Does the Bible imply confession?

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StephenL

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My question is does The Bible say we need to go to Confession?
Thank you and
God Bless!
 
yes.

God set up the system to where you were to go to the priest in the old testament for the forgiving of sin and to be allowed back into the community. We see this in the old testament through the importance of the priest in the community over and over again and through the use of the sacrificial system back then.

Jesus - the high priest and sacrificial lamb gives the power to forgive sin to his first priests the apostles… “Receive the holy spirit. Who’s sins you forgive are forgiven them and who’s sins you retain are retained” - as said by the lord after his resurrection when he met his disciples in the upper room.

The ability to forgive or retain implies that they would have to Hear a confession to decide on what to do.

Furthermore Christ made mention that he did not “come to destroy the law or the prophets… I have not come to destroy but to fulfill.” The old testament meeting with the priests and the sacrifices were perscriptions God had asked of his people… the REAL forgiving is through Christ and the system He sat up in the upper room elevated the old way of forgiving sin.
 
StephenL said:
My question is does The Bible say we need to go to Confession?
Thank you and
God Bless!
Click to expand...
After His Resurrection, our Lord appeared to the apostles and said: John 20:22-23 "Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven, whose sins you shall retain they are retained.

This power is given to the apostles, and those priests that came after them. The confession needs to be heard, so that the priest can discern if the penitent is truly repentant and has the purpose of sinning no more. If they are found to be unrepentant the priest cannot give absolution. (then the sins are retained.)
 
uhmm Imply? Nope no imply

**John 20:23 Those whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, and those whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” **

How can they forgive any one’s sins if they are not confessed?

They are also given the power to “retain sin” == To NOT forgive.
Therefore you need to convince the one given the authority that you are repentant and sorry of your sins so they are forgiven.

Also think about this, if this power was ONLY bestowed to the Apostles of Jesus NO ONE could be forgiven AFTER they died 😉

Did Jesus set up a system that would only last until the Apostles lived?
He promised He would protect HIS Church until the end of times 👍
Makes NO sense to even think that the Church today does not have the authority to hear confession and forgive sins.
As Jesus commanded.

Peace 👍
 
In addition, at the end of the Gospel of John, it is implied that Peter asked for forgiveness from Jesus for denying Him three times. It’s interesting to note, though, that the Sacrament of Confession/Penance has changed in Church history. According The Shepherd of Hermas, written early in church history, but definitely after the time of the apostles, so not included in the Bible, a baptized person could receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation exactly once during his/her lifetime; the idea being that by baptism, all sins were washed away, and a true Christian would do his/her best not to sin. Today, it is available as often as a person needs.

Penances have also changed significantly. Many penances (especially by church and civic leaders) used to be very public (such as the public penance King Henry II took after St. Thomas of Beckett was martyred according to the king’s implied - if not direct - orders). Some penances required pilgrimages to complete (such as the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compastelo, Spain, which required the penitents to carry a cross-beam of the cross the entire way, place the cross-beam across the church’s moat, use the cross-beam to cross the moat, and enter the church from the back to complete the pilgrimage). Today, penances usually consist of prayer.
 
StephenL said:
My question is does The Bible say we need to go to Confession?
Thank you and
God Bless!
Click to expand...
remember that the Church is based on scriture and tradition, the sacrament of reconcilation developed over the centuries. We don’t believe in scripture only, so we take the examples and by the guidance of the Holy Spirit have the process we know today.
 
So long as you follow the spirit of confession, the priest will always absolve.

There must be some sorrow for sin, must recognize you are in the wrong and have sinned, and you have to be in the proper position to amend your life.

Now of course, the priest may not be able to look into your soul…it’s assumed that these things exist in the penitent person by them walking into the confessional…pretty much the only reason a priest would withhold absolution would be if the person said openly they weren’t going to change or if they obstinately wouldint let go of something etc etc. The priest would take their cue from the person asking for forgivness.
 
StephenL said:
My question is does The Bible say we need to go to Confession?
Thank you and
God Bless!
Click to expand...
The Bible says that we ought to confess our sins:
“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.” James 5:16
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" 1 John 1:9
Jesus said he was sent to forgive sins:
*And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Courage, child, your sins are forgiven.” At that, some of the scribes 2 said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, “Why do you harbor evil thoughts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” - he then said to the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.” He rose and went home. When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe and glorified God who had given such authority to human beings. *Matt. 9:2-8
Then after he rose, he specifically extended this mission when he met with the disciples again:
(Jesus) said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” John 20:21-23

There is more in the Catholic Answers tract on the topic, from which I learned these things (catholic.com/tracts/confession), but certainly the practice of confessing sins is obvious in Holy Scriptures and in the teachings of the early Church.
 
StephenL said:
How does the Priest discern whether to retain or not?
Click to expand...
The priest will only retain sins if he discerns that the penitent does not have the needed level of contrition or does not have the purpose of amendment. This would only be in the case of mortal sins. Usually, the mere fact that someone is in confession is sufficient for the priest to absolve the sins. However, with certain sins, more is required. For example - the sin of stealing: the person would have to make restitution. The priest may discuss with the penitent what plan he/she may have to do this. If it becomes clear that there seems to be no intention to do this, the sin cannot be absolved. Similarly, in the case of adultery, if there is no intention to end the relationship, the sin cannot be absolved.

Remember, too, if a penitent succeeds in fooling a priest into thinking that he/she has a firm purpose of amendment when intending to continue with the sins, even if the priest gives absolution, God is not fooled. The sin is not absolved, and a new mortal sin - that of making a bad confession - has been added.
 
StephenL said:
How does the Priest discern whether to retain or not?
Click to expand...
If you read the story of St. Padre Pio, there it shows that he could read into one’s souls and see if the person was really sorry about his/her sin or was just a display.
He would deny absolution if it was the latter case, many real conversions were affected because of this.
When you are confronted with your own self and know that God sees all, that you cannot fool Him.
Of course this “faculty” of the Saint was the Holy Spirit working in him.
Many priests have this some more than others, it’s obvious the Holy Spirit can choose to manifest any time it chooses to help us grow in holyness.

Also we must not discard the priest’s own experience, if you do something over and over with love and care you become better at it.
God gives each and every one of us “charismas” or gifts and it is up to us to hone them and become excelent at them.

Peace 👍
 
Joan_M said:
However, with certain sins, more is required. For example - the sin of stealing: the person would have to make restitution. The priest may discuss with the penitent what plan he/she may have to do this. If it becomes clear that there seems to be no intention to do this, the sin cannot be absolved.
Click to expand...
Hmm… no, this doesn’t seem entirely correct. A priest, for example, cannot require a person (in the context of Reconciliation) to take an action that will identify him as having committed a crime/sin, as a requirement for absolution. For instance, if you go to the priest and confess robbing a bank, he cannot say to you, “well, then, you must walk into the bank and return the money, or else your sin is not forgiven.”
Similarly, in the case of adultery, if there is no intention to end the relationship, the sin cannot be absolved.
Click to expand...
This example would seem to fall under the notion of ‘contrition’ rather than the assertion you’re making about “something more (being) required”. If a person is in an adulterous relationship and has no intention of ceasing the relationship, it’s difficult to see how we might say that the person is truly repentant and contrite.
 
MichaelHowling said:
yes.

God set up the system to where you were to go to the priest in the old testament for the forgiving of sin and to be allowed back into the community. We see this in the old testament through the importance of the priest in the community over and over again and through the use of the sacrificial system back then.

Jesus - the high priest and sacrificial lamb gives the power to forgive sin to his first priests the apostles… “Receive the holy spirit. Who’s sins you forgive are forgiven them and who’s sins you retain are retained” - as said by the lord after his resurrection when he met his disciples in the upper room.

The ability to forgive or retain implies that they would have to Hear a confession to decide on what to do.

Furthermore Christ made mention that he did not “come to destroy the law or the prophets… I have not come to destroy but to fulfill.” The old testament meeting with the priests and the sacrifices were perscriptions God had asked of his people… the REAL forgiving is through Christ and the system He sat up in the upper room elevated the old way of forgiving sin.
Click to expand...
This is very nicely put. As a protestant I always had trouble with power being given to the Apostles to make decisions that we protestants believed should only belong to God. Yet Jesus obviously gave that power over to men He trusted. Why? Why would He give them such authority if all we had to do was confess our sins to God in repentance?
 
Good question. Don’t know.

We do know that God is divinizing us. He made us “a little less than a god” and offers us through sanctifying grace a share in His own blessed life! In the beginning He gave us the whole world as our kingdom ! According to scripture we will one day be “judging angels” …I don’t know what I’m trying to say and it might almost border on herasey…but we ARE the very body of Christ!

It’s amazing! As we are told in scripture, some are given gifts of healing, teaching, etc etc.
 
Also, God knew how we humans are made. We have a dual nature: we are both spirit and physical.

We as physical beings needs signs, movement, talking etc etc to experience.

in the sacrament of confession you actually hear " you are forgiven" …something very important to humans. They need the chance to feel humility to kill some of their pride (nothing is more humbling than telling a fellow human your dark secrets) … the sacrament gives the soul a reason to put their faith and trust in God. There’s so many reasons why the actual physical (let alone spiritual) aspect of the sacrament helps us earthly beings. God knew what he was doing.

In the old testament the process of sacrificing the animals for sin left a lasting impact on those asking forgivness. They had to sacrifice in Jeruselm…a dangerous travel and very time consuming! It was very expensive (depending on the animal needed). THe sinner did the cutting…they learned what awful price sin had attached to it!

God has always used his children. Just like any parent involving their children in their work
 
Wow CATHOLISM THERE YOU GO AGAIN SHOWING YOUR TRUTH AND SHINE!😃
 
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