These passages in the Bible teach us about the importance of the Sacrament of Confession!
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These passages in the Bible teach us about the importance of the Sacrament of Confession!
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John 20:
21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send 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; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
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Argument:
Jesus had been "sent" with a mission from the Father to forgive sins. That was why He came to earth! And even with this same mission, i.e. to forgive sins, He sent them: "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven." Now, most Protestant theologians think that this simply means that the Apostles were commissioned to preach forgiveness of sins, and anyone who accepted the Gospel would be forgiven, but (they say) the Apostles could not actually forgive them. But that contradicts the passage in two ways:
(1) The Apostles were permitted not only to forgive, but also to retain sins; so if this means merely that they were to preach forgiveness, then Jesus is telling them that they are allowed to preach to some but deny the Gospel to others -- and that is NOT biblical! Mercy demands that all men be given the opportunity to hear the Gospel: "And he said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.' " (Mark 16:15) The fact that the Apostles were given the commission either to forgive or to retain sins proves that this is not merely the commission to preach, which they were not allowed to cease from doing. For let's suppose it was only preaching: if a man heard them but rejected their teaching, and died in his sins, then how could it be said that they retained his sins? It could not be said, for it was his doing and not theirs; but here it is said that the Apostles could retain sins. Therefore it does not mean merely preaching forgiveness, but the text demands that they were able to actually confer forgiveness of sins on the hearer by the power that the Lord invested in them when He breathed into them the Spirit of forgiveness.
(2) Jesus says that the Apostles were commissioned with the same ministry that He had been given; so if they were only to "preach" forgiveness of sins, but not actually give it, then neither has Jesus actually forgiven us, but was only a preacher. So anyone can see that if the common interpretation given by Protestant leaders is accurate, then we are still in our sins, and most pitiable of all; for it makes the ministry of the Church, which is the same as the ministry of Christ, a ministry of only preaching and never forgiving. Therefore the Protestant theologians are wrong, and the Church is right: her priests may forgive the sins of the penitent, or retain them, and that requires the sacrament of Confession in order that they may know whether the person is truly sorry, and which to forgive and if any must be retained.
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These passages in the Bible teach us about the importance of the Sacrament of Confession!
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Acts 19:
18 Many also of those who were now believers came [to Paul], confessing and divulging their practices.
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Argument:
The early Church was not afraid to go to the Christian leaders to confess their sins; this has never stopped in the Catholic Church. Today, we still go to Confession whenever our sinfulness demands it. We also see in early Christian documents that Confession was a common practice: "Confess your sins in church, and do not go up to your prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life. ... On the Lord’s Day gather together, break bread, and give thanks, after confessing your transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure." (Didache 4:14, 14:1)
The document that that passage comes from may have been written as early as 70 A.D., but at the latest it was written in 120 A.D., and in either case it shows that confessing to priests was the standard Christian practice received from the Apostles. This was quite comfortable to the early Christians because many of them were Jews, and the Jews had a long-standing practice of public confession; before John the Baptist was arrested, the Bible says, "[the Jews] were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins." (Mark 1:5) So this practice of public confession passed into the Christian Church, as seen in Acts 19:18 and in the Didache, and it continues today in the Catholic Church. So which is more biblical: the Catholic Church which follows the practice set by the first Bible Christians, or the Protestant leaders today which reject it?
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These passages in the Bible teach us about the importance of the Sacrament of Confession!
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James 5:
14 Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man: and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 Confess 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.
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Argument:
This passage first establishes the power of priests to forgive sins if we request it of them, and then says that because of this, we are commanded to confess our sins one to another. There are three possible interpretations of that latter command, and I interpret it this way: confessing our sins "one to another" here means "the sick man to the priest," since that is the context, and the "just man" refers in particular to the priest, for -- as the context states -- his prayer is powerful enough to save the sick man, i.e. to obtain forgiveness of his sins.
I do not think it means that every time we sin, we should go door to door telling each member of the community about it, though perhaps it means we should confess privately to (at least) those whom we have sinned against; but more likely than that is this third possible interpretation: that it refers to public confession before all of the local Christian community at once in church. That is how it was done in the early Church, and that is how it is done in Eastern Catholic churches today, where confession is made before the whole assembly and then the priest forgives him in front of all.
Whatever interpretation is true, "confess your sins to one another" surely includes confessing to the priest who was just named in the context as having the ability to forgive sins. Thus this passage makes Confession to a priest an explicit requirement for Christians.
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These passages in the Bible teach us about the importance of the Sacrament of Confession!
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2 Corinthians 5:
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
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Argument:
Here St. Paul says that the Apostolic ministry includes forgiving trespasses, and communicating God's reconciliation to all those who ask for it. That equals the Sacrament of Confession, for one cannot ask for forgiveness if he does not confess that he is a sinner, and Paul implies that we should be asking forgiveness of those who have the Apostolic ministry since it is in this context that he says they are the ambassadors for God. So here once more we see that oral Confession is an essential part of the Gospel; and I appeal to you with Paul: be reconciled to God! Seek the Sacrament of reconciliation, which can only be found in the Catholic Church! For that is where God has placed this ministry, and that is where God is drawing all Christians.
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These passages in the Bible teach us about the importance of the Sacrament of Confession!
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Matthew 18:
15 If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
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Argument:
This establishes three hierarchical levels of private confession: (1) between the sinner and the one that he has sinned against, (2) between the sinner and a few witnesses who may convict him in his heart, and (3) between the sinner and the leaders of the Church, who have the power to bind him to his sin or loose him from it. Thus Christ promises that the Church leaders will have power to forgive sin if the need arises; and here as in the Catholic Church, venial sins do not need to be confessed, but reconciliation can be sought with laymen themselves. The leaders of the church, i.e. the priests, only need to be consulted when it becomes a mortal sin, in this case when the sinner refuses to repent. And then if he refuses to repent even to the priest, he cannot be loosed from his sin but must be bound to it, and excommunicated (i.e. treated as an outsider).
So the Sacrament of Confession is one of the most explicit teachings of the Bible. When you try to worm your way around the strength of these passages, O Protestant, (for these are among the most "Catholic" in the Bible,) you show that your protestations are foolish, that you would make nonsense of the Bible wherever it speaks of Catholic doctrines rather than bow to the Lord and obey what He says. But we continue to pray for you, that one day you will repent of this foolishness and come to the Light where God reigns and where all may obey His commands.
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