CONFESSION

Mark 2:7-” who can forgive sins but God Only?”

All world religions recognize the fact of sin against the holy and righteous God.  Even the most primitive cultures have some type of moral code in place. Sin is a transgression of God’s law.  All sinners must learn a way from God to have their sin dealt with.  Sins must be confessed in order to experience true forgiveness.

ROME SAYS

Auricular confession (confession in the ear of a priest) is the only way to have mortal (serious) sins forgiven after Baptism. Original sin is washed away at baptism (baptismal regeneration). Roman Catholic priests can only grant judicial pardon for all mortal sins. There still remains the temporal punishment which must be dealt with by the individual. This is accomplished by performing various types of penance including prayers, good works and praying rosaries.

In The Catechism of the Catholic Church the following doctrinal statements are espoused;  980 – “It is through the sacrament of Penance that the baptized can be reconciled with God and with the Church:  ‘Penance has rightly been called by the holy Fathers a laborer us kind of baptism. This sacrament of Penance is necessary for salvation for those who have fallen after Baptism, just as Baptism is necessary for salvation for those who have yet been reborn.'”

1497 – “Individual and integral confession of grave sins followed by absolution remains the only means of reconciliation with God and with the Church.”

Auricular confession to a priest was made an official doctrine of the Church in the year 1215. In 1557, the Council of Trent pronounced anathemas (curses or damnation to hell) upon all who reject this type of confession. Canon 6 – “Whoever shall deny that sacramental confession was instituted by Divine command, or that it is necessary to salvation; or shall affirm that the practice of secretly confessing to the priest alone, as it has been observed from the beginning by the Catholic Church, and is still observed, is foreign to the institution and command of Christ, and is a human invention: let him be anathema.”

John 20:22, 23 is the basis for auricular confession. The other passage is Matthew 16:19. John 20:22, 23 – “Receive ye the Holy Spirit; whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained.” Matthew 16:19 – “And I will give unto the the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Jesus gave the apostles the power to forgive or not forgive sins and hence the doctrine of confession or Penance was instituted. Furthermore, this power was passed on down through the ages because of “apostolic succession”, priest today alone can forgive sins.

THE BIBLE SAYS

We are clearly told in Proverbs 28:13 – “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but who so confesseth andforsaketh them shall have mercy.” The Scriptures are quite clear that God alone can forgive sins. We are specifically told in I Timothy 2:5, 6– “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” It is therefore, totally unnecessary to confess to a priest. There is not even one verse in the entire New Testament that records anyone confessing their sins to anyone other than God. The apostles certainly did not hear anyone’s confession. The apostle Paul did not hear confession. Likewise, Luke, James and Jude certainly did not hear confession. The apostle John, the last of the New Testament writers, mentions nothing about auricular confession.

The Roman Catholic Church claims that Jesus gave the apostles the power to forgive or not forgive sins and hence the doctrine of confession or Penance was instituted.  Furthermore, they believe that this power was passed on down through the ages and because of ‘apostolic succession’ priests today alone can forgive sins.  A more thorough examination of these two passages of Scripture is in order though.  In the first passage in John 20, it is very interesting that the Roman  Church conveniently omits verse 19 which clearly states that all disciples received the same power.  This means that lay people also received the power.  The parallel passage of this same event is found in Luke 24:45-47 and Jesus clearly explains how the remitting of sins is to be accomplished.  “Then Jesus opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, ‘Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance for the remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” 

The second passage in Matthew 16:19 has the same explanation.  How did the disciples remit and retain sins?  According the words of Jesus, they were to preach the Gospel beginning at Jerusalem.  (It is also quite interesting that the Savior stated the church was to begin in Jerusalem and not Rome.)  As the apostles and other disciples proclaimed the simple Gospel message, men were given an opportunity to repent of their sins and believe in Jesus.  If they repented, their sins were remitted; if they refused to repent, their sins were retained.  It is actually no different today.  We invite sinners to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior by repenting of their sins and by faith trusting Him to be their Savior.  We can boldly proclaim that all who trust Christ have eternal life and those who refuse Him, will die in their sins and spend eternity in hell.

The final question then to be answered is, who then can forgive sins?

Mk. 2:7-”Who can forgive sins but God only?”

Ps. 32:5-” I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord.”

Eph. 1:7-”In Jesus we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

1 John 1:9-”If we confess our sins, He [Christ] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Is. 43:25-”I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”

The Bible is very clear that God alone can forgive sins.  Therefore, it totally unnecessary to confess to a priest.  There is not even one verse in the entire New Testament that records anyone confessing their sins to anyone but God.  The apostles did not hear confession.  The apostle Paul did not hear confession.  Luke, James and Jude certainly did not hear anyone’s confession.

Our Catholic friends will often turn to James 5:16 in another attempt to prove auricular confession (confession in the ear of a priest).  “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.  The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availieth much.”  They will even go so far as to change the word “faults” to sin and the word “healed” to saved.  The Greek word translated fault is paraptoma which also carries the meaning of a lapse, deviation or error.  The common Greek word for sin is hamartia and is obviously not used here.  The Greek word translated healed is iathete and can never mean saved.  The Greek word translated saved is sosei.  Unfortunately many of the modern translations follow the corrupt Wescott Hort text which changes the word paraptoma to hamartia which follows the error of the Douay-Rheims Bible thus attempting to prove the need for confessing to a priest..

Let’s see what is actually being said in James 5:16.  To begin with, we need to examine the context of the entire passage beginning in verse 13.  When examined as a whole verses 13 to 16 are clearly dealing with the healing of the sick and not with confession of sins to a priest.  The Catholic contention that verse 16 teaches auricular confession fails for several obvious reasons.

1. The confession in this verse is not made by a healthy person to obtain salvation, rather by a sick person that he may be healed.
2. A mutual confession is the thought here and not that of confessing to a priest.
3. No mention of a priest is made or even a confession to any kind of minister for that matter as one to whom the confession is to be made.
4. The confession mentioned in the verse is of faults one to another and nothing is said of confession to someone who has not been injured.
5. There is no mention of absolution here by a priest or anyone else for that matter.
6. All this passage can possibly mean is that God promises to forgive those who are truly penitent and this fact may as well be stated as one to another.