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[roamer_1:] If you agree with the personal level, then the other is rendered moot.

Not at all; there is a huge difference between apologizing to the person harmed and doing what one can to make restitution to that person, and doing the same with God. When we sin, we may harm another person, but we certainly displease God. Are we to totally ignore God?

Of course not - but YHWH's requirement IS only teshuva - turning from sin to face Him. And sin is transgression of Torah. There is *nothing* one can do, having broken Torah - One is only suitable for death, having broken YHWH's way. All there is for such a one is mercy, and that mercy is available in abundance.

My role as an earthly father has always followed the same thing: if one of my sons did wrong, punishment was not the point. Punishment was only inevitable when they DIDN'T recognize their sin against my house. THEN I would have to drag them around by their nose and MAKE them walk the right way. But I didn't want that. Oh, how I loved them when they, on their own, recognized their fault, exercised their consciences, and showed me on their own that they were coming back to the way that I gave them. How mercy and encouragement abounded! That is what I wanted from them! It is the same thing.

Of course you go before the Father with a humbled and contrite heart. But if you have come truly, knowing your fault, to claim His forgiveness in the Blood of Yeshua, having done everything possible to correct the problem, and having begun again to walk in Torah, then what else could possibly be needed? Do you think he needs to see you whipped for doing the right thing?

I don't think affliction is necessary unless one continues to be reprobate - Either by the father, or by oneself - If the conscience remains troubled, and one afflicts oneself, the purpose is to form the humility and contrition in every facet of the problem... Not to prove anything to YHWH... To dig deeper to the original fault... To root it up... But that affliction doesn't prove anything to YHWH - He already knows. It's YOU that needs the knowing. It is to help you search out the root of the sin... when that is found, and repented of, I think the conscience lets it go...

[roamer_1:] Do you so quickly disregard Shavuot? At the time, The Spirit had not yet been given.

Does the fact that the Holy Spirit had not yet descended mean that Christ was unable to give the Apostles a spiritual gift?

You miss the point. He would have HAD to breathe on them because the Spirit had not yet descended... I might argue that the Spirit is breathed upon each and every one of us - It was a special accommodation until they were received of the Spirit in fullness. What makes one truly free is to know forgiveness, put down guilt, and to walk out Torah in the footsteps of the Master. No other chain can bind you...

And all the forgiveness of a priest will do *nothing* for you - Mumbling 'hail marys' and 'our fathers'- all is for naught without teshuva. And having made teshuva, the priest is made moot, as one is already walking in Torah, and already turned toward the Father through the only Priest... Kinda like how baptism is just getting wet without the circumcision of the heart. The water cannot be the efficacious part... In fact, my way may be the harder road - Because I can rely upon no authority except YHWH, if He has afflicted my conscience, I will have no rest until I get to the very bottom of the problem.