This article
is the first in a series on the seven Catholic sacraments, which will not be
covered in any particular order. This
particular one will be on the sacrament of Confession (also known as Penance or
Reconciliation).
So, first of
all, what exactly are sacraments? Webster’s
dictionary describes a sacrament as:
“a
Christian rite (such as baptism or the Eucharist) that is believed to have been
ordained by Christ and that is held to be a means of divine grace or to be a
sign or symbol of a spiritual reality.”
According to the Catechism of the
Catholic Church:
“The sacraments are efficacious
signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which
divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are
celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They
bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions.” (CCC #1131)
So, what
they are saying is that a sacrament is a ritual that one goes through to merit
grace from God. But that is an oxymoron. No one can merit grace. It is like saying that I will work for
something so that it can be given to me as a free gift! But it is either a gift or something you
worked for – it is one or the other. It
can’t be both:
But
if it is by
grace, it is no
longer on the basis of works, since otherwise grace
is no longer grace. (Romans 11:6 – NASB)
See this link on the sacraments:
https://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/2011/01/sacraments-gods-grace-for-sale.html
A Little History
Over the centuries, simple biblical
confession has evolved in the
Catholic Church into an intricate system involving “penance” (which has all but
replaced biblical repentance) by
“meriting” grace from God by prayer, suffering, personal works, and even
indulgences. According to the following
source, Catholics see Penance as “man’s effort
to satisfy God for personal sin through one’s own works.” See this link:
https://christiantruth.com/articles/penancehistory/
The Catholic Church teaches that
private confession to a priest has been the norm from the beginning (Council of Trent, Fourteenth Session, Canon
VI). But this same link above points
out the fact that “auricular confession” [private confession to a priest] and
“judicial absolution” [official forgiveness granted by a priest] was NOT the
practice of the church from the very beginning “since there was no general agreement in the Church about the nature and
necessity of such an important issue to as late a period as the 13th century. It was a matter of debate among Scholastic
theologians, most of whom demonstrate that there were conflicting opinions even
among the Church Fathers.”
It Must Be to the Priest
Protestants
seem to have some serious reservations about Catholic Confession. So, what’s wrong with confessing your
sins? Don’t Protestants believe in that? Of course, any biblically-based Protestant
believes in confessing his sins. That’s
not the issue. But the first problem is
that Catholics are required to
confess any “mortal” sins to a priest. The Catechism of
the Catholic Church repeatedly tells us that confessing to a priest is
“essential” or a “must.” For example:
“It
is called the sacrament of confession, since the disclosure or
confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament…” (CCC
#1424)
“Confession to
a priest is an essential part of the sacrament of Penance…” (CCC #1456)
“One who desires to obtain reconciliation with God and with
the Church, must confess to a priest all the unconfessed grave sins he
remembers after having carefully examined his conscience. The confession of
venial faults, without being necessary in itself, is nevertheless strongly
recommended by the Church.” (CCC #1493)
(See
also CCC #1448
and CCC #1449)
Misreading
James
Ok, so
what’s wrong with confessing to a priest?
Doesn’t the Bible tell us to confess our sins to the elders/priests in James
5:14-16:
Is any
sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray
over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer
of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have
committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 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.
First
of all, the New Testament does not recognize ministerial priests, as the Old
Testament does. See this link:
http://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/2010/03/priesthood.html
Second,
the New Testament Greek word for priest is “hiereus.” This Greek word nowhere appears in the New
Testament to describe a ministerial priest.
The word for elders in the passage above is “presbuteros,”
a totally different term. And in this
context, it is not specifically talking about
confessing your sins to get God’s forgiveness, to get a clean slate, as is done
in Catholic Confession. It is talking
about “confessing your sins one to another,” that is, the local body of
believers admitting their sins and wrongdoing toward each other, forgiving one another. James 5:14-16 is about praying for
the sick and about personal offenses
toward other members of the local body.
Third, the elders are not there to
have members confess directly to them, as it is with priests in the Catholic
Church. The Bible never says to confess
to a designated person, whether a priest, pastor, bishop, etc. These can’t see the heart. Only God can.
So, a man cannot conclusively tell another person that he (that person)
is forgiven, since the man doesn’t know his heart; but he can tell him (according to the authority of Scripture) that he is
forgiven IF, and only if, he repents and trusts in the gospel of Jesus
Christ. This is the New Testament
requirement for salvation (Romans 1:16).
Again, a man cannot give absolution to
another, only God can, since He, and only
He, knows all hearts. Confessing to
a priest, even one you trust, may make you feel good and may be comforting, but
it is certainly not biblical. See this
link:
https://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/2011/08/hi-jacking-of-john-2023.html
Problems with the Box
Not only is private confession to a
priest not scriptural, it has caused some serious problems within the Catholic
Church. There is an old (non-fiction)
book titled The Woman, the Priest, and
the Confessional, and it was written in 1875 by a former priest. It outlines horror stories of women being
betrayed, seduced and basically destroyed by perverted priests who coaxed them
in the secrecy of the confessional (under penalty of eternal damnation, of
course) to reveal their deepest, darkest secrets and their most sinful
desires. Some priests took full
advantage of the opportunities afforded by that private confessional box. The people trusted the priests going in, but
were betrayed. Not only did these
encounters destroy many women, but many priests, as well.
My Catholic friends, your sins and
weaknesses just may be better kept unknown
to most people… even your beloved priest!
With a repentant and contrite heart, confess them to God. He will never betray you.
The book mentioned above is quite old,
yet it reads like many of today’s headlines.
I firmly believe the author was telling the truth, but the scandalous
and perverted sexual encounters of his day were only to get worse in time…
The Perversion is Far from Gone
A much more recent book, The Dark Box: A Secret History of Confession,
by John Cornwell, is another eye-opener.
In a National Catholic Reporter
review of his book, Cornwell is painted as possibly “our most gifted and persistent chronicler of Catholicism in
the context of the modern world.”
Remember, this is an article by a Catholic
news source, not Protestant, and it is worth noting that Cornwell, himself,
is a Catholic.
The author of the review stated:
“Confession
may be good for the soul -- at least sometimes -- but it has also been used to
evil effect by those who would use the secrecy of the sacrament and the power
of the priesthood to exploit the vulnerable.”
“In its best passages, The Dark Box connects
the sexual obsessions of the earliest priestly celibates with the abuse of
confession and the suffering of untold millions of everyday Catholics. For centuries,
priests functioned as ‘forensic’ interrogators, coercing or merely persuading
men, women and children to reveal the secrets for which they should feel most
ashamed. The institutional obsession with sexual sin tells us that clergy were
themselves tortured by guilt.”
See the
link here:
https://www.ncronline.org/books/2022/06/history-confession-tale-sexual-obsession-exploitation
Conclusion
Confessing your sins is absolutely
critical if you want to make it to Heaven.
If you want real forgiveness,
confess them directly to God. No need
for a human mediator. God understands better
than anyone else and He knows all your sins before you even open your mouth,
even your most secret sins! Then why
tell Him? Because God wants you to be
honest and to humble yourself and admit your sins and your rebellion against
Him:
God
opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6)
I’m not saying that a Catholic cannot
ever be forgiven in the confessional, but he could still be forgiven IN SPITE
OF this unbiblical ritual!
Mandatory
confession to a priest tends to cause one
to trust in a system, rather than in
Jesus and His work on the cross.
But I
have a question…
If you confess to a priest, then what
happens between confessions? What if you commit a sin after Confession
(and you will), and then die before
your next confession? A Catholic may say
that God is always fair and He will give you an opportunity to be saved. Ok, so if that’s true, then what’s the purpose,
what’s the need, for confessing to a priest in the first place?
We have a wonderful example in
Scripture of the end of the mediation of the priesthood. The moment that Jesus Christ died on the
cross, the great veil in the temple that separated the Holy Place and the Holy
of Holies was torn in half… exposing the Ark of the Covenant! I can’t imagine the horror that was in the
faces of the priests who were working in the temple at the time, conducting the
evening sacrifice. No doubt, they
thought they were going to die on the spot, since the place of God’s very
presence was exposed!
But no, God was making an incredible
statement that would ring through time and eternity… WE CAN NOW APPROACH THE
LIVING GOD OURSELVES, EVEN CONFIDENTLY, and know that He will hear us. No more need for a ministerial priesthood to
mediate for us:
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)
Confession directly to God is part of
the new and better covenant. (Hebrews 8:6)
