Church confessions - good or bad thing?

[OakWood]

I believe that the justification for confession in both Catholic and Orthodox churches comes from James 5:16

 

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.

 

I just wanted to know what everybody else thinks. I'm not sure if confessing anything to a priest actually solves anything, but if it helps to make it easier for you to confess to God then is there any problem with it? Do you think that the practise of confession can be misused or abused or is there a place for it in other churches?

I don't really have much of an opinion myself, I'm kind of in two minds about it which is really why I am asking the question.

[missmuffet]

All my confessions go directly to God.Is it not necessary to confess to a Priest.

[Guest shiloh357]

I think it is important to point out that the text does not say to confess your sins to each other.  It says to confess your faults and that is consistent with the Greek.   The word for "faults"  is not hamartia which is the Greek word for sins.    The word for faults is a word that refers to error or slip ups.  It is talking about your shortcomings weaknesses, etc.    The idea is to confess to each other where we are weak in our walk with God so that we can pray for each other in those areas.

 

Confession of sin goes directly to God.  We are to confess our sins so that the blood of Jesus cleanses our conscience of unrighteousness (I John 1:9)

[OneLight]

Too often this verse has been twisted to mean that we must tell everyone our sins.  To me, it means that when I sin against a brother, I confess to that brother my sin and we both pray for His will to be done.  It also means that when God leads me to talk to another about something on my heart I do so, than we can pray together.  I do not see this as an instruction to tell people who do not know me of my sins or any error/hardship I may be going through.  We are told to approach God through Christ, not man.

[other one]

I like the way you put that Shiloh....

[Ezra]

I believe that the justification for confession in both Catholic and Orthodox churches comes from James 5:16

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.

This verse has been abused and misused by the Catholic Church.  First of all the Greek word means "faults", and secondly "one another" is quite distance from "a Catholic priest".  The Greek word paraptoma (Strong's 3900) means a side-slip, lapse or deviation, unintentional error or wilful transgression, fall, fault, offence, sin, trespass.  Since Scripture tells us to confess our sins to God, it is evident that here it applies to offences or unintentional errors.

 

 

I just wanted to know what everybody else thinks. I'm not sure if confessing anything to a priest actually solves anything, but if it helps to make it easier for you to confess to God then is there any problem with it?

 

This is not simply a matter of unburdening one's soul to a fellow-believer.  The priest is a "surrogate Christ" which is antithetical to Scripture.  There is ONLY ONE MEDIATOR  between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.

 

Confessing your faults one to another is in the context of seeking healing through the prayers of the church elders (Jas 5:14-20) .  At this time, the sick person needs to confess his faults or failings to the elders, but not to the whole church.

[other one]

The problem I have with Catholic confession (I don't know about the Orthodox) is that supposedly the priest has the authority to forgive the sin or sins you are confessing....   He may require you to do something for penitence over it but it is he that forgives the sin.  I know they quote scripture for that, but it has never set well with me.

[OakWood]

The problem I have with Catholic confession (I don't know about the Orthodox) is that supposedly the priest has the authority to forgive the sin or sins you are confessing....   He may require you to do something for penitence over it but it is he that forgives the sin.  I know they quote scripture for that, but it has never set well with me.

 

That's a problem that I have, which is one of the things that put me in two minds about it, and one of the reasons that I started the thread. I was thinking though that if we confessed a sin to somebody, it might sometimes help us to get it off our chest, so to speak.

[angels4u]

The best way is to go to God directly and get it of your chest that way...but sometimes we just need to talk to other people about how we feel about certain things? But God first and then other people who can't forgive anything anyway~~~ but it can help to talk about it to put things in perspective depends what it is..

 

But God only forgives~~~

[other one]

i can say that sometimes it is helpful to talk it over with someone you trust and let them help you deal with it.....    someone to hold you to fighting the problem.  It's my understanding that is very important in problems of pornography.