Catholics have confession, what do Protestants have if they sin?

[Marithorne]

There is such a thing in (at least Southern Baptist) many protestant faiths as going forward at the invitation period and telling the pastor what you are repenting of, and publicly professing your faith. Even if done in private, you are encouraged to come forward on Sunday morning to publicly do this. Its called renewing your faith. It involves going to the altar publicly in front of the congregation, praying to God, talking to the pastor or some other lay person, and then having the pastor tell the entire congegration that you have repented and are renewing your faith with Christ. It also involves all the church coming up to hug you afterwards or to shake your hand.

They don’t call it a confession, but that is what it is. It is often when a Christian has back slidden and comes forward to repent. For what we call venial sins, most just pray to God to forgive them and go about their lives. I, personally, love the sacrament of Confession in the Catholic Church. And no, its not me confessing to a man, its me confessing to God with my priest as a witness, someone who has God’s authority to absolve me and counsel me on how to not do it again. I feel lighter as I leave, and I am comforted to know that no matter what I do, my priest, just like my heavenly father, loves me and forgives me. He never judges me or condemns me. I always hated the pressure and humiliation that I felt going forward at an altar call. That is just my two cents.

 

[john_aurelius]

In the early Church confession was often public and proscribed penance also.

The practice of a confessor comes from the monastic Irish experience. These confessors were also the first to have prescribed penances for the sins confessed.

The distinction I read above concerning reconciliation as a sacrament and venial and grave sins is also valid in the CC. Venial sins may be confessed directly to the LORD due to our relationship with him.

Mortal sin is the only kind that absolutely needs confession as a sacrament because justifying grace has been destroyed and needs the Church’s absolution.

If there is a relationship breakdown in the Protestant realm often the sinner may feel forgiven from God and have Biblical assurance of their forgiveness but not receive forgiveness from the Church as an institution and remain with fractured relationships, a heartbreaking senario I have encountered. Many are often then “treated as if they were a pagan” or never "truly"saved.

Isn’t the sacrament of reconciliation just so symbolic of God’s grace and love for us? His desire to heal us and put the pieces of our lives back together.

Some people delight in this so much they use confession as a method of growth in grace even without the commiting of Mortal sin.

Luther wasn’t sure whether to call confession a sacrament (cf. THe Babylonian Captivity of the Church and Freedom of a Christian 1520) where his answer evolves even as he is writing.

 

[LOCO]

It would seem that if the Bible says we can, then it would be hardly dangerous as long as we take it seriously. The real danger would come in rebuking what has been written.

That is where our paths diverge. The CC has a set process whereas Baptists and other Protestants do ‘whatever they interpret the Bible says they should do’ which can be varied.

There is nothing stopping you from confessing your sins to your congregation but are you seeking forgiveness from them or God. Yes, you are confessing in front of witnesses but ask yourself.

-Are these people going to discuss/gossip what I have confessed in front of the entire congregation?

-Is it going to be ‘show and tell’?

-You may take it seriously but will others? I admire your faith in the ‘goodness of others’ but we all know human nature. Your congregation has not taken a ‘vow’ not divulge your confession to others or report it.

• What about the children/young adults present? What exactly will be confessed - extra marital affairs, stealing, pornography viewing, hiring a prostitute etc…

Priests hear some ‘shocking’ Confessions, some of people who have done ‘illegal’ things but are ‘repentant’ for their actions. A Priest will not report a Confession of such a nature to the Police.

If I was a Protestant I would confess Mortal Sins to my Pastor/Preacher/Elder etc… I think it would be unwise to confess to the entire congregation.

Catholics have a tried and true method which does not conflict with Sacred Scripture. I usually confess Venial Sins in private conversation with God and Mortal Sins to my Priest who acts as a Witness and provides absolution ‘in Persona Christi’.

Be very careful though, repetitious Venial Sins if left unconfessed can easily lead to Mortal Sin.

Catholics also know that a Priest will not reveal any Confession as he made a Vow to God which is binding till death.

This is serious business ‘our salvation’ and we must be discerning.

Personally, for me, not being sure if what I am doing is right or if what I am being advised is right or one pastor telling me one thing and a congregation of the same church down the road is doing something else or one interpretation of scripture says this but it conflicts with another interpretation is NOT good enough for me. Inconsistency, conflicting interpretations, swaying and buckling to modern views doesn’t appeal to me.

But that’s just me, others are content with that.

All Christians are swimming in ‘turbulent waters’ that is the modern world. I want a Rock that has stood the test of time to be throwing that lifeline to me immediately. I don’t want there to be any discussion about whether the lifeline will hold or can wait or an argument about the right course of action or worse a decision being made that it’s all good, I’m a great swimmer I’ll make it on my own.

** I love the My Lord, My Church, My Mother Mary, My Father St Joseph and My Pope**

 

[hn160]

In the early Church confession was often public and proscribed penance also.

The practice of a confessor comes from the monastic Irish experience. These confessors were also the first to have prescribed penances for the sins confessed.

The distinction I read above concerning reconciliation as a sacrament and venial and grave sins is also valid in the CC. Venial sins may be confessed directly to the LORD due to our relationship with him.

Mortal sin is the only kind that absolutely needs confession as a sacrament because justifying grace has been destroyed and needs the Church’s absolution.

If there is a relationship breakdown in the Protestant realm often the sinner may feel forgiven from God and have Biblical assurance of their forgiveness but not receive forgiveness from the Church as an institution and remain with fractured relationships, a heartbreaking senario I have encountered. Many are often then “treated as if they were a pagan” or never "truly"saved.

Isn’t the sacrament of reconciliation just so symbolic of God’s grace and love for us? His desire to heal us and put the pieces of our lives back together.

Some people delight in this so much they use confession as a method of growth in grace even without the commiting of Mortal sin.

Luther wasn’t sure whether to call confession a sacrament (cf. THe Babylonian Captivity of the Church and Freedom of a Christian 1520) where his answer evolves even as he is writing.

The Apology if the Augsburg Confession calls Confession and Absolution a Sacrament:

In Article XIII, the adversaries approve our statement that the Sacraments are not just marks of profession among people, as some imagine. Rather, they are signs and testimonies of God’s will toward us. Through them God moves hearts to believe. 2 But here they ask us to count seven Sacraments. We hold that the matters and ceremonies instituted in the Scriptures, whatever the number, should not be neglected. Neither do we believe it to be of any consequence. However, for teaching purposes, different people do count differently, provided they still rightly keep the matters handed down in Scripture. The ancients also did not count in the same way.
3 If we call Sacraments “rites that have the command of God, and to which the promise of grace has been added,” it is easy to decide what are true Sacraments. For rites instituted by human beings will not be called true Sacraments. For human authority cannot promise grace. Therefore, signs set up without God’s command are not sure signs of grace, even though signs perhaps instruct the unlearned or admonish about something. 4 Therefore, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and Absolution (which is the Sacrament of Repentance) are truly Sacraments. For these rites have God’s command and the promise of grace, which is peculiar to the New Testament. When we are baptized, when we eat the Lord’s body, when we are absolved, our hearts must be firmly assured that God truly forgives us for Christ’s sake. 5 At the same time, by the Word and by the rite, God moves hearts to believe and conceive faith, just as Paul says, “Faith comes from hearing” (Romans 10:17). But just as the Word enters the ear in order to strike our heart, so the rite itself strikes the eye, in order to move the heart. The effect of the Word and of the rite is the same. It has been well said by Augustine that a Sacrament is a visible Word, because the rite is received by the eyes and is, as it were, a picture of the Word, illustrating the same thing as the Word. The result of both is the same.

 

[Stepson]

What I have read (please correct me if I’m wrong because I’m still reading and learning) on Luther and the Sacrament of Confession is that he thought it was commanded by God, therefore spiritually right. However, he was did not want to call it a Sacrament because he didn’t agree with how the Church had administered it. He saw that the Church was using it as a weapon against people.

If this is true, I will publicly admit Luther was wrong on this in my opinion. Just because someone does not administer a Sacrament in the right way (as Luther saw it) you don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater and refuse to call it a Sacrament.

 

[hn160]

What I have read (please correct me if I’m wrong because I’m still reading and learning) on Luther and the Sacrament of Confession is that he thought it was commanded by God, therefore spiritually right. However, he was did not want to call it a Sacrament because he didn’t agree with how the Church had administered it. He saw that the Church was using it as a weapon against people.

If this is true, I will publicly admit Luther was wrong on this in my opinion. Just because someone does not administer a Sacrament in the right way (as Luther saw it) you don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater and refuse to call it a Sacrament.

The Augsburg Confession doesn’t outright say that Confession and Absolution is a Sacrament, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession and Luther’s Large Catechism says that it is a Sacrament. Lutherans have three Sacraments.

 

[kbcdac]

I have learned a lot on this thread and have enjoyed it

 

[JoshuaNY]

The Augsburg Confession doesn’t outright say that Confession and Absolution is a Sacrament, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession and Luther’s Large Catechism says that it is a Sacrament. Lutherans have three Sacraments.

It was my understanding that a Sacrament had to be:

1. instituted by God
2. God Himself has joined His Word of promise to the visible element
3. He offers, gives and seals the forgiveness of sin earned by Christ

Absolution lacks a visible element. I know that Absolution is extremely important. Arguably as important as Baptism and the Eucharist. But because it lacks a visible element is not technically a Sacrament??

 

[Stepson]

It was my understanding that a Sacrament had to be:

1. instituted by God
2. God Himself has joined His Word of promise to the visible element
3. He offers, gives and seals the forgiveness of sin earned by Christ

Absolution lacks a visible element. I know that Absolution is extremely important. Arguably as important as Baptism and the Eucharist. But because it lacks a visible element is not technically a Sacrament??

Isn’t the act of confessing ones sins to another the visible element? (A physical act.) Just as using water to wash the original sin off of the baptized the visible element? (A physical act) I too believe that there are three sacraments in the Lutheran Church.

 

[Nicea325]

Quote:
Originally Posted by PaulinVA
Carlan’s point is valid: Why would Christ have said this:
"22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. 23 Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”"If the apostles and their successors were not supposed to forgive sins (through confession)?

The explanation can obviously be something to the effect that Jesus gave the APOSTLES that authority. Not their successors many generations later, as there is no belief in apostolic succession. Sure other bishops came after and spread the word, but it doesn’t mean each one had the same “powers” so to speak.

Aahhhhh…but there are problems with this argument. If Jesus only gave it to the Apostles only,then the same can be applied to everything else Jesus told them and taught them.Where those Jesus’ true intentions? One can say the same about baptism. Of course not! Obviously Jesus’ did not teach everything would cease with the death of the last Apostle,because then how would his ministry and mission continue on here on earth?

It would be like saying:

If the U.S. President dies or is killed,his power and authority will cease;hence no successor can have the same “powers” so to speak.

 

[Young_Thinker]

Young Thinker, Do you consider Christ the “head” and the Church the “body”? The Church the bride, He the groom? There would be no Church without personal relationship with Jesus.HHis can you divorce the two? I am getting way off topic.
I’ve always understood the ministry of reconciliation to belong to and be a responsibility of all Christians. I have believed it to mean evangelizing. Spreading the Gospel that gives hope to all men, that they all can be reconciled to God through His Son. I read through the thread and we are all quoting the same scriptures to make opposing points.
The Protestants in the main denominations (which does not include Mormons or any other that teach a different Gospel than the one taught by Christ) believe they can confess their sin and ask forgiveness directly from the Father in the name of Jesus. We didn’t earn that
privilege, Christ died to give it to us. That is not an eloquent explanation, but earlier in the
thread it was stated beautifully by others.

Yes, you are right in saying that the Church is the Bride of Christ, and I agree that every Christian should have a personal relationship with Jesus. However, I feel that is not enough; Jesus wants to accept the truth of the Catholic Church (which He founded, appointing St. Peter as the first Pope), to love and venerated His Mother as She deserves in respect to the Son, and to be in active communion with the saints in Heaven. Much of the beauty that Christ gave to us are in the Sacraments, including the reconciliation. While God knows when we sin, He knows that confessing it another person (and letting that man forgive you in His name), making a sincere contrition in front of the priest, and accepting a penance to try to heal the wound that is left over after one’s sin has been forgiven have both practical and spiritual benefits.

 

[1beleevr]

This may be a simple question but it’s puzzled me recently.

If I was to commit a serious sin, I can go to confession to seek, and receive, forgiveness. But what do Protestants do in such an occasion, if anything at all? How can they be assured of God’s forgiveness for their sins?

Note - I’m not specifically looking for answers from Protestants themselves, but that would be interesting.

The old time worn verse of course, is 1John 1:9, and of course James 5:16. Catholics feel the need to go to confession every week; does this mean they commit serious sins every week? For non-catholics do not believe for the most part that they have carte blanche when it comes to sinning(you know, covered by grace?). Those who believe that they can just sin and not feel convicted, are fooling themselves. Ther’s no need to visit a mortal man for forgiveness, when your Holy Father can cut out the middle man! And you know when you feel as though a load has been lifted from your heart, that the Father has forgiven you. Of course, we do have a mediator, a divine “Middle Man,” named Jesus! But hey, if the catholics feel the need for confession, so be it!

 

[1beleevr]

I still haven’t found a verse in the Bible that exhorts us to visit a mortal man to be forgiven of our sins. Is it far-fetched to correlate John 20:21-23 with the Lord’s prayer? You know, forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us?(or, trespass?)

 

[1beleevr]

So you say a prayer to yourself earnestly and then you can be assured of forgiveness?

Seems surprisingly simple.

Well, congratulations, young lady!

 

[Link0126]

What about protestants that are hateful towards the Church though… The real Baptist preacher types… do they just a pass b/c of invincible ignorance? Here we are with all these obligations, striving for holiness which is required to see the Lord, and they walk around hateful towards us causing more division and keeping others from the True Church and it’s all good b/c they didn’t know any better…?!!

 

[hn160]

It was my understanding that a Sacrament had to be:

1. instituted by God
2. God Himself has joined His Word of promise to the visible element
3. He offers, gives and seals the forgiveness of sin earned by Christ

Absolution lacks a visible element. I know that Absolution is extremely important. Arguably as important as Baptism and the Eucharist. But because it lacks a visible element is not technically a Sacrament??

The visible act in Absolution is the pastor who is acting in the stead and by the command of Christ to forgive sins.

 

[Stepson]

The visible act in Absolution is the pastor who is acting in the stead and by the command of Christ to forgive sins.

That was my understanding as well.

 

[JonNC]

What about protestants that are hateful towards the Church though… The real Baptist preacher types… do they just a pass b/c of invincible ignorance? Here we are with all these obligations, striving for holiness which is required to see the Lord, and they walk around hateful towards us causing more division and keeping others from the True Church and it’s all good b/c they didn’t know any better…?!!

I’m not going to denominationalize it this way, because there are hateful words that pass back and forth between the various Christian communions all the time. All of us, therefore, would do well to heed the eigth commandment, and Luther speaks well of it when he says:

The Eighth Commandment.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

What does this mean?–Answer.

We should fear and love God that we may not deceitfully belie, betray, slander, or defame our neighbor, but defend him, [think and] speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything.

Jon

 

[JonNC]

The visible act in Absolution is the pastor who is acting in the stead and by the command of Christ to forgive sins.

To my Lutheran brothers,
Based on our agreed-upon definition of sacrament, why not then,
Unction, and marriage?

Jon

PS: I too consider Absolution a sacrament.

 

[Stepson]

To my Lutheran brothers,
Based on our agreed-upon definition of sacrament, why not then,
Unction, and marriage?

Jon

PS: I too consider Absolution a sacrament.

Jon,

Isn’t anointing the sick called for in James?

I have not seen a Catholic last rites, but when I was young, I remember my great grandmother’s passing. As she was on her death bed, a Lutheran pastor came and made the sign on the cross on their forehead and read scripture to her. Now that I look at it, it looks awfully like last rites. As the pastor was doing this, she looked up at the ceiling and said, “Hi daddy.” She then passed away. It was quite powerful to watch and brought a lot of peace to those in the room. So I would say for me that I am defiantly leaning toward Sacrament here.

In fact, I agree with all the Sacraments except for Marriage. And even this is adiaphora to me.

Why? Well if it is a Sacrament, why would the Church withhold it from the ordained? Secondly, if we look at Genesis, isn’t marriage an after thought? Wasn’t it God’s first plan for just Adam and Him just to “hang out?” I can’t see an after thought being a Sacrament.

Just my thoughts and I am open to other ideas and would love to hear them.