Does the bible say we don't need anyone to confess to?

[SANxJONERO]

I told my friend about how I’ve confessed my sins to a priest & he told me the bible says you don’t need to confess your sins to anyone, but Jesus. Does the bible say anything like that & if so, then why do we do that? I don’t remember the bible saying that, but I’m not the type of guy that remembers the bible so well either.

 

[tampasteve]

I can not answer this question in writing…but www.askacatholic.com and Scott Hahn can answer it very well:

Protestants have a hard time thinking that a man can give absolution for another’s sins. They claim there is only one mediator between God and man: Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). Catholics believe Christ gave His apostles the power to forgive sins, a power that has been handed down for generations through apostolic succession. The sacrament of reconciliation is Christ’s gift to us. The root of all sin is pride; its antidote is humility. Confessing one’s sins to God’s appointed representative is thoroughly biblical, and calls for tremendous humility. The priest does not act on his own, He acts in the name of God and on behalf of His Church, administering God’s forgiveness (absolution). The sacrament of Confession wipes away our sins, increases sanctifying grace in our souls, and reunites us with Christ and His Church. The Church is the extension of Christ’s incarnation, and that extension takes place through the sacraments" (Scott Hahn , Swear to God, Page 22)

(underlining mine)

Some versus from www.askacatholic.com:

Jesus continues his example of priestly forgiveness in the Old Testament.

Leviticus 4:13-21 - "priests shall make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven"
Leviticus 5:14-26 - (Sin offering brought to the Old Testament priests, who make atonement for sinners' forgiveness.)
See also: - Leviticus 4:27-25, Leviticus 5:5, Numbers 5:8

Confession is not a private affair in the Bible.

Leviticus 5:14-26 - (Public confession with animal sacrifice)
Numbers 5:6-7 - "man ... commits a fault ... he shall confess the wrong he has done"
Matthew 3:6 - "baptized by him ... as they acknowledged their sins"
Acts 19:18 - "believers came forward and openly acknowledged their former practices"
James 5:16 - "confess your sin to one another ... that you may be healed."
See also: - Leviticus 26:39-42, Psalms 32:3-5, Proverbs 28:13, Mark 1:5

Jesus gives his power to forgive sins to His priests

Matthew 16:19 - (Jesus gives the apostles the power to bind and loose sins)
Matthew 18:18 - whatever you bind and loose on earth, so it is in heaven
**John 20:22 - If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained.**
John 20:23 - After saying this he breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit. (recall Genesis 2:7)

2 Corinthians 5:17-20 - "God ... has reconciled us to himself ... given us the ministry of reconciliation"
James 5:14-15 - "presbyters of the church ... pray over him ... he will be forgiven" (prayer of presbyters forgives sin)
See also: - Luke 22:29-30, James 5:16

After forgiveness, the need for reparation can remain.

2 Samuel 12:13-14 - "The LORD ... has forgiven your sin ... but ... child born to you must surely die"
Luke 19:8-9 - (Jesus praises Zacchaeus for his promise of reparation)

Penance as satisfaction for sins.

Matthew 3:8 - "Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance."
2 Corinthians 7:10 - "godly sorrow produces a salutary repentance without regret"
See also: - Luke 3:8, Acts 2:38

My own notes on the subject:
Many Protestants say that one should have an “accountability partner” to help you through trouble and tell your sins to so you stay accountable…Confession fulfills this through Gods plan.

The Bible clearly says that through Jesus our sins are forgiven, but it does not say that we should only pray to Him and we are forgiven, to the contrary to the versus above actually show that we need to confess to His priests.

It should also be remembered that the Eucharist takes away all venial sins. We must only confess mortal sins, but it is good practice to confess all sins.

The verse above from John 20 is the most pointed to the fact that the Apostles were given the power to forgive sins though Christ.

For more information read Scott Hahn’s “Lord Have Mercy: The Healing Power of Confession” it is a great read and points out how confession is entirely biblical and necessary.

Steve

 

[SANxJONERO]

Thanks, that looks like more then enough.

 

[stuart12]

Our Lord said to the Apostles that whoever’s sins they forgive, they are forgiven, whoever’s sins they retain, they are retained. How can they forgive sins if they dont know what our sins are? They must be told in order to forgive.
Jesus also gives them the ability to withhold forgiveness (which is given to the Apostles alone), but earlier He said to all believers that they must forgive their neighbours offfenses over and over without end. Only the Apostles had (and their successors) the authority to withhold forgiveness.

 

[Charlotte408]

I have a question I might be able to fit in this thread…

So, you sin…you go to church, confess to your priest.

But what if, like, myself personally- when I pray at night, I have, after my ‘structured prayer’ of rosary, etc, a period where I have ‘conversational prayer’ with the Lord. Where I feel very deeply that I am speaking to Him, pouring my heart out if you will, thanking Him for the day that I just made it thru- I walk thru the day, thanking Him, or, asking Him about certain events, asking for understanding etc…

And on occasion, if there happened to be sin during that day, I will confess it to Him, talk about it with Him…thats a confession right?? A sort of, direct confession?

So lets say that, Sunday I go to mass, I confess with a priest…I’m starting out the week with a clean slate so to say.

monday comes and goes…then tuesday, then on wednesday I sin.

wednesday night I would have my ‘direct confession’…

but lets say I die Thursday, or even Friday, before I can go to mass the next sunday and confess again to a priest…

Would I still have died ‘in a state of sin’ or with ‘unconfessed sins’???

IOW, Is a priest the only person I can confess to?? Or can I not confess directly to the Lord above??

 

[jlhargus]

I told my friend about how I’ve confessed my sins to a priest & he told me the bible says you don’t need to confess your sins to anyone, but Jesus. Does the bible say anything like that & if so, then why do we do that? I don’t remember the bible saying that, but I’m not the type of guy that remembers the bible so well either.

JL: Where does the bible say, “you don’t need to confess your sins to anyone”? I have never seen that scripture, but I have seen [Jms5:16 CONFESS your faults ONE TO ANOTHER, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.] Why would Christ breath the Holy Spirit on the apostles to remit or retain sins, if he mean for us to go directly to God, as the normative way?

John tells us in [Jn20:21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: AS MY FATHER hath SENT ME, even so SEND I YOU. 22 And when he had said this, HE BREATHED ON THEM, and saith unto them, RECEIVE YE THE HOLY GHOST: 23 WHOSE SOEVER SINS YE REMIT, they **ARE REMITTED unto them; and WHOSE SOEVER SINS YE RETAIN, they ARE RETAINED.]

Among other things, didn’t the Father also SEND Christ to forgive sins? LIKEWISE Christ SENDS the apostles with the SAME authority AS the Father SENT Him. How can the apostles know and judge whether to REMIT SINS or RETAIN SINS if they don’t know what those sins are?

God breathed on Adam and the Scriptures are God breathed. What does God’s breath give? LIFE. His breath gave life to Adam and the breathed Scripture give life to faith. So also God’s breath gives life in confession to a spiritually dead soul, who has sinned and spiritually died AFTER baptism.

In the beginning confession was made publically in the assembly and the apostles passed judgement. Remember Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts5:1-11. They both agree to lie to the Church about how much they sold their land for and kept some of the money saying they gave it all to the Church. They were both given a change to confess their sins, but instead repeated the lie.

Notice who did they lie to, [Acts5:3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart **to LIE TO THE HOLY GHOST, and to keep back part of the price of the land? 4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not LIED unto men, but UNTO GOD.] They lied to the Holy Ghost who IS GOD, how could you lie to an active force? Act5:3 and 4 shows the divinity of the Holy Ghost, as Jn1:1 shows Christ’s divinity.

Also Peter said they did not lie to men but to God, yet they confessed that lie to the Church. So when we confess our sins to the priest we are confessing to God. Peter makes the judgement on their sins.

Acts5:4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? THOU HAST NOT LIED UNTO MEN, BUT UNTO GOD.

Acts5:9 Then Peter said unto her, How is it that YE HAVE AGREED together TO TEMPT THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD? behold, THE FEET of them WHICH have BURIED THY HUSBAND are at the door, and SHALL CARRY THEE OUT.

[Jms5:14 **Is any sick among you? let him **CALL FOR THE ELDERS **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 and the Lord shall raise him up and IF HE HAVE COMMITTED SINS THEY SHALL BE FORGIVEN HIM] This sacrament is called Anointing of the Sick. We see sins are also forgiven here. It is the elders=priest who anoint and forgive sins that is a function of a priest.

Even in the OT confess to a priest was done.

Lv 5:4 Or if a person thoughtlessly takes an oath to do anything, whether good or evil in any matter one might carelessly swear about even though he is unaware of it, in any case when he learns of it he will be guilty. 5 When anyone is guilty in any of these ways, he must confess in what way he has sinned 6 and, as a penalty for the sin he has committed, he must bring to the LORD a female lamb or goat from the flock as a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin.

 

[jlhargus]

I have a question I might be able to fit in this thread…

So, you sin…you go to church, confess to your priest.

But what if, like, myself personally- when I pray at night, I have, after my ‘structured prayer’ of rosary, etc, a period where I have ‘conversational prayer’ with the Lord. Where I feel very deeply that I am speaking to Him, pouring my heart out if you will, thanking Him for the day that I just made it thru- I walk thru the day, thanking Him, or, asking Him about certain events, asking for understanding etc…

And on occasion, if there happened to be sin during that day, I will confess it to Him, talk about it with Him…thats a confession right?? A sort of, direct confession?

So lets say that, Sunday I go to mass, I confess with a priest…I’m starting out the week with a clean slate so to say.

monday comes and goes…then tuesday, then on wednesday I sin.

wednesday night I would have my ‘direct confession’…

but lets say I die Thursday, or even Friday, before I can go to mass the next sunday and confess again to a priest…

Would I still have died ‘in a state of sin’ or with ‘unconfessed sins’???

IOW, Is a priest the only person I can confess to?? Or can I not confess directly to the Lord above??

JL: First we should ask God for forgiveness before we even go to confession. With MORTAL sins, you are spiritually dead in yours sin, you no longer have the indwelling Holy Spirit. You are separated from Christ. The ordinary way, ordained by God, to restore spiritual life thru the indwelling Holy Spirit, comes thru the sacrament of Confession. In effect the blood of Christ is applied by absolution and washes away our sins.

Thru baptism we are born again by water and the Spirit. Our sins are washed away and we are united to Christ thru the indwelling Holy Spirit. Baptism is the NECESSARY or normal way ordained by God, to be born again supernaturally. Just as God ordained a NECESSARY and normal way thru which we are to be born in the natural way. Sacraments are NECESSARY and the NORM intended by God. They are not ABSOLUTE necessities, yet they are the NORM God intended.

There are always exceptions to the norm. For instance the thief on the cross, who could not be born again the normal way by baptism. Thru his desire to do God’s will he was born supernaturally by the intervention of the Great Physician. We only know the theif was forgiven because Christ told him he would be with him. In natural birth sometimes it is necessary for the physician to intervene by cesarean birth. Sacraments impart grace by the power of Christ and the action of the Holy Spirit. Given to the Church as the NECESSARY and normal way to give grace, but God is not bound by them.

We don’t know when or IF God is going act apart from the sacraments, but we do know he acts in the sacraments according to our receptability to receive grace. Long story short, a person MIGHT be forgiven by confessing directly to God, although that is not the way God intended. Especially if you had the intention to go to confession as soon as possible. For those who do not have the sacrament of confession, God must act outside the way he intended. That would depend on their contrition and DESIRE for forgiveness. They have no assurance that God has forgiven them.

 

[dnar]

As a Catholic going through RCIA, I have already made my first confession and try to go every month if I can make it. My family is very anti-catholic and I am doing all I can when I am around them to stand up for the Church. This is the hardest part they are having…on why I confess my sins to a priest.

I have pointed out all the verses and they keep on saying “Confess” in the Bible means confess to God alone.

Such as…“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just”…meaning confession to God.

I point out the Church fathers, and when they say “Confess your sins in church”…they reply “Yep, confess your sins to God in church”…

I wish there was a concrete way of laying this out. I have used John 20:21-22…and they agree that God gave his apostles the authority to forgive sins, but not priests today.

Does anyone know of any church father that specifically says “Confess to the priest” or “Confess to the bishop”…anything like that before the time of Augustine?

 

[puzzleannie]

I told my friend about how I’ve confessed my sins to a priest & he told me the bible says you don’t need to confess your sins to anyone, but Jesus. Does the bible say anything like that & if so, then why do we do that? I don’t remember the bible saying that, but I’m not the type of guy that remembers the bible so well either.

ask your friend to give you the actual verse, he is the one making the claim, and ask him when it was that Jesus Christ gave him authority to interpret this scripture for you, another Christian

 

[Church_Militant]

I have a question I might be able to fit in this thread…

So, you sin…you go to church, confess to your priest.

But what if, like, myself personally- when I pray at night, I have, after my ‘structured prayer’ of rosary, etc, a period where I have ‘conversational prayer’ with the Lord. Where I feel very deeply that I am speaking to Him, pouring my heart out if you will, thanking Him for the day that I just made it thru- I walk thru the day, thanking Him, or, asking Him about certain events, asking for understanding etc…

And on occasion, if there happened to be sin during that day, I will confess it to Him, talk about it with Him…thats a confession right?? A sort of, direct confession?

So lets say that, Sunday I go to mass, I confess with a priest…I’m starting out the week with a clean slate so to say.

monday comes and goes…then tuesday, then on wednesday I sin.

wednesday night I would have my ‘direct confession’…

but lets say I die Thursday, or even Friday, before I can go to mass the next sunday and confess again to a priest…

Would I still have died ‘in a state of sin’ or with ‘unconfessed sins’???

IOW, Is a priest the only person I can confess to?? Or can I not confess directly to the Lord above??

Remember that only Mortal sins need actually be sacramentally confessed. Venial sins are dealt with by an Act of Contrition or similar personal expression of sorrow and the Mass.

The state one does not want to die in is that of Mortal sin. One wants to pass away in a state of grace but the goal is still to be as holy as we can be.

So far as I can tell, your personal devotions handle that pretty well. You seem to maintain a very close personal relationship with the Lord.

Do we/can we confess venial sins? Certainly, and you might consider bringing that up with you confessor.

Does that help?

 

[NotWorthy]

Our Lord said to the Apostles that whoever’s sins they forgive, they are forgiven, whoever’s sins they retain, they are retained. How can they forgive sins if they dont know what our sins are? They must be told in order to forgive.

Maybe they were given the gift of ESP.

Nope. I looked. It’s not there. It seems one would have to confess in order for the priest to know what to forgive and what not to forgive.

 

[dnar]

As a Catholic going through RCIA, I have already made my first confession and try to go every month if I can make it. My family is very anti-catholic and I am doing all I can when I am around them to stand up for the Church. This is the hardest part they are having…on why I confess my sins to a priest.

I have pointed out all the verses and they keep on saying “Confess” in the Bible means confess to God alone.

Such as…“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just”…meaning confession to God.

I point out the Church fathers, and when they say “Confess your sins in church”…they reply “Yep, confess your sins to God in church”…

I wish there was a concrete way of laying this out. I have used John 20:21-22…and they agree that God gave his apostles the authority to forgive sins, but not priests today.

Does anyone know of any church father that specifically says “Confess to the priest” or “Confess to the bishop”…anything like that before the time of Augustine?

Nevermind, I have found numerous early church fathers on this subject through an article here at Catholic Answers. Scratch the first one

 

[MarcoPolo]

Acts 19:9-18 …here’s how it goes:

• Paul and 12 disciples (on whom he gave the Spirit by laying his hands on them (v. 6)) were preaching in a certain building called the “hall of Tyrannus” (v. 9).
• That’s where they preached for 2 years (v. 10).
• Signs were performed (v. 11-17) that revealed Christ. This became known to “residents of Ephesus” (v. 17).
• Then it says many of these new believers “now came” to confess their sins (v. 18).
• Presumably they “came” to the “hall of Tyrannus” were Paul and his ordained disciples were. But what is important is that these new believers didn’t just confess their sins where they were, straight to God.

I think this passage at the least brings into question the validity of “go straight to God” as some non-Catholics understand the phrase.

 

[dnar]

Acts 19:9-18 …here’s how it goes:

• Paul and 12 disciples (on whom he gave the Spirit by laying his hands on them (v. 6)) were preaching in a certain building called the “hall of Tyrannus” (v. 9).
• That’s where they preached for 2 years (v. 10).
• Signs were performed (v. 11-17) that revealed Christ. This became known to “residents of Ephesus” (v. 17).
• Then it says many of these new believers “now came” to confess their sins (v. 18).
• Presumably they “came” to the “hall of Tyrannus” were Paul and his ordained disciples were. But what is important is that these new believers didn’t just confess their sins where they were, straight to God.

I think this passage at the least brings into question the validity of “go straight to God” as some non-Catholics understand the phrase.

Thanks, makes perfect sense to me.