For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Maykol Maldonado
I believe that in order to receive help from The Lord we need to bring our sins to the light by confessing them.
Then we have the opportunity to repent because we have our sins exposed. The bible did said that darkness doesn't come from The Lord but the light.
Darwin Iverson
A question from a Catholic Christian: Did you know that for several hundred years that the Catholic Christians and Protestant Christians did not like each other and they created different Bibles? If you have a Catholic Bible you may find your answer in the book of Maccabees or Napthlians or whatever those non-protestant books of the Bible are. And purgatory is in there somewhere too.
Confessing to a priest is how Roman leaders gathered secret information from people 100s of years ago. You should only confess your sins to God through the name of Jesus or during counseling with a trusted pastor or youth leader, and do it face to face and not while sitting in two side-by-side little booths.
Did you know that Acts 8:37 is missing in 24 versions of the Bible? You may want to go to chick-com and read the ATTACK on the holy Bible and another one that debates whether or not Catholics are Christians. The history is interesting.
Vera Aycock
James 5:16 says Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye maybe healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Leviticus 5:5 says and it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in this thing; first John 1;9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Leanne Long
Confession to or through a priest and the priest gives you your penance.
I would rather take my sin to Jesus who died for my sins and takes all my penance on his back.
Frederick Peterson
I can see how so many Christian hold fast to traditional teachings that have no truth to them at all. Our minds can not face the truth if we are not being called by God. He (God ) is not calling everyone, although we hear the word he chooses who he wants. We will defend what we have been thought all our lives, even if we are proved to be wrong. May God give you His spirit to study and receive the truth.
Sonja LeVan LeVan
I believe in the Bible as the TRUE word of God....and sins are forgiven one way.....By asking JESUS to forgive you and believing He died so our sins could be forgiven....We confess to God.....no one has authority over God.....John 3:16....no other explanation needed.....simple...We are all sinners, but must ask God/Jesus for forgiveness and repent believing Jesus came to die on the cross and rise again after 3 days and HE WILL come again....We need to ask him forgiveness every day because we sin every day in thought, word or deed.
Herb Garfield
Yes, there certainly are two positions on this question of confession as we see. There are several biblical topics and theological questions that will remain as they are, unresolvable questions, un fortunately.
Gregory Harnick
There is only one way to confess to God and that is through Jesus. Pretty simple.
mark T
James 5:16-17 KJV "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avail much." Clearly faults are sins, so we need to know who are righteous teachers as they are apostles of the Lord! True men and women of God you may confess to!
Scott Dixon
I believe there is something missing from this conversation. If we can simply go to our friend and tell them our sins and have them forgiven, why then did Jesus have to die?
The context of James 5:16 is to go to your friend or whatever person you sinned against and tell them you weee wrong and ask forgiveness. It is not setting up a way for sins to be absolved by a priest or any other human being. Jesus became our Passover lamb, not just to cover our sins but to completely remove them from our record. When the Father sees us in Christ, He sees us as perfect because of Jesus.
But what if the person you are about to confess your sins to just sinned themselves and hasn’t asked for forgiveness from their friend yet? Then what? Or what if your friend decides that your sin is unforgivable and does not forgive you? Then what? Jesus died on the cross for everyone’s sins. Past present and future. The forgiveness is in His blood. But the forgiveness can only come from God through Jesus Christ. Why did Jesus have to die? Because God so loved the world that He was willing to give His Son as the perfect and complete sacrifice to save us from our fallen state in sin. For we have all fallen short of perfection, and not one of us can reach God or Heaven except through Jesus. He calls us friend, if we have taken Him as our LORD and Savior. Meaning Jesus and Jesus only can forgive our sins through His blood.
And all God’s children said “AMEN”. May your walk with Jesus glorify Him.