Is Confession Biblical?

Tim Staples' Blog ^ | February 19, 2014 | Tim Staples

[Salvation]

But you do agree that the Sacrament of Penance is mentioned in the Bible?

[wheat_grinder]

If a Protestant sits down every day and prays for thirty minutes to an hour, then he or she may have something to teach me about how I pray. Otherwise, not interested even in reading their posts.

Excellent reply!! That’s just what Yeshua said! Not.
Just read your churches Catechism to see before your own eyes the lies the Catholic church promotes. And if you don’t see them I pray the scales are removed from your eyes. Seriously I WILL.

[wheat_grinder]

Sorry. Replied to wrong person.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Wow, I’m surprised it took 14 posts before someone raised the whole priest as pedophile issue. Good thing no protestant ministers have ever crossed that line.

According to the John Jay Report, Catholic priests commit sexual abuse at a 1-2% rate, Ministers at a 2-3% rate, and public school teachers at a 5-10% rate.

A lot of people seem to prefer to get their information regarding sexual abuse by clergy from the New York Times.

[.45 Long Colt]

I’m so glad you presented such a strong argument. /

I post Scripture after Scripture and links that deal directly with the Scriptures and you come at me with utter nonsense.

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

The more I read Tim Staples the more I come to realize he twists bends scripture to support his beliefs. He repeatedly mischaracterizes what true followers believe. He pulls scripture out of context and fails to rely on the whole counsel of the word of God. He is shameless in his exploitation and so many catholics that do not know scripture use his writings as a source of apologetics.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Don’t bother answering, those are rhetorical questions.

You might not be interested in my answers, but others might be. Your objections aren't unusual.

I will, however, ask what happened to all the sinners who didn’t have the benefit of confession for hundreds and hundreds of years?

Confession is normative for Catholics, and mandatory for mortal sins. ("Mortal sins," see 1 John 5:16-17)

However, although Christ instituted the Sacrament, God is not bound by the Sacraments. One who sincerely repents of his sins and truly seeks God's forgiveness can receive His forgiveness. The Church teaches that this is possible not just for Catholics and Protestants, but even non-Christians. In every case, forgiveness is from God.

So why did Christ institute the Sacrament?

First of all, Christ gives the Apostles the authority to retain sins, in addition to forgive sins. (It should go without saying that Christ forgives sins through the person of the priest). One can infer from this that the priest has the authority to discern the penitent's sincerity, and engage in spiritual direction, in addition to absolution.

Secondly, confession to a human being is very tangible and comforting. Ask anyone who has been to Confession. We're human beings, not robots, and hearing the words of absolution from the priest can be a very liberating feeling, normally much more powerful than the feeling one gets from private prayer.

Third, the Sacrament conveys grace, giving us the ability to resist sin in the future.

Finally, the sacrament can be comforting to the scrupulous, who may fret over their own contrition. They can be sure that their sins have been forgiven when they hear the words of absolution from the priest.

Why is there NO confessional in the New Testament?

Does the New Testament say that every tangible thing associated with religious practice must be mentioned in the Bible? Where's that in the Bible?

Regardless, the confessional itself is not essential to the sacrament. From the Bible, we can see that the essence of the sacrament is the verbal communication of one's sins to a priest. The sacrament is efficacious when the penitent is contrite. Even imperfect contrition is acceptable.

No Catholic has ever confessed every single sin. It’s impossible to even recognize all of our sins of commission, let alone omission, so what of all those unconfessed sins?

The typical confession concludes with the words, "for these and all my sins, I am sorry."

The sacrament concludes with an act of contrition. Here is the entire Rite:

Rite of Reconciliation

Reconciliation may be face-to-face or anonymous, with a screen between you and the priest. Choose the option that is the most comfortable for you.

The priest gives you a blessing or greeting. He may share a brief Scripture passage.

Make the Sign of the Cross and say: “Bless me father, for I have sinned. My last confession was…” (give the number of weeks, months or years).

Confess all of your sins to the priest. The priest will help you to make a good confession. If you are unsure about how to confess or you feel uneasy, just ask him to help you. Answer his questions without hiding anything out of fear or shame. Place your trust in God, a merciful Father who wants to forgive you.

Following your confession of sins, say: “I am sorry for these and all of my sins.”

The priest assigns you a penance and offers advice to help you be a better Catholic. Say an Act of Contrition, expressing your sorrow for your sins. The priest, acting in the person of Christ, then absolves you from your sins.

Act of Contrition

God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you, and I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell; but most of all because they offend you, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of your grace to confess my sins, do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.

To everyone else I will point out that the confessional box has created an opening for unspeakable sin throughout the centuries. How many molested boys initially fell under the sway of pervert priests in the confessional box?

I don't know. How many?

Since Christ established the Sacrament, we must obey Him and confess our sins to a priest. The confessional box was designed to protect the penitent's privacy and to prevent the seduction of priest or penitent. If you can think of a better way for people to verbally confess their sins to a priest, the Church is open for suggestions.

Recently, penitents have been given the opportunity to choose face-to-face Confession.

There is risk of seduction in private psychological counseling and private doctor examinations, but the risk is outweighed by the benefit. The same is true of sacramental Confession, which is more important, since it is medicinal to our spiritual well-being.

[NKP_Vet]

“Any religion that says they have the right to change or supercede scripture, even the words of Christ Jesus, is not of Him”

Your argument is with Martin Luther, who most definitely changed scripture to what he wanted it to say.

[NKP_Vet]

Your real beef with Tim Staples is he used to a Catholic-hating pentacostal and he converted to Catholicism, now being one of the best Catholic apologists around.

[Mercat]

Excellent reply. Thanks. One of the things we did with the RCIA candidates and catechumens (now elect) was to tour the confessions in our church. The body language showed me that there was fear. They knew our wonderful priests but somehow going in there and being alone with one was scary. My experiences with confession have for the most part been wonderful. The priest is at the same time detached from me personally but 100% there for me spiritually if that makes sense. Once I was really worried about what I had to confess. I went to another parish. I ended up confessing to a priest whom I’m pretty sure didn’t speak much English. But because I knew he was there representing Christ, the absolution was wonderful and effective for me.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

My experiences with confession have for the most part been wonderful.

Same here. But even after all these years I still have trepidation about going. For me, I think it's mainly an issue of pride. It's hard to admit fault. Confession is very humbling. Still, I always feel great afterwards.

[Salvation]

Any specific examples, or is it that you just don’t like Tim Staples?

[BlueDragon]

Knock off the mind reading.

Seriesly.

[Salvation]

Peace be with you. Those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven.

John 20:19-31

19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
21 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
22 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 them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.
25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."
26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe."
28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"
29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.
31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. (NRSV)

[cloudmountain]

◄ Matthew 18:18 ►

"Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

[Salvation]

Another example:

“Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them…”

Posted on 15 April 2012 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”

From today’s Gospel reading (John 20:20-23).

Our Lord gave His own power to the Apostles to forgive or to retain sins.  Validly ordained bishops and priests have Christ’s own power to forgive sins and they do so validly with the Church’s permission, indicated by a “faculty”.

There is no sin so great that any of us can commit that a confessor cannot absolve, for it is Christ absolving as the confessor absolves.

The penitential season of preparation for Easter may be behind us, but we must still examine our consciences and go to confession when our examen has brought mortal sin into focus.  There are sins of commission and sins of omission, which as sometimes harder to discern.

Commenting on these verses of John 20, St. Jerome (+420) wrote:

You say that the Church was founded on Peter (Matthew 16:18), although elsewhere the same is attributed to all the apostles, and they all receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the strength of the Church depends on them all alike, yet one among the twelve is chosen so that when a head has been appointed, there may be no occasion for schism. (Adversus Iovinianum 1.26).

Our Lord gives us what we need so that we know we belong to Him in His Body the Church and so that we know that our sins have been forgiven.

Say a prayer of thanks to the Most Holy Trinity for the gift of certainty about both membership in the Church Christ founded and also confidence in forgiveness for our sins through the Sacrament of Penance.

[Mr Rogers]

“The answer is: God willed to call out a special priesthood among the universal priesthood to minister to his people. This concept is literally as old as Moses.”

Guess he forgot to tell the Apostles he was doing so...

[.45 Long Colt]

I trust Christ’s sheep will see through that thin gruel.

Sinners, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) Genuine born-from-above believers are a “royal priesthood” who have no need of one of Rome’s priests. Don’t listen to the dark lies of Rome. It’s utter bondage!

[cloudmountain]

Your real beef with Tim Staples is he used to a Catholic-hating pentacostal and he converted to Catholicism, now being one of the best Catholic apologists around.

Isn't it interesting how some of these male converts have become SUCH vocal preachers in our faith? Besides Tim Staples there are:
SCOTT HAHN
STEVE RAY
They are TRULY a gift from God. THANK YOU, LORD!

I went on one of Steve and Janet Ray's FOOTPRINTS OF GOD pilgrimages to Israel. It was THE most fabulous tour I have ever been on.
[My husband and I lived and worked in the middle east for five years and went, oh, everywhere. WHAT a lucky woman I was!]

Steve, being a former evangelical Baptist minister, knew his Bible backwards and forwards. He could quote chapter and verse of every place we visited. The story of his conversion was most interesting and heart rending.

It WAS a hoot to watch him deal with the Israelis (Jewish ones) who were NOT thrilled at so many Christians, especially CATHOLICS, visiting the Holy Land.
It was HOMERIC! There was MUCH hand-waving, much movement, turning, looking up and down and much head shaking, as in NO.
My money was on Steve--HOMERIC!!!
Steve always got that "extra" that he wanted us to see and visit.
And NO, he never had to bribe. The Israelis (Jewish ones) don't take bribes and would probably would have been rather annoyed at the offer. Just a guess.

==================================

Every Christian who can OUGHT to save his pennies and visit the place where our Savior lived, taught, suffered and died. That is what our plastic cards are for!
I still get choked up when thinking of our Lord's tomb on Calvary. I kissed His tomb and placed my rosary on it.

Side note: There is no more HILL of Calvary. The Romans took it down in the 3rd or 4th century because it had become a NUISANCE with all the Christian pilgrims.

[Mercat]

I friend of mine told me that the closer he gets to Jesus the more he recognizes his sins and the more he goes to confession. I’ve carried that with me for about 18 months now and find it to be true. It’s all about the relationship. The whole thing about saying the magic words and you’re saved forever - that’s a bit like saying that you go to the altar, get married and never have to tell your spouse you love him or work on that relationship.