Jesus gave the power to forgive our sins to a Priest

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AlegreFe

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I started this thread after someone claimed that they don’t have to go to a priest to confess their sins because of one psalm that they read. This conversation started in this thread; How do I choose a church? Here is just one of the person’s quotes from that thread;
emeraldisle said:
Please see the following Scripture re going directly to God to confess our sins.
I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Psalm 32:5
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This is not the only verse in the bible. You have to read the whole of scripture to get anything in the bible. It is possible for one verse to be very clear to someone, but we do have more to the bible than just one verse if someone else is not clear about the correct interpretation. But what’s more important is that the bible was not made to interpret itself. We have a teaching body within the Church for correct interpretation and that’s the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

But confessing your sins to a priest is very clear just from reading the bible alone; from both the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Sacrament of Confession was instituted by Jesus Christ Himself when He gave the Apostles the power to bind and loose. Jesus breathed on them and told them to receive the Holy Spirit. You can read this in John 20:19-23

Have you read all of Leviticus? in particular Leviticus 4:1-35 where the laws of sin offering are presented? The priest had to make atonement for the people for their sins to be cleansed.

Also read Numbers, in particular Numbers 15:22-31. Verse 28 says; And the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who makes a mistake, when he sins unintentionally, to make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. This is how it was in the Old Testament. Jesus did not come to abolish the Law & the Prophets, He came to fulfill them. The Sacrament of Confession is the fulfillment. We no longer need for the priest to offer up burnt offerings with all kind of animals. We now have Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. Jesus offered Himself up for the forgiveness of all our sins. But the method by which our sins are forgiven is still the same. We have to show ourselves to the priest before our sins can be absolved.

Continued in next post…
 
…cont.

You can also see these verses where Jesus told the leper to show himself to the priest after Jesus cured him. Luke 5:12-16. Jesus Cleanses a Leper
12 While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 13 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” 15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
Luke 5:12-16
Matthew 8:1-4

Mark 1:40-45

The clearest verses are these and they come directly from the lips of Jesus Christ. Jesus Appears to the Disciples
19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
John 20:19-23
 
I don’t see anything wrong of confessing sins to a priest after i confessing it to God…so i supported it despite am a protestant
 
happygal said:
I don’t see anything wrong of confessing sins to a priest after i confessing it to God…so i supported it despite am a protestant
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That is what I do as a Catholic. I always go directly to God first. But as a Catholic I have to go to the Sacrament of Confession to confess my sins.

The Catholic Church is just following the orders of Jesus Christ as stated in the bible. Jesus gave the power to forgive sins to the Priests, the first ones being His Apostles.

The Priest is standing In Persona Christi when he is in the Confessional hearing our sins, so I know for certain, without a doubt that my sins have been absolved, cleansed, forgiven, never to be remembered by Jesus again. Jesus also removes any guilt of my sins when I confess my sins in the Sacrament of Confession.

Unless I hear those words of absolution from a priest I would not be certain that my sins were absolved if I just confessed “directly to God.” I would have to have perfect contrition for my mortal sins to be forgiven outside of the Sacrament of Confession if Confession was not available to me. I could not be certain if my sins were forgiven in that manner. I could tell myself that I have perfect contrition because I love God with all my heart. But can I really trust myself? Can I tell myself that I am sorry for my sins only because I love God with all my heart?.. OR is it that I’m also sorry because I fear hell? Perhaps I do have perfect contrition but I don’t know for sure. I have no doubts that I love God but is that my only motive? or do I also fear hell? The only way I can know for sure that my sins will be forgiven is if I went to the Sacrament of Confession to confess my sins. When I do, I can hear Jesus speaking through the Priest as He gives me the words of absolution; God the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son, has reconciled the world to Himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God grant you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Those words are very refreshing to me and I love hearing them. Jesus loves me so much and it is clear to me when I go to Confession.
 
happygal said:
I don’t see anything wrong of confessing sins to a priest after i confessing it to God…so i supported it despite am a protestant
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do you know of any churchs praticising “acountablity” teaching.in the church i heard of this they were using it mainly for business men who traveled alot. in this practice after a week or so or trip the person would sit down with a chosen senior member of this church (the person chose the senior member and is only to talk to the same one) and discuss if they did this or that ,what they saw and their thoughts. this may not be exact but pretty close to what was said in the radio program.the senior member does not do anything that a Catholic priest does in the sacrement of reconcillation.aside from ofering any advice.
 
fbl9 said:
do you know of any churchs praticising “acountablity” teaching.in the church i heard of this they were using it mainly for business men who traveled alot. in this practice after a week or so or trip the person would sit down with a chosen senior member of this church (the person chose the senior member and is only to talk to the same one) and discuss if they did this or that ,what they saw and their thoughts. this may not be exact but pretty close to what was said in the radio program.the senior member does not do anything that a Catholic priest does in the sacrement of reconcillation.aside from ofering any advice.
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That sounds like something good. It’s a good start for people who are not Catholic but want to actually talk to someone aloud. After all, Jesus told us to confess our sins to one another. The Catholic “one another” is to confess our sins aloud to the priest because Jesus gave them the power to absolve our sins.
10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Romans 10:10

16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.
James 5:16

5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
Mark 1:5
 
I believe that it is God who forgives us of our sins and it is a priest who ~absolves~ us of our sins. There are several definitions of “absolve”. I copied the definitions and will post them in this message. I have learned, from my own experience, that it is a special blessing to be reassured by a priest that I am forgiven. It is almost always difficult to forgive myself for my sins, so it is an awesome experience to hear a priest tell me that I have been absolved. The definitions are as follows, and I believe that the first two best explain (at least to my understanding) “absolution” according to the church. I am sure that someone could find other definitions somewhere, but this is the general idea. Again, GOD forgives, priests ABSOLVE:)

Annie

ab·solve əb zólv, əb sólv ] (past and past participle ab·solved, present participle ab·solv·ing, 3rd person present singular ab·solves)

transitive verb

Definition:
  1. pronounce somebody blameless: to state publicly or officially that somebody is not guilty and not to be held responsible
  2. relieve somebody of obligation: to release somebody from an obligation or requirement
  3. forgive somebody: to forgive somebody’s sins, especially formally in a Christian church service or sacrament
[15th century. < Latin absolvere “set free” < solvere “loosen”]

ab·solv·a·ble adjective
ab·solv·er noun
 
hi AlegreFe yes i agree with you there it is a good start for non catholics. but that is what drives me around the bend cause in the next breath they with denounce the sacrement of reconcillation.??bc it is from the Catholic church.hi AnnieB that is also my biggest problem forgiving myself. sometimes i feel too leninent towards myself.it is a very good thing i am not God or i would have send myself somewhere else.
 
Annie_B said:
I believe that it is God who forgives us of our sins and it is a priest who ~absolves~ us of our sins.
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Yes God forgives us of our sins. But we cannot dismiss the words that Jesus said when He gave the power given to Him by God, over to the Apostles.
21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them
and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them;
if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” That word “absolve” I think would be considered the same as forgive. Although the priest gives us the words of absolution, Jesus did not say, “…if you absolve the sins of any, they are forgiven them…” No. Jesus said if you forgive the sins of any.

I have heard of a certain priest binding someone to their sin because they believed the person was not truly sorry and the person seemed to not want to make a firm purpose of amendment. The Priest is the one who did not forgive this person. So in turn, God in Heaven does not forgive either. This is very rare however. I only heard of this happening once. I don’t know if this happened other times but I can imagine that this is very rare.

Padre Pio himself has “kicked out” people from his confessional because he was able to read souls; another rare gift from God. Padre Pio would not forgive certain people their sins, so what do you think God did? Jesus told His first Apostles who were priests and Bishops that if they forgive anyone their sins that they are forgiven them.
 
AlegreFe said:
Yes God forgives us of our sins. But we cannot dismiss the words that Jesus said when He gave the power given to Him by God, over to the Apostles.
21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them
and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them;
if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” That word “absolve” I think would be considered the same as forgive. Although the priest gives us the words of absolution, Jesus did not say, “…if you absolve the sins of any, they are forgiven them…” No. Jesus said if you forgive the sins of any.

I have heard of a certain priest binding someone to their sin because they believed the person was not truly sorry and the person seemed to not want to make a firm purpose of amendment. The Priest is the one who did not forgive this person. So in turn, God in Heaven does not forgive either. This is very rare however. I only heard of this happening once. I don’t know if this happened other times but I can imagine that this is very rare.

Padre Pio himself has “kicked out” people from his confessional because he was able to read souls; another rare gift from God. Padre Pio would not forgive certain people their sins, so what do you think God did? Jesus told His first Apostles who were priests and Bishops that if they forgive anyone their sins that they are forgiven them.
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Yes - the Bible does say that. However, we are also to ask others to forgive us if we have sinned against them. I do not see it saying that we are to only ask priests to forgive us. I have yet to hear a priest say in the confessional “I forigive you of your sins”…Have you heard that? Ultimately it is God who forgives us. We get that reassurance of forgiveness from the priest while at the same time are being obedient to the Church. This is what a priest told me; only God has the power to forgive (at least the kind of forgiveness that affects the final destiny of our soul). What happens when we ask someone to forgive us when we have sinned against them and they refuse? Do they have the power to hold our soul in jeopardy? No. God is the only one with that kind of power.

Annie
 
Annie_B said:
Yes - the Bible does say that. However, we are also to ask others to forgive us if we have sinned against them. I do not see it saying that we are to only ask priests to forgive us. I have yet to hear a priest say in the confessional “I forigive you of your sins”…Have you heard that? Ultimately it is God who forgives us. We get that reassurance of forgiveness from the priest while at the same time are being obedient to the Church. This is what a priest told me; only God has the power to forgive (at least the kind of forgiveness that affects the final destiny of our soul). What happens when we ask someone to forgive us when we have sinned against them and they refuse? Do they have the power to hold our soul in jeopardy? No. God is the only one with that kind of power.
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Absolutely. I do not disagree with you.
And I know that I would not go to a regular person that I know to forgive me of all my sins. That’s just ludicrous. I know that person does not have that power because they are not priests.

I would apologize to someone I have hurt but that doesn’t mean I am forgiven by God. I would have to go to confession for that. I would wait for the words of absolution and that way I know the priest has forgiven me of all my sins and because of that, and because the priest stands In Persona Christi, I know that God has forgiven me.
 
AlegreFe said:
Absolutely. I do not disagree with you.
And I know that I would not go to a regular person that I know to forgive me of all my sins. That’s just ludicrous. I know that person does not have that power because they are not priests.

I would apologize to someone I have hurt but that doesn’t mean I am forgiven by God. I would have to go to confession for that. I would wait for the words of absolution and that way I know the priest has forgiven me of all my sins and because of that, and because the priest stands In Persona Christi, I know that God has forgiven me.
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Ok - wecould go around in circles and I am in no condition to get dizzy:p . I ask this question with all due respect; is there anywhere in Church teachings where it states that the priests forgive us? Or does it say they absolve us? I think I am going to ask this question in apologetics…

Annie
 
ok - I just posted in “Ask an Appologist”…Hopefully they will be able to clear this up:)
Annie
 
Annie_B said:
ok - I just posted in “Ask an Appologist”…Hopefully they will be able to clear this up:)
Annie
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No need for that for me as there’s nothing to clear up. I don’t have a concern or a question about this. I just read what the bible says and it’s all okay. I know the priest absolves me of my sins because he gives the words of absolution. They are not called the words of forgiveness.

I don’t see what the problem is. I did not say that I disagreed with you. I am still not dismissing the words that Jesus told His apostles; “… if you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven…”

I know that God is the only one who forgives sins. God gave that power to Jesus and in turn, Jesus gave that power to priests. It’s in the bible. God forgives and when I go to confession the priest absolves. What is the problem? Why do you see this as going around in circles? I’m not dizzy. Why are you? 😃
 
AlegreFe said:
You could also read this from the Catholic Answers website.
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Taken from the link above;
Since he would not always be with the Church visibly, Christ
gave this power to other men so the Church, which is the
continuation of his presence throughout time (Matt. 28:20),
would be able to offer forgiveness to future generations. He
gave his power to the apostles, and it was a power that could
be passed on to their successors and agents, since the
apostles wouldn’t always be on earth either, but people would
still be sinning.
 
Here is something else from that same webpage/link above;
Note that the power Christ gave the apostles was twofold: to forgive sins or to hold them bound, which means to retain them unforgiven. Several things follow from this. First, the apostles could not know what sins to forgive and what not to forgive unless they were first told the sins by the sinner. This implies confession. Second, their authority was not merely to proclaim that God had already forgiven sins or that he would forgive sins if there were proper repentance.
Sounds like a priest can either forgive me or not forgive me for my sins in confession. Jesus gave them that power. When the priest absolves me of my sins I know that he has forgiven me, meaning, Jesus has forgiven me of my sins. That’s all I need to know for me to be at peace after going to Confession.
 
This is also taken from that CA website link. This is about the advantages a Catholic has with confession.
The Advantages
Is the Catholic who confesses his sins to a priest any better off than the non-Catholic who confesses directly to God? Yes. First, he seeks forgiveness the way Christ intended. Second, by confessing to a priest, the Catholic learns a lesson in humility, which is avoided when one confesses only through private prayer. Third, the Catholic receives sacramental graces the non-Catholic doesn’t get; through the sacrament of penance sins are forgiven and graces are obtained. Fourth, the Catholic is assured that his sins are forgiven; he does not have to rely on a subjective “feeling.” Lastly, the Catholic can also obtain sound advice on avoiding sin in the future.

During his lifetime Christ sent out his followers to do his work. Just before he left this world, he gave the apostles special authority, commissioning them to make God’s forgiveness present to all people, and the whole Christian world accepted this, until just a few centuries ago. If there is an “invention” here, it is not the sacrament of penance, but the notion that the sacramental forgiveness of sins is not to be found in the Bible or in early Christian history.
 
This is taken from the CCC;
Only God forgives sin
1441 Only God forgives sins. Since he is the Son of God, Jesus says of himself, “The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins” and exercises this divine power: “Your sins are forgiven.” Further, by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in his name.
Priests can absolve us of our sins because they have been given the power to forgive sins.
 
AlegreFe said:
No need for that for me as there’s nothing to clear up. I don’t have a concern or a question about this. I just read what the bible says and it’s all okay. I know the priest absolves me of my sins because he gives the words of absolution. They are not called the words of forgiveness.

I don’t see what the problem is. I did not say that I disagreed with you. I am still not dismissing the words that Jesus told His apostles; "… if you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven…"

I know that God is the only one who forgives sins. God gave that power to Jesus and in turn, Jesus gave that power to priests. It’s in the bible. God forgives and when I go to confession the priest absolves. What is the problem? Why do you see this as going around in circles? I’m not dizzy. Why are you? 😃
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I did not say that you needed it cleared up. I do. That is why I asked in appologetics. Nobody said there was a problem. I see circles you don’t…oh well.

Annie B
 
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