If Christ Was Crucified for Claiming to be Able to Forgive Sin...?

Question

If Christ was crucified for claiming to have the authority to forgive sins, which is considered Blasphemy, then how was it established that mortal Catholic Priests have the authority to do so?

Thanks my Catholic friends, I am not a "hater" just looking for clarification on these issues.

Answer 1

This is a multi-layered question that requires a multi-layered answer.
Jesus was not crucified for claiming to have the authority to forgive sins. Jesus was crucified because you and I have sinned and sin must be punished. God is a just God and required that someone take on that punishment. He did not desire that any person receive the due punishment, because that would be eternal separation from Him. He desired that we be in His loving, glorious presence. Therefore He chose the perfect God/Man of Jesus Christ to take on that punishment, thus providing forgiveness for our sins. He did as He said He would do.
In regard to 'priests,' the Roman Catholic Church misuses this term. A priest is someone who has direct access to God. They believe that only designated people have that access, so those people are the only ones who can go to God to ask for that forgiveness. Therefore they do not believe that the 'Priest' is granting forgiveness, only accessing God on your behalf to seek forgiveness.
The truth is that anyone who is born-again (a true Christian) is a priest and can receive forgiveness by simply asking. A non-Christian must first be converted to Christianity to then become a priest him/herself and then ask for forgiveness.
1 Peter 2:9 says to believers, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

Answer 2

They do not have that authority to do so. They think they can!

Answer 3

First off I am not Catholic but I have been raised Catholic and have gone to Catholic schools and churches my whole life. Catholics believe Christ absolutely had the authority to forgive sins, and if Christ could do so then it is not considered blasphemy. Catholics believe the same ability was given to Catholic priests...therefore it is not blasphemy if Christ and Catholic priests could actually do the deeds they say they can perform.

Answer 4

As u said its catholic, not all denominations believe this. No man can forgive sins, Only God can, jesus said we should pray in his name. another scripture taken out of context, jesus actually gave peter, the rest of his desciples, the authority to preach his word, not to cleanse us from our sins.

Answer 5

Christ was crucified because he claimed to be a king and Herod didn't like that and neither did the citizens.
It doesn't matter if someone is a Catholic Priest or a common everyday person. If you pray to God that you want to be forgiven, you will be.
Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit are all the same, the Three in One. They all accept true repentance.
I think the spirit of God (or whatever you call your higher power) is in every person who believes in him.
I am not Catholic either, so I don't know what they believe in.

Answer 6

To the above, the catholic church can trace its lineage directly to the apostles. Read some history on the early church especially the church fathers before you make such claims because you my friend, psychologist or not, are WRONG.

Now to the answer:
All pardon for sins ultimately comes from Christ’s finished work on Calvary, but how is this pardon received by individuals? Did Christ leave us any means within the Church to take away sin? The Bible says he gave us two means.

Baptism was given to take away the sin inherited from Adam (original sin) and any sins we personally committed before baptism—sins we personally commit are called actual sins, because they come from our own acts. Thus on the day of Pentecost, Peter told the crowds, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38), and when Paul was baptized he was told, "And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name" (Acts 22:16). And so Peter later wrote, "Baptism . . . now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 3:21).

For sins committed after baptism, a different sacrament is needed. It has been called penance, confession, and reconciliation, each word emphasizing one of its aspects. During his life, Christ forgave sins, as in the case of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1–11) and the woman who anointed his feet (Luke 7:48). He exercised this power in his human capacity as the Messiah or Son of man, telling us, "the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins" (Matt. 9:6), which is why the Gospel writer himself explains that God "had given such authority to men" (Matt. 9:8).

Since he would not always be with the Church visibly, Christ gave this power to other men so the Church, which is the continuation of his presence throughout time (Matt. 28:20), would be able to offer forgiveness to future generations. He gave his power to the apostles, and it was a power that could be passed on to their successors and agents, since the apostles wouldn’t always be on earth either, but people would still be sinning.

God had sent Jesus to forgive sins, but after his resurrection Jesus told the apostles, "‘As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’" (John 20:21–23). (This is one of only two times we are told that God breathed on man, the other being in Genesis 2:7, when he made man a living soul. It emphasizes how important the establishment of the sacrament of penance was.)

Answer 7

Peace to you,

This is a good question.
I bet you could have answered it yourself if you knew the following.
1) The Catholic church did not appear for several hundred years after the crucifiction of Jesus.
2) According to the C-church, the ability to forgive sins came from Jesus and was given to (whom they state) was the first Pope The apostle Peter.
3) The reasons given for his exacution were a pretext, so they really do not count.

There are so many great religious questions on this site. My PhD is in Thelogical Psychology so I really get a kick out of answering the good ones like yours.

Answer 8

To make a long story short...Peter was given the keys to the kingdom, What ever he held bound was bound, What ever he loosened was loosened. Peter went on to Rome and became the First Pope, The Church Of Rome was started and Peter ordained Bishops and Priests to carry on the work of our Lord. And the Apostolic mission has been going on for 2000 years, From the authority of Jesus to Peter to the Priests.

Answer 9

Neither side is correct because the Original Kingdom Gospel was not about sacrifice for sins... that idea belongs to the Pauline rendition of the gospel.

The Original Gospel teaches that God forgives those who forgive others (Sermon on the Mount).

Get back to the Original Gospel and you will not have to worry about those things.

The difference between the Original Gospel and the Pauline gospel that came along later is explained in this online resource.

Answer 10

C. S. Lewis, in his book “Mere Christianity” makes this statement: "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."