R
RNRobert
Guest
“Why do I have to confess my sins to a priest when I can go to God directly?”
“Confessing sins to a priest is putting a man between me and Christ, who is the only mediator.”
“No mortal man shall come between me and my God.”
How many times have we Catholics heard words like these from the lips of our separated brethren? In this thread I will endeavor to show that the Catholic Sacrament of Confession (now usually known as Reconciliation; it also used to be known as the Sacrament of Penance) is Biblical as well as wholesome.
The main objection Protestants have to this sacrament is that they claim it places a mere human between a Christian and God. However, if we look in the Bible, we can see that God often uses men and women to speak to people. In the Old Testament, God used Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and to teach them how they were to act and worship. God also used the prophets to speak to the Jews in order to correct their errors and lead them back to Him. 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us that “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ.” This is true: no one else can do for us what Christ did on the cross. However, we can see in the Gospels that Jesus Christ gave his authority to the Apostles to preach and teach in his name. Additionally, we are a mediator between man and God whenever we share the Good News with someone, or when we pray for someone. So, the Protestant position is itself unbiblical.
Scripture tells us more with regard to confession. In the Old Testament, when a Jew brought an animal to the temple as a sin offering, under certain circumstances he was to “confess his sin” to the priest (Leviticus 5:5). In John 20:23, Jesus tells the Apostles, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, whose sins you retain are retained.” How were the Apostles to forgive or retain a sin unless they knew what it was? Acts 19:18 tells us that in Ephesus “Many of those who had become believers came forward and openly acknowledged their former practices.” James 5:15 is more explicit: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you might be healed (Hmmm…
I wonder how many “Bible-only” Christians actually practice the first part of that passage).
Continued…
“Confessing sins to a priest is putting a man between me and Christ, who is the only mediator.”
“No mortal man shall come between me and my God.”
How many times have we Catholics heard words like these from the lips of our separated brethren? In this thread I will endeavor to show that the Catholic Sacrament of Confession (now usually known as Reconciliation; it also used to be known as the Sacrament of Penance) is Biblical as well as wholesome.
The main objection Protestants have to this sacrament is that they claim it places a mere human between a Christian and God. However, if we look in the Bible, we can see that God often uses men and women to speak to people. In the Old Testament, God used Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and to teach them how they were to act and worship. God also used the prophets to speak to the Jews in order to correct their errors and lead them back to Him. 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us that “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ.” This is true: no one else can do for us what Christ did on the cross. However, we can see in the Gospels that Jesus Christ gave his authority to the Apostles to preach and teach in his name. Additionally, we are a mediator between man and God whenever we share the Good News with someone, or when we pray for someone. So, the Protestant position is itself unbiblical.
Scripture tells us more with regard to confession. In the Old Testament, when a Jew brought an animal to the temple as a sin offering, under certain circumstances he was to “confess his sin” to the priest (Leviticus 5:5). In John 20:23, Jesus tells the Apostles, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, whose sins you retain are retained.” How were the Apostles to forgive or retain a sin unless they knew what it was? Acts 19:18 tells us that in Ephesus “Many of those who had become believers came forward and openly acknowledged their former practices.” James 5:15 is more explicit: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you might be healed (Hmmm…
I wonder how many “Bible-only” Christians actually practice the first part of that passage).Continued…