Why Christians seek forgiveness to the priest in stead to God directly?

Answer 1

Not all Christians confess their sins to a priest.

Answer 2

Scrub your word ' Christians' and replace it with ' Catholic.

Only Catholics do what you suggest.

Answer 3

well ghose "christians" are being lead by wolves in sheeps clothing. the antichrist

(Acts 20:29-30) . . .I know that after my going away oppressive wolves will enter in among YOU and will not treat the flock with tenderness, 30 and from among YOU yourselves men will rise and speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves.

(Colossians 2:8) 8 Look out: perhaps there may be someone who will carry YOU off as his prey through the philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary things of the world and not according to Christ;

Answer 4

your thinking about catholics.

i go straight to God through Jesus.

tebone: 1 Timothy 2:5 declares, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

Answer 5

We confess to a priest because that is the way Jesus instigated the sacrament. It is at his command that we confess to one another. When we sin against the Father our sins also affect our Christian family. Confessing sins to a priest is something that was a universal practice and never debated in the Early Church.

Jesus himself was able to heal not only the physically sick, but the spiritually sick as well. Christ had the power to forgive sins (see Matthew 9:1-8; Mark 2:5-12).

He passed on that power to forgive sins in his name to his Apostles.

"Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father." (Matthew 18:18-19)

"Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I sent you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." (John 20:21-23)

Jesus entrusted his Church with the power of forgiving sins through this most wonderful sacrament. The priest is simply the one who acts in persona Christi (in the person of Christ) in the confessional, but it is our Lord who forgives our sins. The priest grants absolution (sets us free from our sins) using the power Jesus entrusted to his Church. It is through Christ, however, that our sins are forgiven.

St. Paul tells us, "And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us." (2 Corinthians 5: 18-20)

Does this mean that we shouldn’t speak and pray directly to God and express sorrow for our sins? Not at all! In fact for daily faults that is exactly what we should be doing. But for more serious offenses, for grave and mortal sins, we must repent and confess through the Sacrament of Reconciliation because that is what Christ commands us to do.

Answer 6

I am a Christian and the only priest that I confer with is the great high priest The Lord Jesus Christ. He entered into the Holy Of Holies and presented the sacrifice that put an end to sacrifices and tore the veil apart that seperated man from God. He did away with the priesthood and became our Great High Priest in Heaven and now we have an advocate with the Father whose name is Jesus.

How can a man who is a sinner himself forgive anyone of their sins when he himself needs forgiveness for his own sins?

Answer 7

Because Christ Declared this was the way to go.

"Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

Answer 8

*Catholics* Protestants seek forgiveness from God Himself.