Confessing your sins only to God?

[Boxerdog]

Does it say anywhere in the bible that we should confess our sins directly to God or is there a verse that Protestants use to try to convey this point?

I believe what it sayes in James that we are to confess our sins to eachother.

 

[Tom]

Does it say anywhere in the bible that we should confess our sins directly to God or is there a verse that Protestants use to try to convey this point?

I believe what it sayes in James that we are to confess our sins to eachother.

I’d be careful with the “to eachother” keep Jame in context, it is written to the priests and leaders of the particular Church, not to individual Christians. So individual Christians are not to confess to eachother, but to the priests. Otherwise I could confess to you and seek absolution, which is not what was intended.

 

[jemfinch]

I’d be careful with the “to eachother” keep Jame in context, it is written to the priests and leaders of the particular Church, not to individual Christians.

Is there textual support for that claim, though?

Jeremy

 

[Truthstalker]

I’d be careful with the “to eachother” keep Jame in context, it is written to the priests and leaders of the particular Church, not to individual Christians. So individual Christians are not to confess to eachother, but to the priests. Otherwise I could confess to you and seek absolution, which is not what was intended.

James was written to “the twelve tribes” not to a particular church, and nowhere in it does it indicate it is only supposed to be for the priests and leaders. The brethren are addressed repeatedly. Or are you suggesting only leaders need to do what the book commands, and laity is off the hook on confessing sins, since only leaders are commanded to confess sins to each other?

In the Lord’s Prayer, we state we forgive each other. We do give absolution to each other: we won’t hold something against someone that they have done against us. If I have sinned against my wife, for example, I will confess it to her and ask her for her forgiveness. I also ask God to forgive me and do what I can to both rectify the situation and see what I can do so it does not happen again. If I find I have made a real mess of things, I will talk to a pastor, but more as a counselor than as confessor - although confession winds up involved: “here’s the mess I made - help me figure out what the Lord wants me to do.”

I kind of like something I read on an Orthodox site - the Latin church is oriented towards the legal aspects of acquittal and the judicial process of forgiveness and release from debt, but among the Orthodox, sin is viewed more as a sickness in need of healing, and confession is always face to face. The latin church looks as sin as a wound, which puzzles me as to why the seeming emphasis is on the judicial aspect rather than the healing. But maybe I’m wrong.

If a Catholic sins against his wife, does he tell the priest only but doesn’t ever tell his wife? I don’t know. I wonder.

 

[Syele]

As a protestant, I was taught that we are to confess our sins to God AND whomever we wronged – be it one person or 100s.

Also protestants believe in the preisthood of all believers, so the distinction Tom brings up would not be useful in arguing with protestants.

 

[Sabda]

In the Lord’s Prayer, we state we forgive each other. We do give absolution to each other: we won’t hold something against someone that they have done against us. If I have sinned against my wife, for example, I will confess it to her and ask her for her forgiveness. I also ask God to forgive me and do what I can to both rectify the situation and see what I can do so it does not happen again. If I find I have made a real mess of things, I will talk to a pastor, but more as a counselor than as confessor - although confession winds up involved: “here’s the mess I made - help me figure out what the Lord wants me to do.”

I kind of like something I read on an Orthodox site - the Latin church is oriented towards the legal aspects of acquittal and the judicial process of forgiveness and release from debt, but among the Orthodox, sin is viewed more as a sickness in need of healing, and confession is always face to face. The latin church looks as sin as a wound, which puzzles me as to why the seeming emphasis is on the judicial aspect rather than the healing. But maybe I’m wrong.

If a Catholic sins against his wife, does he tell the priest only but doesn’t ever tell his wife? I don’t know. I wonder.

If you will check a Catholic child’s catechism you will find that it states the Catholic position in the simplest of terms.

from page 24-26
Grace is Christ living in us. Mortal sin kills this life, it crucifies Christ in us. Venial sin makes our soul sick, Christ is sad in us.
It displeases God to see you hurt yourself. Does your mother like to see you hurt yourself?
from page 40-41
The sacrament of Penance is like medicine. It is the medicine of Christ’s Precious Blood. It cures sick souls. It is much stronger than medicine for the body. It even raises dead souls to life. This sacrament heals the wounds of all our sins.
Our sins may be big. Our sins may be many. But Our Lord always forgives us if we are sorry. He is never angry with us. He loves to have us come to Confession.

If you hurt yourself than you need to do something to make yourself better. Confessing to God though His priest in the confessional heals us. I can honestly say that I have received tremendous healing when I have received the Sacrament of Penance (confession) . I’m sure since you are on the outside looking in it does looks legalistic to you. As one who is on the inside I don’t find it the least bit legalistic.

Oh also, as Catholics we DO have the choice of having a face to face confession or going behind the screens. I have only done behind the screens once. The rest of the time my confessions have always been face to face. HTH

 

[teachccd]

Is there textual support for that claim, though?

Jeremy

Read John 20:19-23. Read it carefully and then ask yourself what the apostles were to do when Jesus gave them the authority to forgive sins in His name. Read it again if you have to because this is a very hard verse to get around unless you take it at face value and see the exchange of authority on the night of Jesus’ resurrection. The apostles could only use this authority if they were you able to “hear” the sins of the people. This makes no sense in any other application although I’ve heard everything to escape the Catholic sacrament of reconciliation. This was practiced in the very early Church as is referenced in many of the Early Church Father’s writings. Our very overworked priests would not use precious time to hear hours of confessions if it were not commanded by God. So that time remains precious in the conversion of souls as Christ commanded on that first Easter Sunday.

 

[teachccd]

As a protestant, I was taught that we are to confess our sins to God AND whomever we wronged – be it one person or 100s.

Also protestants believe in the preisthood of all believers, so the distinction Tom brings up would not be useful in arguing with protestants.

Catholics also believe in the common priesthood of all the baptized but Scripture also mandates a ministerial priesthood as noted in the pastoral letters of Timothy and Titus. In Acts we also find the deacons. So biblically we find those “set apart” for ministry. Just my :twocents: God Bless

 

[levi86]

Does it say anywhere in the bible that we should confess our sins directly to God or is there a verse that Protestants use to try to convey this point?

I believe what it sayes in James that we are to confess our sins to eachother.

Like all protestant “arguments” against the RCC James 5:14-16 has been taken out of context.

James 5:14-16

14 Is anyone among you sick? He should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint (him) with oil in the name of the Lord,
**15 **and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven.
**16 **Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.

Verse 16 directly follows the calling of priests for the anointing of the sick. It is with reference to these priests that forgiveness of sins is mentioned.

Also, if Christ had intended to implement a “universal priesthood” (as protestants understand it) there would be no need to call a priest to anoint the sick, it could have simply been performed by a member of the laity already present. If anything this passage reinforces the unique role of the Priesthood within The Church.

 

[Tom]

Is there textual support for that claim, though? Jeremy

Certainly,
www.drbo.org:

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. 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.

Remember when Scripture was written there were no verse numbers. Verse 14 runs right into 15 & 16 without seperation. In verse 14 “Let him bring in the priests of the Church”, tells us who the prayer of the faith is coming from and who is forgiving the sins (priests) referred to in verse 15, and also to whom we are to confess our sins in verse 16. The “to one another” is between priests referred to in verse 14.

 

[jemfinch]

Read John 20:19-23. Read it carefully and then ask yourself what the apostles were to do when Jesus gave them the authority to forgive sins in His name.

Uh, my question was only concerning Tom’s claim that the book of James was written to the clergy. I’m well aware of the biblical support for the sacrament of confession.

Jeremy

 

[Dan-Man916]

Remember when Jesus healed the paralytic man in Matthew 9:6?
Did he rise pick up his matt and go before Jesus told him so? Or did Jesus need to say the words of power in order to effect his grace?
The Sacrament of reconciliation is the same thing.
Can we ask God for forgiveness? Of course! But can we just assume we are forgiven on the sincerity of our faith, or do we need to hear the words of Christ made present to us who says, “I absolve you of your sins.”
There is power in words. We can hope that we are forgiven if we are sincere and confess to God. But we can have the assurance of *faith *that we are indeed forgiven when we have heard the words of forgiveness in Christ’s name. For Luke 10:16 tells us, He who hears you hears me.

 

[DavidB]

In the early church, most sins were confessed just to God and considered forgiven as they were confessed. For the very few sins that were considered “mortal” (murder, adultery, fornication, apostasy, etc), the person had to make a public confession to the entire church. Because a mortal sin ws considered to have cut the person off from Christ, this public confession was necessary to reconcile the person back to Christ. Once the confession was made, it was automatically considered to be absolved if the person completed a predefined penitence that took years (up to 7) during which time that stood at the back of the church and did not participate in things including Eucharist. There really was no sacrament of confession as we know it today in which a priest hears sins and pronounces absolution. That took a number of centuries to develop.

With respect to the earlier posters comment that James was referring to confessing sins to the priests, the priesthood hadn’t really been insituted at the point. Bishops acted as priests by administering the Eucharist, though they didn’t think of themselves as priests. Don’t forget, the temple was still up and Levitical priests were still operating until around 70AD, when speaking of priests, that’s who they thought of. The role of the New Testament priesthood did not come into full flower until several centuries later.

David

 

[Dan-Man916]

One also needs to remember that reconciliation also entails reconciling with the Church, which is Christ’s Body. Christ and His Mystical body cannot be separated, so that reconciliation entails both.
What David said is true enough. The point of the long periods of reconciliation was that it was done through the community, not just the penitent and God alone. The community of the Church has always been involved. Today, it is easier for us as the priest stands in for the community as well and reconciles us back to the Church too.

 

[teachccd]

Uh, my question was only concerning Tom’s claim that the book of James was written to the clergy. I’m well aware of the biblical support for the sacrament of confession.

Jeremy

Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. Maybe someone else needed to read what I wrote. Again, I guess I wasn’t following the thread as closely as I should have. My apologies…

 

[happygal]

I’d be careful with the “to eachother” keep Jame in context, it is written to the priests and leaders of the particular Church, not to individual Christians. So individual Christians are not to confess to eachother, but to the priests. Otherwise I could confess to you and seek absolution, which is not what was intended.

Confessing your sin to others beside priests is not seeking absolution…Sorry…When one tell you about their sinful act, as a believer we help to pray for God’s mercy upon them. And we do not have any right to absolute their sin…If you sin against your frez, you don’t confess/own up to them?? coz to what you mentioned you only confess to priest and God only!!!

 

[water]

.If you sin against your frez, you don’t confess/own up to them?? coz to what you mentioned you only confess to priest and God only!!!

We still need to do the followings:

Mat 5:22-25
But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council. And whosoever shall say, Thou Fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. 23 If therefore thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath any thing against thee; 24 Leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother: and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift.

However, let’s say a man cheated on his wife. He felt guilty and went to confess and repented that he would never do it again. Should he go and tell his wife? Is this good for the sake of their relationship? or it should be between him and God[via the confession to the priest]

What do you think, happygal?

 

[StCsDavid]

Though I hesitate to rank the sacraments as they are all beautiful, the sacrament of reconciliation is second in my mind only to Eucharist.

Why does a Protestant would confess his sins to God? God already knows his sin. Second, the Protestant believes that he is already saved. It seems that confession for the Protestant has no efficacy other than for the person to admit one’s own fault. Confession becomes a bit of an exercise of pride or personal vanity limited to his temporal experience of this life.

For Catholics, there’s a much deeper experience in receiving the sanctifying grace that one has lost as a result of one’s sin. It is a coming home experience to get back into communion with Our Lord and His Church. Eternity with Our Lord is its meaning. Christ working through the priest absolves us and destroys our sins forever.

I’ve written more about my own encounter with this sacrament here.

 

[happygal]

We still need to do the followings:

Mat 5:22-25
But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council. And whosoever shall say, Thou Fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. 23 If therefore thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath any thing against thee; 24 Leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother: and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift.

Amen to that!!

However, let’s say a man cheated on his wife. He felt guilty and went to confess and repented that he would never do it again. Should he go and tell his wife? Is this good for the sake of their relationship? or it should be between him and God[via the confession to the priest]

What do you think, happygal?

**If a man cheated on his wife and does not confess his wrong doing to his wife, his conscious already covered with dark clouds, we strike to walk a life with righteous,purity and faithfulness. Do you think God will not let the truth reveal itself?? Althought we make a confession to God and Priest, but then the victim has being kept in the dark…Think about it. What would God tell you…!!! No need to tell your wife, is a secret between you, myself and the Priest!! I am 100% sure God will not reveal that to you!!!

By cheating his wife is sinning against not only God but also to his wife. Confession must goes to God, Priest and Wife. And who has to be afraid of letting the truth make known if you have a serious heart to repent, for God will have mercy for you and if both partner commit their marriage onto God’s hand, what are things that God cannot resolve. Is all about putting your faith onto God. And if the man feel uncomfortable, bring his wife to church , have an open talk with the priest around …what is so difficult of confessing your mistake where in the 1st place he already have the guts to cheat their wife…Is all about having God’s mindset or human mindset!!!**

 

[water]

Good thinkinking, happygal.

So, how does it make difficult for people to confess to the priest whose authority has given to by God? What is the deal of going straight to God and can’t go to the priest then?