“All that I need to do is to confess my sins directly to God, and that is enough!”
Actually the Bible says “to one another”
Actually, it says ‘confessing our faults one to another’.
No man has the power to absolve, forgive or in any manner mediate between god and man. No yogis, priests, popes, witch doctors, channelers...nobody!
Fortunately, we have the first amendment or we would be right back under the control of arminian sacerdotalists.
Good grief!
So I guess the priest gets to confess his sins to the layman then, right?
I’m Lutheran, so I never had to do a church confession. I’m also in recovery, and my 5th step was the closest thing I’ve ever had to a confession. “Admitted to God, to ourselves, and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs”. -AA 5th step.
Took me a couple of hours, but had a huge weight lifted off my soul, along with a very heavy dose of humility.