Question about St Augustine

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OrthodoxBerean

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I was reading the writting “On Christian Doctrine” today by St Augustine and came across this.

CHAP. 18.–THE KEYS GIVEN TO THE CHURCH.
  1. He has given, therefore, the keys to His Church, that whatsoever it should bind on earth might be bound in heaven, and whatsoever it should loose on earth might be, loosed in heaven; that is to say, that whosoever in the Church should not believe that his sins are remitted, they should not be remitted to him; but that whosoever should believe and should repent, and turn from his sins, should be saved by the same faith and repentance on the ground of which he is received into the bosom of the Church. For he who does not believe that his sins can be pardoned, falls into despair, and becomes worse as if no greater good remained for him than to be evil, when he has ceased to have faith in the results of his own repentance.
How was St Augustine not teaching the traditional interpetation of this verse in view.
 
Um, yeah, me too.

Is this a trick question, or a concise summary of the fallacy of Protestant heresey??
 
Isn’t this passage generally used to show confession? Or is it and I am just not seeing it?
 
Well, I am not a Protestant. Here is why I raised the question

This part of what he says,

He has given, therefore, the keys to His Church, that whatsoever it should bind on earth might be bound in heaven, and whatsoever it should loose on earth might be, loosed in heaven; that is to say,

And then last part seems to be used as the interpetation of the above portion,

that whosoever in the Church should not believe that his sins are remitted, they should not be remitted to him; but that whosoever should believe and should repent, and turn from his sins, should be saved by the same faith and repentance on the ground of which he is received into the bosom of the Church. For he who does not believe that his sins can be pardoned, falls into despair, and becomes worse as if no greater good remained for him than to be evil, when he has ceased to have faith in the results of his own repentance.

This seems to indicate that the verse about sins being remitted according to him are subject to whether or not a person “believes” that they can be remitted.

Also, he believe that the binding and loosing are tied to our sins being remitted, but that is not the Churches teaching is it? I thought that the binding and loosing had to do with “authority” that had to do with faith or morals.

I am simply confued at what he is trying to say here.
 
The Church has traditionally considered the perrogative of “binding and loosing” to include the bind and loosing of sins in the sacrament of penance. It also involves authority to formulate dogma, establish disciplines, indulgences, etc.

What Augustine seems to be saying is that the Church cannot absolve the sins from those who do not repent of them.
 
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DominvsVobiscvm:
The Church has traditionally considered the perrogative of “binding and loosing” to include the bind and loosing of sins in the sacrament of penance. It also involves authority to formulate dogma, establish disciplines, indulgences, etc.

What Augustine seems to be saying is that the Church cannot absolve the sins from those who do not repent of them.
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Ok, thanks
 
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