Confess Your Sins- but to whom? God? The congregation? A Priest?

[Blackknight]

We can confess our sins to one another.. But we do not need to go to a confessional booth to do so.

We don't have booths...

 

[Albion]

We can confess our sins to one another.. But we do not need to go to a confessional booth to do so.

Why do you say we can confess to one another? Oh, it's because the Bible teaches us that.

By the same token, it also teaches us that Christ commissioned his Apostles to forgive sins or retain them. That would be the answer to that.

But of course, we have a second issue with that one. Is the authority he gave the Apostles passed on? That is far from certain.

Nevertheless, we certain CAN confess our sins to each other. And we can confess our sins directly in our prayers to God. No one should say that we HAVE TO confess to any minister; and anyone who would make such a claim is not accurately reflecting the teaching of his own church.

So the issue is not MUST but MAY. If confessing during a worship service is helpful, or if to a minister privately, then you might want to do that. But you don't have to, no.

 

[Blackknight]

Albion is exactly right. The church recognizes both private and corporate confession, i.e. with a priest. Confession is good for you any way, it really helps to have somebody there as your guide and I always feel better after talking to my spiritual father.

 

[Supreme]

You confess your sins to anyone, but God already knows your sins. To repent your sins may be better than to confess them when talking to God.

 

[Athanasias]

Why do you say we can confess to one another? Oh, it's because the Bible teaches us that.

By the same token, it also teaches us that Christ commissioned his Apostles to forgive sins or retain them. That would be the answer to that.

But of course, we have a second issue with that one. Is the authority he gave the Apostles passed on? That is far from certain.

Interesting that you are Anglican which "claims" to hold the idea of true apostolic succession from the apostles and authority vested in your priest and bishops and yet you are far from certain that this apostolic authority can be passed down from generation to generation? HUH???

I would invite you to full communion with the Catholic Church(As many Episcopalians and Anglicans are discovering) that they can have infallible certainty that this authority is passed down.

 

[Albion]

Interesting that you are Anglican which "claims" to hold the idea of true apostolic succession

If I had a dollar from every person who thinks he knows all about Anglicanism from the outside and so can lecture me on how my faith ought to be different from what he thinks it ought to be, I'd be in a spending mood. IOW, give it a rest. And the subject wasn't even about Aposotlic Succession!

and yet you are far from certain that this apostolic authority can be passed down from generation to generation? HUH???

Excuse me, but I what I said was that this is far from certain. That is a statement of fact, not of belief. Do you understand the difference?

I would invite you to full communion with the Catholic Church(As many Episcopalians and Anglicans are discovering) that they can have infallible certainty that this authority is passed down.

Here's the deal. I won't tell you that you can find Christ's one true church by converting to Anglicanism (as many Roman Catholics are doing), and you won't misuse the forum in an attempt to proselytize me.

.

 

[MamaZ]

Why do you say we can confess to one another? Oh, it's because the Bible teaches us that.

By the same token, it also teaches us that Christ commissioned his Apostles to forgive sins or retain them. That would be the answer to that.

But of course, we have a second issue with that one. Is the authority he gave the Apostles passed on? That is far from certain.

Nevertheless, we certain CAN confess our sins to each other. And we can confess our sins directly in our prayers to God. No one should say that we HAVE TO confess to any minister; and anyone who would make such a claim is not accurately reflecting the teaching of his own church.

So the issue is not MUST but MAY. If confessing during a worship service is helpful, or if to a minister privately, then you might want to do that. But you don't have to, no.

The only way a man can be forgiven is through the blood of Christ. A man without Christ can ask for forgiveness all day long but until this man is drawn to Christ and Is born again can he be truly forgiven. The whole gospel message. The Apostles were the sent ones to preach the Gospel unto the nations. Therefore if one was to be forgiven one had to believe into Christ.

 

[Albion]

The only way a man can be forgiven is through the blood of Christ.

I don't think any of us is disputing that.

However, the Word of God also teaches that we are to confess to each other? Is this not correct? Jesus also told the disciples that the sins they forgave were forgiven and the sins they retained were not forgiven.

OBVIOUSLY, we who are Bible-believers cannot just talk as though these teachings don't exist. No one is saved apart from the Cross, that's so. But it is also true that we are to confess and seek a reassurance of forgiveness as we go through life as believers.

A man without Christ can ask for forgiveness all day long but until this man is drawn to Christ and Is born again can he be truly forgiven.

We also agree to that. It doesn't change anything that I just pointed to.