The Confessional Error

Continuing on with my error-debunking series of blog posts, one big mistake people make is believing that priests can grant absolution of sins. This is obviously not true.

We receive forgiveness through Christ alone. Like when telephone companies introduced Direct Distance Dialing in the nineteen-sixties, we need no spiritual operator to be our mediator. As the Apostle Paul wrote about Jesus in Ephesians 1:7 (KJV) "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;"

Some people might quote James 5:16 (KJV) in defense of confessing sins to a priest. "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

This doesn't mean that the righteous man needs to be a priest. Rather, no one is righteous of themselves. We need Christ's righteousness to have a proper relationship with God.

The whole mistaken notion of a priest being our mediator came from the Old Testament. Consecrated men sacrificed blemish-free male lambs and went into the Holy of Holies once a year to present the blood of atonement for the Israelite nation.

But God graphically demonstrated  in Mark 15:38 (KJV) how Jesus' sacrifice on the cross fulfilled the law. "And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom."

This opened the way to God through Christ for all who believed in him. We need nobody to take our prayers to God or no one else but him to dispense forgiveness to us.

Students of Holy Scripture will realize how wrong and foolish these traditions which people have invented actually are. Even so, I'm hoping to educate novice believers with my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? Far too many people leave spiritual matters to priests and pastors, rather than studying the Bible for themselves, and end up believing lies.


In my next post, I'll be writing about a beautiful song by Lenny Kravitz.