Bible Question:
hai friends...... am a catholic....one of my friend who is protestent is always arguing with me regarding confession....... he is telling that why do we confess to the priests? instead of that we can confess to the god......and he is telling no where in the bible it has been told that we should confess to the priests......plz gve a detailed anwser |
Bible Answer: The act of confession to Priests in the Catholic Church stems from the doctrine of the Catholic church that the power to remit sins comes from Peter and the Apostles. The scripute they base this on is John 20:22,23 where Jesus has risen from the dead and breathed the Holy Spirit on the apostles and told them to go out and that if they forgave the sins of people they would be forgiven and that if the retained the sins of any they would not be forgiven. NO ONE ELSE in scripture was given permission to do this only the apostles. But the Catholic churh has decided based on that the aposltes layed hands on people in order to anoint them for offices in the church in all of Acts that the actual power Peter had as an apostle is being transferred down from hand to hand since the first century to forgive or retain sins, although God never said anyone else had, or would have the permission and power to do this. This is a Catholic doctrine based purely on churh beliefs and tradition and became a doctrine because it was practiced and not because the scriptures say to do it. James 5:16 says for believers to confess their sins to one another in order to be healed of afflictions, it does not say to confess to the apostles per say, but is referring to the elders who come to pray over the sick. But the Catholic church sees this verse as talking about priests anointing the sick instead of elders and therefore say it means that you should confess your sins to the priest. The first century church which should be our model had no priests but elders and deacons, pastor/ teachers and so on, but priests were an invention of the Catholic church traditions and do not come from scripture. There is only one high priest in the Bible and everyone who also believes is a priest according to the Bible. Here, look and see; I Peter 2:5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So you see we are all priests offering spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ. See here in, I John 2:1 where it says that if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We don't have to go to anyone else to be forgiven, just to Jesus. There is only one high priest in heaven and on earth; see Hebrews 3:1 where it says that Jesus is the Apostle and high priest of our confession. So there is one high priest and the rest of the saved are all priests to God through Jesus Christ. The problem becomes are you going to believe the Catholic church doctrines for salvation above the word and blood of Jesus? The Catholic church teaches that if you don't believe in the authority of the pope and the Catholic church and their traditions you won't be saved. The Bible teaches that all you need to do to be saved is to Believe in Jesus; Acts 13:31 Believe in the Lord Jesus and be saved... Romans 10:9,10 where it says to confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that he died and was raised on the third day and you will be saved. The Catholic church has added tradition and said you can only get saved through Jesus plus... The work of the apostles and the type of power they had is confined to the first century and was not transferred hand to hand, you don't see any priest performing miracles or introducing whole groups types of converts like Jews, Gentiles, Samaritans, those who only had the repentance of John, or founding new churches to entire communities who never heard of Jesus do you? Think long and hard about another thing that is not in the Bible; Jesus said not to perform repetitious prayers(like the rosary) because they will not be heard, God said do not make an image of anyting in heaven or on the earth and worship it (like the statues and icons), Jesus said the only way to the Father is through Him and the apostles said Jesus is the only advocate (not Mary), the original language of the Greek in which the Bible was written said that Mary after she gave birth to Jesus had children by Joseph, it says Jesus had brothers and sisters by Mary, the Bible does not teach that Mary ascened into heaven, that is not in there; these are things that the Catholic church teaches that are not in anyone's Bible no matter what version you use you won't be finding them, it is the tradition of men who believe things that aren't true based off their traditions... |