Curiosity, but how do Protestants interpret this Scripture as you do not believe in confession?

Question

John 20

23 Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.

Do you believe Christ intended confession to only exist in the first century, was it not meant to continue as His Church contines?

Answer 1

Verse 21 Peace be unto you - This is the foundation of the mission of a true Gospel minister, peace in his own soul, 2 Cor. iv, 1. As the Father hath sent me, so send I you - Christ was the apostle of the Father, Heb. iii, 1. Peter and the rest, the apostles of Christ.
Verse 22. He breathed on them - New life and vigour, and saith, as ye receive this breath out of my mouth, so receive ye the Spirit out of my fulness: the Holy Ghost influencing you in a peculiar manner, to fit you for your great embassy. This was an earnest of pentecost.
Verse 23. Whose soever sins ye remit - (According to the tenor of the Gospel, that is, supposing them to repent and believe) they are remitted, and whose soever sins ye retain (supposing them to remain impenitent) they are retained. So far is plain. But here arises a difficulty. Are not the sins of one who truly repents, and unfeignedly believes in Christ, remitted, without sacerdotal absolution? And are not the sins of one who does not repent or believe, retained even with it? What then does this commission imply? Can it imply any more than,
1. A power of declaring with authority the Christian terms of pardon; whose sins are remitted and whose retained? As in our daily form of absolution; and
2. A power of inflicting and remitting ecclesiastical censures? That is, of excluding from, and re-admitting into, a Christian congregation.

Verse 26. After eight days - On the next Sunday.
Verse 28. And Thomas said, My Lord and my God - The disciples had said, We have seen the Lord. Thomas now not only acknowledges him to be the Lord, as he had done before, and to be risen, as his fellow disciples had affirmed, but also confesses his Godhead, and that more explicitly than any other had yet done. And all this he did without putting his hand upon his side.
Verse 30. Jesus wrought many miracles, which are not written in this book - Of St. John, nor indeed of the other evangelists.
Verse 31. But these things are written that ye may believe - That ye may be confirmed in believing. Faith cometh sometimes by reading; though ordinarily by hearing.
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{Edit}
Absolutly. Christ's Church is Christ Himself. Jesus Christ IS THE CHURCH. He built His church (congregation) upon Peter. He started with Peter as the first church member of the Christ's Church.
That was the "age of Grace". All things are forgiven through prayer. ALL things are ask in what? Christ's name? It will be done. All things are ask through who? Jesus Christ. Nobody else.
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Our Great High Priest
Hebrews 7:26-27
When you are convicted of a particular sin, how do you react? Do you mourn over the matter? Do you think about it with great regret for days? Does it impact the way you go about your life?
Many Christians are completely undone when the moment of conviction comes. They act as though God’s desire is for them to continually wallow in guilt for the rest of their lives. This could not be further from the truth.
We have seen that the Old Testament sacrifices had to be repeated over and over. Why? Because those animal offerings were only a substitute for what was truly required — a completely perfect sacrifice. This was accomplished in the work of Jesus Christ. He presented Himself as the once-for-all atoning sacrifice for every sin of every individual who ever had or ever would live. As the hymn lyrics state, Jesus — through His one incredible sacrifice — truly “paid it all.”
Think about it. In the human system, a high priest took an animal into the temple and offered it as a sacrifice to God on behalf of the sinner. In Christ’s work, however, the Son of God entered not a temple, but heaven itself, and presented Himself to the Father as the perfect atoning sacrifice (Hebrews 9:14).
This means that the work of forgiveness is done. If you are in Christ, then the sacrifice has already been paid for your sin. So, when the Holy Spirit brings conviction, deal with the matter immediately and then move on. Do not carry a yoke of unforgiveness that Jesus has already lifted from your shoulders. Jesus Christ, IS the HIGH Preist.

.Fully Alive
Colossians 2:9-17
When you become a new creature in Christ Jesus, sin no longer has to be a part of your life. But why do believers still sin?
Once we receive God’s forgiveness for our lives, we are crucified with Christ. Paul writes: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God…" (Galatians 2:20).
However, we still have a human body, which has God-given appetites that desire to be fulfilled.
When the enemy taints these appetites, luring us outside the boundaries God has drawn for us, our actions to fulfill these desires are sins.
The real question is this: when you step beyond those bounds, do you feel comfortable?
We should never feel comfortable sinning. Paul certainly didn’t as he wrote, "For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate" (Romans 7:15).
It’s the new nature – God’s nature – in us calling us back to our heavenly Father. If you are a Christian, just because you sin against God doesn’t mean you have a sinful nature.
When you learn to yield to the urgings of your new nature, sin in your life begins to diminish as you walk in the freedom of Christ.

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Answer 2

The verse that Rhonda quoted does not fit here. It is the scribes talking about Jesus, not about confessing your sins to a priest or one another. They did not believe that Jesus could forgive sins because they did not believe Jesus was GOD. Also, Robert K thinks that a priest tells your sins to another priest, and then to the Pope. Where does this notion come from? The priest is not allowed to disclose any of your sins to ANYONE. If the police demanded to know what you told him in Confession--he can not and will not disclose that info. There have been priests thrown in jail for keeping the Seal of Confession.

Answer 3

Unfortunately, many in trying to justify their positions selected verses , which where taken out of context.
Meanwhile what is most important , central and essential to the teachings of Christ was forgotten.
And this was the new idea and commandment that said simply sin is to be to dealt with by the REPENTANCE from the sin, and no longer by the atonement brought about the sacrifice of an animal or the shedding of blood. Sin - Repentance.
Going down the path of minor disputes and decending into petty quibbling takes us further from then real fight , the cause of Christ. Sorry for the preachiness Debra, but someone had to do it. Christ is Right. Christ we follow. Love

Answer 4

We confess our sins to God only. Only He can forgive our sins through Jesus. If I tell you a lie, then I confess to you that I lied to you and ask your forgiveness. Then you (hopefully) forgive. Being forgiven by God through Christ is what salvation is all about. How do you interpret this scripture?

Answer 5

What makes you think we do not believe in confession.
Mark 11;23, is the confession of faith.
Romans 10;9 is the confession of faith unto salvation.
I John 1;9 is the confession of sin unto the Father(God) for the forgiveness of sin and cleansing of all unrighteousness(for the Christian)
No disrespect, but have you read your "Protestant" Bible lately?
I Cr 13;8a
10-7-6

Answer 6

Confess to the person you sinned against. First God as all sin is against Him, then to the person whom you have offended.
I mean really, what good would it do for me to apologize to Jim for what I did against Bob? That is, in effect, when you confess to a priest what you have done against a neighbour. The priest cannot replace God, and he cannot replace the neighbour.
The church can declare, based on what God's Word says, that if you repent and put your trust in Christ as saviour, your sins are forgiven.

Answer 7

We believe in confession, but not to a Priest and not for dispensation.

GOD knows what are sins are.

GOD see YOU and YOUR HUSBAND in the BED. GOD KNOWS how the two of you have sex and what you DO!

God knows what you think, what you feel and what you believe!

Proestants who are true and rightous just fess up in their prayers and thoughts. We know GOD knows. We don't have to tell him.

He also knows if our repettance is sincere or just BS.

God knows us.

I come from Los Angeles where a gang member named Jesus wears a gold Cross (several maybe), has a picture of Jesus on his wall, makes babies out of wedlock which is 15 year old girl friend, deals crack cocaine and got to Catholic Church every Sunday in a Suit and Tie and Tells the Priest EVERYTHING in confession.

He knows he's going to heaven, because he's a Good Catholic.

When one of his gang gets murdered by a machine gun from a rival gang him, his friends and the Priest all cry at the funeral.

The Priest writes to Rome and to the CArdinal to get another Catholic church in the same area to handle the division lines between the two gangs, because he can't negociate a firm NO KILL truce so the rival gang members can cross the street into rival tuff and go to HIS church.

Once a month someone get shot with machine guns over this TURF WAR.

This is RELIGION!!!!

This is SALVATION!!!

I saw this with my own eyes. The LA TIMES reported it.

THIS happens OUTSIDE OF YOUR world.

This HAPPENS in Miami, Los Angeles and a lot of other cities!

These people get pennace and ABSOLUTION for drug dealing, fornicating, swearing, gang affiliations, etc!

The Catholic Church gives them absolution, just like it does to Priests who molest 9 year old altar boys!

Get your HEAD out of the sand. This is real. So real that the US Catholic Church is paying out 100 million dollars to altar boys who got molested by Priests who are STILL Priests!

This IS a FACT.

Why does not the Pope bring Hersey or Excommunication charges in these instances!

MArtin Luther QUESTIONS church policy and he is told he will be BURNED AT THE STAKE by the Church in Rome for QUESTIONING payment to get out of sins, but CHILD molsters don't get burned at the stake!

There is something wrong here, but YOU can't question it, because the POPE is ABSOLUTE and YOU will be excommunicated if you DARE question it!

If the Catholic Church isn't giving ABSOLUTION why are so many of the 15% of American Priests CHARGED with Sexual ABuse still out there preaching!

I'm not going to buy into your white wash until every one of them is turned into a member of the AUDIENCE to re-learn what they should have known to begin with.

Demote them ALL to PArishoner!

Defrock them

Tell them to RE-APPLY as Priest at some future date when they learn how to be good Christains!

Answer 8

not using a confessional booth doesnt mean not confessing our sins. it just means that there is no need to speak them to a intermediary. in my church as with many others we confess our sins silently. God already knows what you did , and knows your confession without the need to do so many hail mary's or our fathers to forgive them.

Answer 9

not talking about roman catholic priests was he? in 21 he is refers explicity to the holy spirit not priests.

21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of anyone, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

Answer 10

We confess our sins directly to God.