Can A Priest Forgive Sins?
The Courier-Journal magazine (Jan. 12, 1958) contained a Knights of Columbus article entitled, "YES .. . a Priest CAN Forgive Your Sins!" The thesis of the article was that for 1,500 years all who claimed to be Christians confessed their sins to a priest, and that Catholics still practice this. The doctrine is justified by "the writers of the church" (who were misrepresented), and by a statement of Christ (which was misapplied).
As a beginning point in the criticism of this erroneous doctrine, it should be understood that in the New Testament, every Christian is a priest. There is no "clergy-laity" distinction in the New Testament, nor does one go through anyone except Jesus Christ to approach God. That every Christian is a priest is apparent from Peter's words to Christians: "Be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ ... But you are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people: that you may declare his virtues, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light are impostors in trying to perform the function of Christ! Our first point should be established: every Christian is his own priest, and Christ is his only high priest.
Do the Scriptures teach that the Apostles were to act as priests in forgiving sins? Is there a Sacrament of penance in God's Word? Did New Testament Christians confess their sins into the ear of a priest? The Catholic article answers these questions as follows: "Catholics know that Christ himself instituted the Sacrament of Penance, which include Confession, when He said to His Apostles: 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose sins ye shall forgive, they are forgiven them; whose sins ye shall retain, they are retained.' (John 20:22,23)." A major contention of the Catholic hierarchy is that the individual cannot "interpret" Scripture for himself; yet when they desire to prove a point, they cite a Scripture and ask all men to believe a number of things that are not even suggested by the passage. Does this passage (the only one cited in the article) suggest to any reader that the Apostles were priests? That they were to establish private confessionals? That they were to absolve sins on arbitrary terms of their own invention? If it should suggest any of these things to anyone, it will obviously be suggesting something to that person which it did not suggest to the Apostles, for they got none of these ideas from the Lord's words! The proper understanding of this passage should be the understanding the Apostles had! But no apostle ever told either alien sinner or Christian, "I absolve thee." An examination of the actions of the Apostles reveals that they recognized that their responsibility in forgiving and retaining men's sins was only to preach the conditions of the will of Christ; if men obeyed His commands, their sins were remitted; if they did not obey, their sins were retained! Even if Christ had given the Apostles unlimited power to set arbitrary conditions of pardon or to release men arbitrarily from Christ's commands, what connections with the Apostles' powers would a 20th century Catholic priest have? Priests are not Apostles!
The Catholic article attempted to prove priestly power to forgive sins by early Church writers also. This proof is accumulated by simply listing a group of early writers and stating that they taught the "Sacrament of Penance." References are not given, quotations are not cited; the truth is that early writers could not have taught the "Sacrament of Penance," for no such sacramental observance existed in their day. Philip Schaff, well-known church historian, wrote: "Like the sacrifice of the mass, the Roman institution of penance is an ecclesiastical invention. The New Testament knows nothing of it. Not until about 1150 was the sacramental feature fully developed." (Our Father's Faith and Ours, p. 355.)
Knights of Columbus articles are subtle; they usually state just enough truth to thoroughly deceive the reader. Catholic doctrines are so foreign to New Testament teaching that this is the only hope for making them palatable to the public — cunning advertisement, statements of half-truth. Catholic doctrine will not bear the searching light of public debate where fallacies can be openly exposed!