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Please educate me on this. Scripture is replete with individuals confessing their sins directly to God:
"I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. - Psalm 32:5"
"Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." - Psalm 51:4
"And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;" - Daniel 9:4
"I have heard of thee by the bearing of the ear; but now mine eyes seeth thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." - Job 42:5-6
"We have sinned, and committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgements; neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of this land." - Daniel 9 5:6
"And David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo I have sinned, and I have done wickedly." -- 2 Samuel 24:17
"Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress; my bowels are troubled, mine heart is turned within me, for I have grievously rebelled." - Lamentations 1:20a
And the Christian is instructed to confess to God:
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." - 1 John 1 8:9
With so many examples of black-letter Scripture of individuals confessing their sins to God, how is this a "Protestant twisting"?
Too, the context of James 5:16 in the studies I have read is for Christians to confess sins one to the other (not to a priest, as that admonishment doesn't appear in that verse) so that prayer to God may be more effectual and fervent in the case of those who ask for it in the context of the rest of the verse, or to conciliate Christian forgiveness between those who have wronged each other.
Bless your day.
It’s not just Protestants who advocate confessing directly to God.
Those OT passages show that the Jews did it as well.
Col...
The first problem that I will address is that the majority of protestants, do not believe that anything written after the death of the last apostle is divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit. As such they do not read and are ignorant of the Didache http://www.paracletepress.com/didache.html, which was used to instruct catechumens in the first century.
It was likely written and used in practice prior to the time the actual Gospels (John’s Revelation for sure) were written. When you read it you will know immediately why protestants do not like the Didache, because it sounds (gasp)Catholic.
Next if you read the Apostolic Church Father, those early Church leaders and writers, who studied at the feet of the apostles. In general they include: Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, the author of the Didache, and the author of the Shepherd of Hermas. These earlier church fathers were associated with apostles: Clement with Peter (associated closely with Rome) and with Paul (as the Clement Paul wrote about in Philippians 4:3), Papias and Polycarp with John (associated with Asia Minor).
As were the apostles, except John, ALL of the Apostolic Fathers were martyred for their faith.
You can find most of their writings together in “The Apostolic Fathers - The Essential Guide” here: http://www.christosofautumnridge.com/product.asp?sku=068734204X
To the specifics of your question:
1) all of your quotes prior to the last quote from John were Old Testament and for which you are absolutely correct. Since Christ was not yet Incarnate, The Jews had only God the Father to confess their sins to and which they somewhat grudgingly did. It is important to note that the OT is the prototype of the NT
2) But with Christ Incarnate, and since He alone made the ultimate sacrifice, He alone became the Mediator of all reconciliation with the Father and it is Christ who ‘makes all things New”. So a strict interpretation of the OT is overridden by the NT, otherwise why did Christ come, but to change things - confession being one of them.
3) In the NT, the clear and unambiguous direction regarding confession of sins came as “...confess your sins to one another...”, which since there is only One Truth means exactly what it says: confess. your. sins. to. one. another.” For a protestant to confess “directly to God” as most claim they do is being, at best, Anti-Scriptural. A Scriptural statement, written as a direct command is not something to twist or play with. And as a Catholic we do not believe in YOPIOS (Your Own Personal Interpretation Of Scripture)- it says what it means and it means what it says.
4) Now reading the Didache and the works of the Apostolic and Early Church Fathers you will find multiple references of the faithful confessing to one another when they are gathered together - obviously necessary if one were to confess to ‘one another’. Contradiction of their personal interpretation is one reason that protestants shy away for serious study of these writings, the second is that they deny these works are in any way divinely inspired, and the third is that they ‘sound Catholic’, which is of course the truth since we base our tradition and liturgy upon them.
I’ve run out of time and hope to return to complete my explanation to you.
I do not accept your statement to “educate me” since I believe it is you who educate yourself and it is you who must remove any vincible ignorance at to the fullness of your faith, which like it or not includes what we are discussing.
Regards,
Ad Majoram Dei Gloriam
For The Greater Glory of God