Posted by Ray Kidder on 9/2/2009, 2:12 pm, in reply to "Re: Questions for Searcher on liturgical denominations"
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Searcher,
You wrote:
"I have a friend who belongs to a Greek Orthodox church in Detroit. She has to drive some distance to go to it. She thinks she has to constantly confess her sins and feels guilty. She is always afraid she will forget some sin that she must have committed. Do you believe that we have to continually confess our sins? I don't believe that. I believe that the work He did on the cross is finished and all our sins are forgiven."
I doubt that people have to confess every single sin in order for all of their sins to be forgiven. At the church I go to, we confess our sins (in a general rather than specific sense) almost every week, just prior to taking Holy Communion.
These verses from I John 1 (NKJV) come to mind:
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
Doesn't verse 9 imply that we are to confess our sins as a prerequisite to having our sins forgiven.
This verse from James 5 (NKJV) also comes to mind:
16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Doesn't this verse imply that we should confess how we have sinned to one another?
This passage from Matthew 18 (NKJV) also comes to mind:
15 “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.
16 But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’
17 And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.
18 “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.
20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
These verses suggest to me that the church is supposed to promote reconcilations (through the confessions of sins) when members of the body of Christ have sinned against each other.
Do you believe all of our sins are forgiven on the basis of accepting the atonement of Christ, even where there is an unwillingness to confess sins, and/or an unwillingness to forgive those who have confessed how they have sinned against us?
Ray Kidder
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