Protestant Confession

[lumenjesuchrist]

Just wondering about your thoughts on this, I was listening to a protestant sermon online (I get bored a lot) And the preacher was talking about confession. He said, “It’s not about telling God what he already knows (Referring to our confession) It’s about coming to the point where you just feel so bad about it and think it was so evil! Then he said I hear people confessing and they confess common things like Oh I had a bad attitude or stuff like that, you should confess things you think are truly evil!” Your thoughts and arguments against this please! God Bless and Thanks!

 

[DavidFilmer]

What he is talking about (without even realizing it) is that venial sins do not need to be confessed (though it is encouraged). But we should (according to him) reflect upon our really bad sins until we attain perfect contrition.

"Perfect contrition means we are sorry for our sins because we realize the evil nature of them and we have offended God. “Imperfect” contrition means we are sorry because we fear the consequences of our sin.

The Church teaches that an act of perfect contrition obtains forgiveness (though we ought to seek Sacramental Confession at our nearest opportunity - but if we get hit by a bus on the way to Church, we’re OK).

So the guy is saying we don’t need to confess venial sins, and we should try to develop a state of perfect contrition for mortal sins. The only thing he’s missing is Sacramental Confession (he hasn’t read John 20:22). The guy has a sense of the truth of the Catholic Church - he just hann’t made the connection. But he is not far from the Church - so close, so close!!!

 

[mark_a]

Just wondering about your thoughts on this, I was listening to a protestant sermon online (I get bored a lot) And the preacher was talking about confession. He said, “It’s not about telling God what he already knows (Referring to our confession) It’s about coming to the point where you just feel so bad about it and think it was so evil! Then he said I hear people confessing and they confess common things like Oh I had a bad attitude or stuff like that, you should confess things you think are truly evil!” Your thoughts and arguments against this please! God Bless and Thanks!

Was he suggesting that folks are confessing light duty stuff and holding back the biggies? If so, he’s right.

 

[promethius]

Was he suggesting that folks are confessing light duty stuff and holding back the biggies? If so, he’s right.

I’m sorry, are you a priest who has had access to the sacramental secrecy of confession? How do you know that people are confessing incorrectly? I’d like some credentials behind your assertion that there’s a widescale practice of sacrilage in the confessional…

 

[Credo_in_Deum]

Just wondering about your thoughts on this, I was listening to a protestant sermon online (I get bored a lot) And the preacher was talking about confession. He said, “It’s not about telling God what he already knows (Referring to our confession) It’s about coming to the point where you just feel so bad about it and think it was so evil! Then he said I hear people confessing and they confess common things like Oh I had a bad attitude or stuff like that, you should confess things you think are truly evil!” Your thoughts and arguments against this please! God Bless and Thanks!

Since Protestants do not have valid holy orders they cannot give a valid confession with absolution. While venial sins do not require the sacrament of reconciliation in order to be absolved they do however need to be confessed and repented of daily! If you dont in the case of venial sins you are liable to go to Purgatory where* “I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”–Luke 12:59.* In the case of mortal sin if you do not repent you will be damned; *“but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish”–Luke 13:3. * God, even though He knows our thoughts and our hearts, wants us to ask for His mercy. This is because we are called to have a relationship with Him and this is why He will not force His mercy upon us. The blind man had to extend his hand to Jesus in order to be healed. We must extend our heartfelt sorrow in order to be healed of sin and become reconciled with God.
“Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.”—Matthew 7:7

 

[TimothyH]

The pastor is mostly right, but clearly misses the nature of reconcillaiton as a sacrament.

The sacrament of reconcilliation is the primary means by which God’s forgiveness, and more importantly God’s healing, enter the physical world. John’s words “Behold the Lamb of God who **takes away **the sins of the world” becomes real, visible, and touchable in the physical world through this sacrament.

Non-sacramental confession is spiritual and one way. Pray to God in the privacy of your own heart and either trust in him or hope for the best. But in the sacrament, both God and man are active. It is a renewal and reestablishment of the covenant between two active participants in that covenant, and there is assurance that it is effective in light of John 20:23.

-Tim-

 

[Newsy]

I wasn’t aware that protestant churches had confession, nice to see some still honor the sacrament. I assume that the Anglicans and Episcopalians might have confession, I know the Orthodox have confession, any others?

I came from a protestant church, they used James 5:16 " 16Confess 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." as a proof text against confessing to a priest. They didn’t have any formal confession of sins, so they didn’t follow this verse in any form.

 

[JonNC]

I wasn’t aware that protestant churches had confession, nice to see some still honor the sacrament. I assume that the Anglicans and Episcopalians might have confession, I know the Orthodox have confession, any others?

Lutherans do. From the Augsburg Confession:

Article XI: Of Confession.

1] Of Confession they teach that Private Absolution ought to be retained in the churches, although in confession 2] an enumeration of all sins is not necessary. For it is impossible according to the Psalm: Who can understand his errors? Ps. 19:12.

The format Lutherans use for Private Confession/Holy Absolution is generally based on Luther’s Small Catechism:
bookofconcord.org/smallcatechism.php#confession

Jon

 

[Newsy]

Lutherans do. From the Augsburg Confession:

Article XI: Of Confession.

1] Of Confession they teach that Private Absolution ought to be retained in the churches, although in confession 2] an enumeration of all sins is not necessary. For it is impossible according to the Psalm: Who can understand his errors? Ps. 19:12.

The format Lutherans use for Private Confession/Holy Absolution is generally based on Luther’s Small Catechism:
bookofconcord.org/smallcatechism.php#confession

Jon

Thanks, Jon!