Confession and Penance

Bible News Prophecy

The Bible teaches about repentance (Acts 2:38, Mark 1:15).  But do Christians need to confess to a priest and perform penance, or does the Bible teach something very different?  Does the Bible say to confess sins or faults/offenses in James 5:16?   Do early church writings support secret auricular confession to priests?  When did private confession develop in the Roman Catholic Church?  What about the role of forgiveness, repentance, and confessing directly to God?  Dr. Thiel also reviews Roman Catholic and early Christian sources, including '1 Clement,' Ignatius of Antioch, Augustine, the Council of Trent, and the 'Catechism of the Catholic Church' to show how practices changed over time.  According to the Bible, Christians are to confess their sins to God, not to clergy, and forgiveness is tied to repentance and forgiving others.  A written article of related interest is available titled "History of Auricular Confession and the 'Sacrament of Confession'" URL: https://www.cogwriter.com/auricular-confession.htm  Subscribe for more Bible-based news, prophecy insights, and teachings from the Continuing Church of God.  For more articles, videos, and resources, visit: CCOG.org  #BibleProphecy #Repentance #Confession #Christianity

Transcript

00:00Greetings, friends. This is Steve Dupuy for the Bible News Prophecy Program with Dr. Bob Thiel,

00:10bringing you news and analysis of world events in light of Bible prophecy.

00:15Dr. Thiel, today let's talk about repenting from and confessing our sins.

00:21Where can we find that subject in the Bible?

00:24Well, the Bible clearly teaches repentance in places like 1 John and Acts 2.38.

00:30Many wonder about what's called auricular confession to a priest in penance.

00:36Okay. What is auricular confession in penance?

00:41Auricular confession is a practice of secretly confessing sins aloud to a priest.

00:45The term auricular refers to an act of confessing into a priest's ear.

00:50Now, in Roman Catholicism, once you do so, the priest then tells the confessor to do some type of penance.

00:56When I was Roman Catholic, remember, they'd tell me to say certain prayers a bunch of times.

01:02And the claim is if you do this, the priest is able to give you forgiveness or absolution of your sins.

01:08Does the Bible teach that?

01:09No, but there are some scriptures that various ones point to.

01:14For example, Roman Catholic translation of James 5.16, the Dewey Rames I want to read.

01:21It says,

01:22Now, by the way, notice that is not a command to confess sins to the clergy, ministry, or priest.

01:37Yet that's how the Church of Rome has interpreted it.

01:39Furthermore, the Greek word translated as sin in there is a mistranslation.

01:48The Greek word for sin is actually hamartia.

01:52That's not in that verse.

01:55The Greek word for faults or offenses, paratudumata, however, is.

02:00A proper translation would be to confess your faults to one another and pray for one another.

02:06Or, as other translations put it, confess your offenses to one another.

02:14Wouldn't faults be the same as sins?

02:17No.

02:18We all have strengths and weaknesses.

02:20Not all these weaknesses are sins.

02:22And offenses aren't always sins.

02:24Some people get offended and you're not sinning.

02:26Ah, okay.

02:28Is there any place in the Bible that actually says to confess sin?

02:33Absolutely.

02:33But it doesn't say anything about confessing to a priest.

02:36Okay.

02:37So let's go to 1 John chapter 1.

02:40I'm going to start in verse 7.

02:42Now this has the Greek term hamartia multiple times in it for sin.

02:48And I'm going to read again from Roman Catholic translation of Dewey Rames Bible.

02:52But if we walk in light as he's also in light, we have fellowship one with another.

02:59And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sins.

03:03If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.

03:06And the truth is not in us.

03:07If we confess our sins, he, is Jesus, is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

03:14That's who you're supposed to be confessing to.

03:16And cleanse us from all iniquity.

03:18If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

03:22So we see that Christians are supposed to confess sins and Jesus will forgive them.

03:27And there's no discussion about penance there.

03:30Or by the way, in James 5.16.

03:33Now, I want to add that Jesus also added another requirement for forgiveness.

03:39Matthew chapter 6, starting at verse 14.

03:42I'm going to read it from the New Jerusalem Bible, Roman Catholic translation.

03:45Jesus said,

03:47Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your Heavenly Father will forgive you yours.

03:51But if you will not forgive others theirs, your Heavenly Father will not forgive your failings either.

03:56Now, I'd like to read this from the Orthodox Standard Bible, which is also the same as the New King James, the Protestants use.

04:05Jesus said,

04:06For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.

04:10But if you will not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

04:15Dr. Thiel, is that actually telling us that God will, before he will forgive us, we have to forgive others?

04:28Well, that's what Jesus taught.

04:30But anyway, notice that what Jesus said did not involve confession to a priest either.

04:38Do any early writings teach anything about confession and repentance?

04:44Yes.

04:45In the first century, and this isn't in the Bible, there's something called the Letter to the Corinthians, often called First Clement.

04:52And the Church of Rome accepts this as a valid letter or whatever.

04:56It says the following.

04:59Let us look steadfastly to the blood of Christ and see how precious that blood is to God,

05:06which, having been shed for our salvation, has set the grace of repentance before the whole world.

05:12Let us turn every age that has passed and learn from generation to generation.

05:18The Lord has granted a place of repentance to all as such who be converted unto him.

05:25Noer preached repentance, and as many as listened to him were saved.

05:28The Lord, brethren, stands in need of nothing.

05:31He desires nothing of anyone except a confession be made to him.

05:34You, therefore, who laid the foundation of this sedition, submit yourselves to the presbyters,

05:42receiving correction so as to repent, betting the knees of your hearts.

05:47Now, I read that part about presbyters.

05:49That means elders.

05:50That wasn't talking about confessing to a priest.

05:52This is talking about some people who rebelled against the Church authority.

05:55It has nothing to do with what we call confession, the way the Roman Catholics do it.

06:01Now, in the second century, Ignatius of Antioch, who is a Church of God leader

06:07and considered to be a Greco-Roman Catholic saint, wrote,

06:11And as many as shall, in the exercise of repentance, return to the unity of the Church,

06:17these two shall belong to God, that they may live according to Jesus Christ.

06:21Which is basically the same thing we've read from the letter to the Corinthians.

06:26Ignatius were teaching that those who left the Church should be allowed back if they repent.

06:31That is not the same as teaching that individuals who left the faith

06:34have to feel some type of prescribed penance.

06:38Well, then how did the Church of Rome get penance?

06:42Well, there was a Roman bishop who was considered corrupt by the name of Callistus.

06:49And he was a factor in getting more involvement from some of the clergy.

06:54Now, here's what the Catholic encyclopedia says about him.

06:57And this Pope Callistus, range 218 to 222, published his peremptory edict in which he declares,

07:06quote, I forgive the sins, both of adultery and of fornication,

07:12and to those who've done penance.

07:16So he's claiming he can forgive sins himself.

07:18Now, because of Callistus' decrees and actions,

07:23another person who had been in the Roman Catholic Church,

07:26a guy by the name of Tertullian, a lawyer,

07:29he actually dubbed Callistus sarcastically our good Pontifex Maximus.

07:36And Pontifex Maximus, which is the title the popes took later,

07:40was a pagan title.

07:43This was the title that the emperor had because he was supposed to be the bridge between humans and the pagan gods.

07:52And so Callistus was called that, and that was in a derivatory way.

07:57Now, furthermore, by the way, just let me mention,

08:00according to the Greco-Roman saint and bishop Augustine,

08:03a regular confession to a priest was not a required practice in the 4th or 5th century.

08:11He wrote, quote, forgive us the sins.

08:14You have this article, the Creed fits in perfectly when you receive baptism.

08:18And because we sin later, prayer is provided.

08:25What's the prayer?

08:26Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

08:30Once for all, we have the washing in baptism.

08:32Every day we have the washing in prayer, end quote.

08:36So up until the 4th or 5th century,

08:38at least some leaders in the Roman Catholics agreed with the Bible.

08:42So, is there any other verse that they point to as proof one is to confess to a priest?

08:49Yes.

08:50The Catholic Encyclopedia pointed to John 20, verse 23,

08:55as proof that this is to be made to a priest.

08:57So I want to look at it.

08:59I'm going to read it from the New Jerusalem Bible, Roman Catholic Translation,

09:02starting verse 20, John, I mean, 21 of John 20, quote.

09:07And he said again,

09:08Peace be to you, as the Father sent me, so I am sending you.

09:12And after saying this, he breathed on them and said,

09:14Receive the Holy Spirit.

09:16If you forgive one's sins, they are forgiven.

09:19If you retain one's sins, they are retained.

09:21Well, doesn't verse 23 confirm the Roman Catholics' position?

09:27Actually, no.

09:28First of all, consider that no early leader in the Church of God,

09:31the Greco-Roman Catholic Church,

09:32believed this meant Christians were supposed to confess each of their sins

09:36to a priest who was prescribed penance.

09:39That's clear from church history and something else we're going to get into.

09:43Now, historically, I want to read something,

09:47how the Church of God explained John 20, 23, last century, quote.

09:52Some try to use John 20, 23 to prove that persons in ecclesiastical offices

09:57have the power to forgive sins.

10:00Then they quote the verse.

10:01However, it doesn't mean that mere men can actually forgive sins in a spiritual sense.

10:07God alone can forgive sins.

10:09Christ spoke these words to his future apostles in the context of church authority.

10:14He was giving them the power to disfellowship those who were dissenters or heretics

10:18and to bring them back into the congregation upon repentance.

10:22And that's exactly what we see from, like, Ignatius wrote down.

10:28Now, auricular confession before a priest was not an original belief in the Catholic Church.

10:35Somebody sent me something from a Roman Catholic theologian that he wrote last month.

10:40It says, quote,

10:41Gradually, the Church developed the communal practice for reconciliation after baptism.

10:48Typically, penitents would remain outside church gatherings,

10:52demonstrating their repentance by prostrating themselves and then publicly confessing.

10:58The evil soldiers returning for war regularly spent an extended period of penance in monasteries

11:04in recognition of the Church's teaching that any war is inherently sinful.

11:08But they still thought that was okay.

11:09During the Middle Ages, the practice of individual confession developed was now in Ireland.

11:17This rite introduced private confession to a priest.

11:22And eventually, this rite became repeatable.

11:25Individual confession was codified into church law at the Fourth Lateran Council

11:31in a meeting of bishops in 1215, end quote.

11:34So confession for a priest didn't get formally adopted by the Church of Rome until the 13th century.

11:41Clearly, this was not a belief in the original Catholic Church.

11:45But did the Roman Catholic Church continue to push further beyond the 13th century?

11:52Yes, despite it not being an original practice, in the 16th century, the Council of Trent declared,

12:00if anyone denies that the sacramental confession was instituted or necessary for salvation,

12:08and that the Church does not deserve this from the beginning, let them be an anathema.

12:15So they said, if you didn't think we originally taught this, you'd be put out of the Church.

12:20Yet, that differs from what the catechism of the Catholic Church currently teaches and the facts.

12:26The catechism of the Catholic Church says,

12:28Over the centuries, the concrete form in which the Church has been exercising this power of confession received from the Lord has varied considerably.

12:36During the first centuries, reconciliation for Christians who committed particularly grave sins after their baptism,

12:43like murder or adultery,

12:47they had to have to publicly profess their sins,

12:52and sometimes wait for years before they were allowed back in.

12:55Then it says,

12:56But during the 7th century, Irish missionaries, inspired by Eastern monastic tradition,

13:04took to the continental Europe a private practice of penance,

13:08which does not require public and prolonged completion of penitential works before reconciliation with the Church.

13:16From that time on, the sacrament has been practiced in secret between the penitent and the priest.

13:23This new practice envisioned the possibility of repetition and so opened the way to regular frequenting of this sacrament.

13:33It allowed the forgiveness of grave sins and venial sins to be integrated in one sacramental celebration.

13:38Okay, so that is what they're doing now.

13:40So obviously, it should be absolutely clear that auricular private confession was not, quote,

13:47ever observed from the beginning, like the Council of Trent statement said.

13:51By the way, the Council of Trent was supposed to be dogma of faith, and it was approved by the Pope.

13:56That's obviously an error because it contradicts Church history and what's now admitted in the current Roman Catholic catechism of their Church.

14:04The truth is that the Bible does not teach confession to a priest.

14:09The original Catholic Church did not believe in auricular confession to priests,

14:13nor did the original Catholic Church advise penance or require penance.

14:20The Apostle Jude wrote that Christians are to, quote,

14:23contend earnestly to the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints, Jude 3,

14:27which is what we in the continuing Church of God strive to do.

14:30Therefore, we in the continuing Church of God do not have a sacrament of confessing sins to our clergy

14:36as we hold to the original Christian practice of encouraging individual repentance

14:42and confessing sins to God when asking for forgiveness.

14:46Thank you, Dr. Thiel.

14:47For more interviews with Dr. Thiel, in addition to written, as well as audio articles,

14:52visit our website at BibleNewsProphecy.net.

14:55This is Steve Dupuis for the Bible News Prophecy Program.

15:00This is Steve Dupuis for the Bible News Prophecy Program.

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