SPLIT: Confession to God along enough

[5inChristalone]

***I asked God for forgiveness…is the sin forgiven, when I approach God in this way? ***

According to God there is only one way to approach God. We must approach the Father based upon our relationship with His Son. Because of the blood He shed for us we have access to the Father. In fact, Heb 4:16, says we can come boldly to the throne of grace (not in pride but in bold confidence that He is faithful who promised) to find mercy and grace in our time of need. 1st John 1:9 gives no hint of confessing our sins to any man, nor that any man could declare us absolved or forgiven.

So, if you approached the Father for forgiveness and you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ (as a result of your choice to accept the gift of eternal life through Christ), yes, praise to God, you are forgiven according to God’s Word.

Sorry I started a discussion on true repentance with an earlier post, without speaking to the real question at hand…

 

[japhy]

1st John 1:9 gives no hint of confessing our sins to any man, nor that any man could declare us absolved or forgiven.

The Catholic Church would disagree:

• Jesus gave the Apostles a share in his ministry of the forgiveness of sins (John 20:22-23)
• Believers came and confessed and divulged their wicked deeds (Acts 19:18)
• St. James tells us to “confess [our] sins to one another” (James 5:16)

 

[Jean_Anthony]

aaa

 

[edjco]

John 20:21-23: “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.”

So, Jesus obviously gave the power to forgive sins to the Apostles.

2 Corinthians 5:18-20: “And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. **So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us.” **

And God gave to “us”, (the leaders of the Church), the ministry of reconcilliation…

Matthew 9:6-8: 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 men.”

Notice here that God gave the authority to forgive sins to men. Plural.

So it is readily apparent that God gave the authority to forgive sins to “men”. Now tell me, why would God give man the power to forgive sins, and establish the ministry of reconciliation unless He wanted us to use it?

There are certain conditions where sin may be forgiven without confession, and the Catholic Church has specifically defined that. The fact remains though, that God established a “normative” way in which He wished us to be forgiven.

The Catholic Church chooses to follow God and do it His way:

James 5:16: "Therefore confess your sins to one another…

 

[Michael96]

Certainly Christ himself taught us to ask the father for fogiveness. That’s good enough for me!

 

[prodigal-sun]

Excellent, I see you guys have this on covered, but my guess is that it is not good enough. I pray that #5 opens his heart to the whole of scripture and not just chooses certain verses to back up his beliefs.

Peace!