I'm hoping that someone can help me to give the best answer to the this question. And in the most simple way possible.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
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2 comments:
Oh i cannot wait to read the answers to that question.
On Easter Sunday night, when Christ appeared to the Twelve Apostles, He breathed on them (the second time in all the Bible God breathed onto man--the other time was when He breathed life into Adam). Then, after that most significant event, He said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they shall be forgiven; whose sins you shall retain, they shall be retained."
Now, how did Christ expect the Apostles to be able to forgive or retain a sinner's sins if they didn't know what those sins were? The penitent had to tell them. And this is CLEARLY the way Christ wanted it. Earlier in the New Testament Christ told the Jewish elders that He had the power to forgive sins (when He healed the paralytic). Now He was transferring that power to His Apostles. And notice He wasn't talking about simply categorizing sins (as He had already done, so it would have been unnecessary). He didn't say, "Those sins you shall forgive . . . ", He said, "Whose sins you shall forgive . . . "
How can the Apostles (to whom Christ gave the authority) or Priests (to whom the Apostles gave the authority) personally forgive or retain a person's sins unless the person personally tells them?
If Christ didn't want Confession to His ministers, He NEVER would have said this to them, when He said it, and how He said it.
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