Should Christians Confess Sins to An Earthly Priest?

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9)

I enter on this branch of the subject with sorrowful feelings. I approach it as a sailor would approach some rock on which many gallant ships have made shipwreck. I cannot forget that I have arrived at a point on which millions of so-called Christians have erred greatly, and millions are erring at the present day. But I dare not keep back anything that is Scriptural, for fear of giving offence. The errors of millions must not prevent a minister of the Gospel speaking the truth. If multitudes are hewing out broken cisterns that can hold no water, it becomes the more needful to point out the true fountain. If countless souls are turning aside from the right way, it becomes the more important to show clearly to whom confession ought to be made.

Sin, to speak generally, ought to be confessed to God. He it is whom we have chiefly offended. His are the laws which we have broken. To him all men and women will one day give account. His displeasure is that which sinners have principally to fear. This is what David felt: “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight” (Psalm 51:4). This is what David practised: I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord” (Psalm 32:5). This is what Joshua advised Achan to do: “My son, give glory to God, and make confession to Him” (Joshua 7:19). The Jews were right when they said, “Who can forgive sins but God only? ” (Mark 2:7).

But must we leave the matter here? Can vile sinners like us ever dare to confess our sins to a holy God? Will not the thought of his infinite purity shut our mouths and make us afraid? Must not the remembrance of His holiness make us afraid? Is it not written of God, that He is ” of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity?” (Hab. 1:13). Is it not said, that He “hates all workers of iniquity?” (Psalm 5:5). Did He not say to Moses, “There shalt no man see My face and live?” (Exodus 33:20). Did not Israel say of old, “Let not God speak with us, lest we die?” (Exodus 20:19). Did not Daniel say, ” How can the servant of this my Lord talk with this my Lord?” (Dan. 10:17). Did not Job say, “When I consider, I am afraid of Him?” (Job xxiii. 15). Did not Isaiah say, “Woe is me, for I am undone; . . . for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts?” (Isaiah 6:5). Does not Elihu say, “Shall it be told Him that I speak? If a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up” (Job 37:20).

Reader, these are serious questions. They are questions which must and will occur to thoughtful minds. There are many who know what Luther meant when he said. “I dare not have anything to do with an absolute God.” But I thank God, they are questions to which the Gospel supplies a full and satisfactory answer. The Gospel reveals One who is exactly suited to the wants of souls which desire to confess sin.

I say then that sin ought to be confessed to God in Christ. I say that sin ought specially to be confessed to God manifest in the flesh,-to Christ Jesus the Lord,-to that Jesus who came into the world to save sinners,-to that Jesus who died for our sins, and rose again for our justification, and now lives at the right hand of God to intercede for all who come to God by Him. He that desires to confess sin, should apply direct to Christ.

Christ is a great High Priest. Let that truth sink down into our hearts, and never be forgotten. He is sealed and appointed by God the Father for that very purpose. It is His peculiar office to receive and hear, and pardon and absolve sinners. It is His place to receive confessions and to grant plenary absolutions. It is written in Scripture, ” Thou art a priest for ever.” “We have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens.” “Having an High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 4:14; 6:20; 10:21, 22).

Christ is a High Priest of Almighty power. There is no sin that He cannot pardon, and no sinner that He cannot absolve. He is very God of very God. He is “over all, God blessed for ever.” He says Himself, “I and My Father are one.” He has “all power in heaven and in earth.” He has “power on earth to forgive sins.” He has complete authority to say to the chief of sinners, ” Thy sins are forgiven. Go in Peace.” He has “the keys of death and hell.” When He opens, no man can shut. (Rom. 9:5; John 10:30; Matt. 28:18; Matt 9:6; Luke 7:48, 50; Rev. 1:18; 3:7).

Christ is a High Priest of infinite willingness to receive confession of sin. He invites all who feel their guilt to come to Him for relief. “Come unto Me,” He says, “all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.” When the penitent thief cried to Him on the cross, He at once absolved him fully, and gave him an answer of peace (Matt. 11:28; John 7:37).

Christ is a High Priest of perfect knowledge. He knows exactly the whole history of all who confess to Him. From Him no secrets are hid. He never errs in judgment. He makes no mistakes. It is written that “He is of quick understanding. He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears ” (Isaiah 11:3). He can discern the difference between the hypocritical professor who is full of words, and the broken-hearted sinner who can scarce stammer out his confession. People may deceive ministers by “good words and fair speeches,” but they will never deceive Christ.

Christ is a High Priest of matchless tenderness. He will not afflict willingly, or grieve any soul that comes to Him. He will handle delicately every wound that is exposed to Him. He will deal tenderly even with the vilest sinners, as He did with the Samaritan woman. Confidence reposed in Him is never abused. Secrets confided to Him are completely safe. Of Him it is right. But when we ask a reason for the practice, we may ask long without getting an answer.

There is no need for such a confession. Christ has not given up His office, and ceased to be a Priest. The saints and angels cannot possibly do more for us than Christ can. They certainly have not more pity or compassion, or goodwill towards our souls.

There is no warrant of Scripture for such a confession. There is not a text in the Bible that bids us confess to dead saints and angels. There is not an instance in Scripture of any living believer taking his sins to them.

There is not the slightest proof that there is any use in such a confession. We do not even know that the saints in glory can hear what we say. Much less do we know that they could help us if they heard. They were all sinners, saved by grace themselves. Where is the likelihood that they could do anything to aid our souls

Reader, the man who turns away from Christ to confess to saints and angels is a deluded robber of his own soul. He is following a shadow, and forsaking the substance. He is rejecting the bread of life, and trying to satisfy his spiritual hunger with sand.

But why, again, should we confess our sins to living priests and ministers, while we have Christ for a High Priest? The Church of Rome commands her members to do so. A party within the Church of England approves the practice as useful, helpful, and almost needful to the soul. But, again, when we ask for Scripture and reason in support of the practice, we receive no satisfactory answer. written, that He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. “He is one that “despiseth not any” (Isaiah 42:3; Job 36:5).

Christ is a High Priest who can sympathise with all that confess to Him. He knows the heart of a man by experience, for He had a body like our own, and was made in the likeness of man. “We have not a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). To Him the words can most truly be applied, which Elihu applied to himself, “Behold, I am according to thy wish in God’s stead; I also am formed out of the clay. Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee” (Job 33:6, 7).

Reader, this great High Priest is the person whom you and I ought specially to employ in our confession of sin. It is only through Him and by Him that we should make all our approaches to God. In Him we may draw near to God with boldness, and have access with confidence (Eph. 3:12). Laying our hand on Him and His atonement, we may come “boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). We need no other mediator or priest. We can find no better High Priest. To whom should the sick man disclose his ailment, but the physician? To whom should the prisoner tell his story, but to his legal advocate? To whom should the sinner open his heart and confess his sins, but to Christ?

Why should we confess our sins to angels and dead saints, while we have Christ for a High Priest? Why should we confess to the Virgin Mary, Michael the archangel. John the Baptist. St. Paul, or any other creature in the unseen world? The Church of Rome enjoins such confession as this on her millions of members, and many members of the Church of England seem half disposed to think the Church of Rome is right. But when we ask a reason for the practice, we may ask long without getting an answer.

Is there any need for confessing to priests or ministers There is none. There is nothing they can do for a sinner that Christ cannot do a thousand times better. When Christ has failed the soul that cries to Him it may be time to turn to ministers. But that time will never come.

Is there any Scriptural warrant for confessing to priests or ministers? There is none. There is not a passage in the New Testament which commands it. St. Paul writes three epistles to Timothy and Titus about ministerial duty. But he says nothing about receiving confessions. St. James bids us “confess our faults to one another,” but he says nothing about confessing to ministers. Above all, there is not a single example in the Bible of any one confessing to a minister and receiving absolution. We see the Apostles often declaring plainly the way of forgiveness, and pointing men to Christ. But we nowhere find them telling men to confess to them, and offering to absolve them after confession.

Finally, is any good likely to result from confessing to priests or ministers? I answer boldly, there is none. Ministers can never know that those who confess to them are telling the truth. Those who confess to them will never feel their consciences really satisfied, and will never feel certain that what they confess will not be improperly used. Above all, facts, stubborn facts abound, to show that the practice of confessing to ministers has often led to the grossest and most disgusting immorality. A living writer has truly said, “There is no better school of wickedness on earth than the confessional. History testifies that for every offender whom the confessional has reclaimed, it has hardened thousands; for one it may have saved it has destroyed millions” (Wylie on Popery, p. 329).

Reader, the man who turns away from Christ to confess his sins to ministers, is like a man who chooses to live in prison when he may walk at liberty; or to starve and go in rags in the midst of riches and plenty; or to cringe for favours at the feet of a servant, when he may go boldly to the Master and ask what he will. A mighty and sinless High Priest is provided for him, and yet he prefers to employ the aid of mere fellow sinners like himself! He is trying to fill his purse with rubbish when he may have fine gold for the asking. He is insisting on lighting a rushlight, when he may enjoy the noon-day light of God’s sun!

Reader, if you love your soul, beware of giving to ministers the honour that belongs to Christ alone. He is the true High Priest of the Christian’s profession. He ever lives to receive confessions, and to absolve sinners. Why should we turn away from Him to man Above all, beware of the whole system of the Romish confessional. Of all practices that were ever devised by man, in the name of religion, I firmly believe that none was ever devised so mischievous and objectionable as the confessional. It overthrows Christ’s office, and places man in the seat which should only be occupied by the Son of God. It puts two sinners in a thoroughly wrong position. It exalts the confessor far too high. It places those who confess far too low, it gives the confessor a place which is not safe for any child of Adam to occupy. It imposes on those who confess a bondage to which it is not safe for any child of Adam to submit. It sinks one poor sinner into the degrading attitude of a serf. It raises another poor sinner into a dangerous mastery over his brother’s soul. It makes the confessor little less than a God. It makes those who confess little better than slaves. If you love Christian liberty, if you value inward peace, remember the advice I give you this day. Beware, beware of the slightest approach to the Romish confessional!

Listen not to those who tell you that Christian ministers were intended to receive confessions, and that evangelical teaching makes light of the ministerial office, and strips it of all authority and power. Such assertions are more easily made than proved. We honour the minister’s office highly, but we refuse to give it a hair’s breadth more dignity than we find given in the Word of God. We honour ministers as Christ’s ambassadors, Christ’ s messengers, Christ’s watchmen, helpers of believers’ joy, preachers of the Word, and stewards of the mysteries of God. But we decline to regard them as priests, mediators, confessors, and rulers over men’s faith, both for the sake of their souls and of our own.

Listen not to those who tell you that evangelical teaching is opposed to the exercise of soul-discipline, or heart examination, or self-humiliation, or mortification of the flesh, or true contrition. Opposed to it! There never was a more baseless assertion. We are entirely favourable to it. This only we require, that it shall be carried on in the right way. We approve of a confessional; but it must be the only true one,- the throne of grace. We approve of going to a confessor; but it must be the true one,-Christ the Lord. We approve of submitting consciences to a priest; but it must be to the great High Priest,-Jesus the Son of God. We approve of unbecoming our secret sins, and seeking absolution; but it must be at the feet of the great Head of the Church, and not at the feet of one of His weak members. We approve of kneeling to receive ghostly counsel; but it must be at the feet of Christ, and not at the feet of man.

Reader, beware of ever losing sight of Christ’s priestly office. Glory in His atoning death. Honour Him as your substitute and surety on the cross. Follow Him as your Shepherd. Hear His voice as your Prophet. Obey Him as your King. But in all your thoughts about Christ, let it be often before your mind that He alone is your High Priest, and that He has deputed His priestly office to no order of men in the world. This is the office of Christ, which Satan labours above all to obscure. It is the neglect of this office which leads to every kind of error. It is the remembrance of this office which is the best safeguard against the plausible teaching of the Church of Rome. Once right about this office you will never greatly err in the matter of the confession of sin. You will know to whom confession ought to be made; and to know that rightly is no slight thing.

I’m no Catholic and I’ll never understand confessing sins to a mortal.

Why is it any different from hearing the word of God from a mortal? You didn't hear the gospel directly from God. It came from a mortal preacher or a mortal author.

Jesus said to the apostles: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you."

He also gave the apostles the power to forgive or to retain sins. (John 20:23) I.e., to exercise judgment. Exercising this judgment would be impossible unless sinners TELL their sins, and discuss their motives, and their intention to amend their lives.

Billions of people have known the peace that comes to a Catholic when these words are spoken:

Penitent:

O, my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee.
I detest my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell.
But most of all, because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good, and deserving of all my love.
I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.

Priest:

God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son, has sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins.
Through the ministry of the Church, may God give you pardon and peace. And I absolve you from your sins, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Nearly 100 Christians have recently been abducted by ISIS. They will probably meet a terrible death. But hey, my brand of Christianity is better than yours and I can prove it with my HTML skills of righteousness! That's FR these days. Sad.

What is sad is that Islam fed off the largely lifeless body of institutionalized Christianity, as the strongest weapon against it is a living evangelical faith.

Rome''s teaching actually sanction torture and death of merely theological nonconformists, something early Prots had to unlearn, and required RC rulers to exterminate all the heretics (us) from the land, or else they were to be overthrown.

And there are RC here who commended that, and who i have little doubt with sanction our death as heretics.

Both Catholicism and Islam are populated with souls only born of the flesh, the latter entirely so, and thus its weapons of warfare have been after that means.

But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. (Galatians 4:29)

Besides being not commanded by Jesus Christ (John 20:23), confession to a priest is self-deception.

Fixed, as there simply was and is no separate class of believers distinctively titled “hiereus” (priests) .

And James 5:16 distinctly says presbuteros (elders) NOT hiereus (priests) which distinctive title the Holy Spirit never gives to NT clergy (except as part of the general priesthood (hierateuma) of all believers. (1Pt. 2:9) A separate sacerdotal class of NT clergy titled hiereus/priests was a later unScriptural development due to imposed functional equivalence.

In addition, while God can forgive sin thru the intercession of others, in the sense of removing judgment/chastisement due to unknown or perhaps not fully repentant sin, (Mt. 9:1-6) and in which the elders are to be the primary righteous confessors, yet this power is not restricted to them.

For as in Mt. 18, the spiritual (if not judicial, the binding/loosing power of which the OT magisterium also had: Dt. 17:8-13) power of binding or loosing also pertains to every believer who is a righteous man of fervent prayer, and is not restricted to the elders, let alone the non-existent Cath. priesthood.

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (James 5:16)

Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 18:19)

And which, in the context of the general exhortation, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much," (James 5:16) James says Elijah exampled, binding and loosing the heavens. (Ja. 5:17,18; cf. 1Ki. 17:1; 1Ki 18:18,42-45) Blessed be God. I am no Elijah sadly. Nor are RC priests.

I refer to myself as a Catholic in order to distinguish the fullness of the Christian Faith that is held by the Catholic Church from the maimed, deformed, amputated version of Christianity taught by the heresiarchs of the the 16th Century and after.

Catholic tells me your denomination, much as it would if I identified as methodist, baptist, butheran, etc. It tells me nothing of a persons relationship with Christ.

And here I am thinking identifying with Christ would do just that. Silly me.

btw...still waiting on your up or down on the fifth marian dogma....what say you? Yes or No?

There are no presumptions in the Catholic Church.

The what you call the presumptions of the Church, the Church itself, is never challenged here.

I take that back. I did have one question once. It was an inquisitive question, placed by a poster who wanted to have an answer. it was polite and had a question mark. I answered in kind.

The rest, you call challenge. It’s a challenge like going for the couch with a drink and the remote.

You can not find one serious challenge to the Church o FR to cut and paste and post (Now there’s a challenge for you)

I have never seen one.

Not one poster hateful of the Church have I ever spoken with here has ever been curious, except the afore mentioned. Not curious enough to consult the theologians, the Catechism, Canon law, Catholic publications.

A challenge like facing a champion boxer in the ring wearing no gloves, wearing street clothes.

It’s just a lot of bigotry

I never said I didn’t want this to be an anti Catholic site.

Where did I say that?

I don’t care.

You think being Catholic carries with it an expectation to not be persecuted?

THe opposite.

It’s not a complaint.

It’s an observation.

Read the other thread headline.

It’s an observation. Catholics don’t fade at criticism and anti Catholicism.

Comes with the territory. Nature of the beast

Whether one confesses their sins to a priest, or to Jesus Christ is no small matter. But to you, it is throwing mud like a bunch of mountain gorillas to have strong convictions on this.

People sin, when they do, what do YOU recommend they do? Go to a priest, or go to Jesus? Inquiring minds want to know.

Since you have a higher and loftier ethical position than either Catholics or Protestants, what on earth do YOU do when YOU sin?

Some beliefs are not allowed here, e.g. Satanism. Any pro-Satanism posts would be removed and posters banned for posting them.

If this were an anti-Catholic site, then pro-Catholicism posts would be removed and posters banned for posting them. Obviously, Catholic posts are not removed and Catholics are not banned for posting them.

It is also not an anti-Protestantism site so pro-Protestantism posts are not removed and posters are not banned for posting them.

That said, this thread is posted in the Religion Forum. It is an "open" RF thread meaning posters may argue for or against deities, beliefs, religious authorities, etc. If that style of debate offends you, then IGNORE open RF threads altogether and instead post to RF threads labeled "caucus" "ecumenical" "prayer" or "devotional."

If you do not wish to see RF posts at all, then do NOT use the "everything" option on the Free Republic browse option list. Instead, browse by "News/Activism." When you log back in, the browse will reset to "everything" - so be sure to set it back to "News/Activism."

I recommend that people discuss theology (or anything else, for that matter) with respect for each other, and with respect for the truth.

I see precious little of that on the "religion" forum.

"Religion" discussion here looks very much like the mountain gorilla behavior I described.

If that's your level ... carry on.

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