Confess Your Sins to God Directly
One of the biggest heresies of the Roman Catholic institution is that they say, "You can't be guaranteed that your sins are forgiven if you don't confess them to a priest." To justify it, they do have their rather faulty interpretation of binding and loosing. They also use James 5:16 which translates faults as sins in the Good News Translation (GNT) to justify the practice. However, confessing your sins one to another is like admitting you did something wrong to someone and being sorry for it. It's like if I lost my temper the other day then didn't I sin against certain people? I have to confess my sin to that person who I sinned against or to confess my sin to my authority figures to ease my guilt.
They say that they confess their sins to God through the priest. They would probably use the Old Testament portrait that the priests were human mediators between God and man back then. However, for every sin confessed, a clean animal without defects was offered. I don't see the Roman Catholic priests do so! Also, how can they be valid priests if they didn't come from the Tribe of Levi? Did the Bible in the New Testament ever tell us that we must confess our sins to God through the priest? Instead, 1 John 1:9 says that we must confess our sins to God for cleansing from unrighteousness.
They say that they confess their sins to God through the priest. They would probably use the Old Testament portrait that the priests were human mediators between God and man back then. However, for every sin confessed, a clean animal without defects was offered. I don't see the Roman Catholic priests do so! Also, how can they be valid priests if they didn't come from the Tribe of Levi? Did the Bible in the New Testament ever tell us that we must confess our sins to God through the priest? Instead, 1 John 1:9 says that we must confess our sins to God for cleansing from unrighteousness.
I remembered the first time I had my confession prior to my first communion. I was only eight years old and living in a very dysfunctional family. I remembered my first confession and I was told to first pray (the memorized) Act of Contrition then follow up with a specified number of Our Fathers, Hail Marys, and Glory Bes which would've sufficed (at least in a joke) to say "the same" when the prayer has to be repeated. It's like the joke where former Philippine president Joseph Estrada would say "the same" every time a certain prayer had to be repeated all over again. The Rosary is really a joke because it turns people into human tape recorders. I remembered confessing about indecency. The next thing I knew the priests themselves were watching a lot of Playboy videos. I even hear of Catholic parishes where a lot of priests were caught in their sex scandals with women, altar boys, and that their places are flooded with liquor and pornographic videos. Tell me then how can such people "save my soul" when they are but dirty, rotten sinners?
I even see the confessional becoming a license to sin. Although not blatantly taught, it happens. How often do I meet religious people who love to repeat the same offense all over again without any remorse whatsoever? I remembered how somebody would sin so severely from Monday to Friday, the same guy goes to confession on Saturdays, behaves his best on Sundays, and the same guy repeats it all over again. It's ironic how these people believe in salvation by works yet they live like Antinomians. Has the sacrament of confession to a priest really become a license to sin? I remembered how people were paying Johannes Tetzel for money for the forgiveness of their sins. I remembered at how at one point I thought if I just confess my sins to the priest then I can certainly be saved regardless of my lifestyle. Unfortunately, some Roman Catholics have entered that trap. Even worse, the priest in the confessional has a lot of dirty secrets to hide. Perhaps, for all we know, some people who confessed that they have immoralities on their mobile phones have been secretly sharing them with the priest in the box. Some people are even living in without the benefit of marriage (such as the case of adulterous couples), they go to confession a lot, and yet they are still living in sin.
We could consider the whole problem there. The confessional is a sad story of men trying to reach their own righteousness while ignorant of God's righteousness. Martin Luther spent too much time in the confessional. It also showed how the doctrine of mortal and venial sins has caused so much error. Unfortunately, all sin is sin and will lead to Hell (James 2:10-11). A person who tells white lies will go to Hell with the person who tells black lies. A parent who lies about Santa Claus is going to Hell with the person who scams others for money. Unfair? Well, God's standards are much higher and no confessional can put a person nearer to God. Only confessing one's sins to God directly through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ can truly lead to a holier life.