for those who had inflicted cruelties upon them . . .
- And again after mentioning other matters, they say:
“For, through the genuineness of their love, their greatest contest with him was that the Beast, being choked, might cast out alive those whom he supposed he had swallowed. For they did not boast over the fallen, but helped them in their need with those things in which they themselves abounded, having the compassion of a mother, and shedding many tears on their account before the Father.
7.** They asked for life, and he gave it to them, and they shared it with their neighbors.** Victorious over everything, they departed to God. Having always loved peace, and having commended peace to us they went in peace to God, leaving no sorrow to their mother, nor division or strife to the brethren, but joy and peace and concord and love.” . . . *
