Featured Why Confession?

“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with that person, and they with me.” Revelation 3

These are the Church of lukewarm believers, being told to be “earnest and repent”.

Lukewarmness and dithering in light and dark He hates.

Confession is how born again believers repent, how the Lord rebukes and disciplines us by conscience.

“They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or defends them.“

Confession clears the conscience before God.

Those who sin after being born again must still repent.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.“

So we maintain righteousness by confession.

For Catholics we have an Apostolic priesthood Jesus established to forgive or retain sin, the priesthood of the Old Covenant was a foreshadowing of Christ’s priesthood in the New Covenant.

“Just as in the Old Testament the priest makes the leper clean or unclean, so in the New Testament the bishop and presbyter binds or looses not those who are innocent or guilty, but by reason of their office, when they have heard various kinds of sins, they know who is to be bound and who loosed.” Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, 3:16,19 (A.D. 398).

 

That’s your private fiction.

 

Penance isn’t pagan. Paul imposed a penance himself.

“A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? ” 1 Cor: 5

Paul later lifts the penance.

“For such a one this punishment by the majority is enough; so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. Another reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. 10 Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake,” 2 Cor 2.

So here we see a temporal penance is imposed and after repentance acknowledged, an indulgence is given lifting the penance.
Paul is forgiving sin in the sight of Christ who is in Heaven.
Paul is binding on earth the guy forgiven and heaven will also bind this man forgiven.

Biblically they confessed to the whole congregation which included the elders and overseers who also had binding and loosing authority over sin.

 

It’s what we call temporal punishment ie penance.

 

No Paul imposed the temporal punishment. Expulsion, the guy didn’t self expel.

“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

Then lifted the temporal punishment. Re-admittance.

“The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. 7 Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.”

So penance is biblical.

 

Nonsense.

Paul even calls it a punishment, it’s holy writ in front of your face.

It was a temporal punishment, ie a penance.

 

That’s mortification, you impose cold showers and physical hardening to discipline your appetites.

What was imposed on this guy was penance, temporal punishment, Paul’s concern that he might suffer excessive sorrow whilst being punished, which meant he was sorrowful and not being expelled unrepentant.

Clear cut case in Holy writ.

 

Mortification is self punishment, Paul practiced this himself.

Penance is the temporal punishment imposed by the Church for the repentant.

Which is exactly what happened here. He was expelled.

“Sufficient to such a man is this punishment” KJV

 

I didn’t change God’s Word, I quoted it, even your KJV.

It’s a clear cut case in Scripture.