Do Christians Have to Confess Their Sins to a Priest?

CONFESSION IS BIBLICAL

The real question is not whether Christians should confess sin.

Christians are explicitly told to confess sin. Any argument that begins by denying that fact has already missed the New Testament evidence.

James tells believers to confess their sins to one another and to pray for one another. First John says that if Christians confess their sins, God is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse them.

So confession belongs to Christian life. The disputed question is different: did Christ establish a special class of Christian priests to whom believers must privately confess in order to obtain sacramental absolution?

READ JAMES CAREFULLY

James says 'to one another,' not 'to the priest.'

James 5 is especially important because it contains elders, prayer, sin, forgiveness, and confession in the same context.

The sick person is instructed to call for the elders of the church, who pray over him. James then broadens the instruction: confess your sins to one another and pray for one another.

The text therefore certainly supports Christians acknowledging sin and seeking the prayers of other believers. It also gives elders a meaningful pastoral role.

But the passage itself does not identify the elders as a separate sacerdotal class receiving mandatory private confession. The reciprocal wording—one another—deserves to remain visible.

WHO FORGIVES?

First John directs the confession-and-forgiveness relationship toward God.

First John was written to Christians, not merely to people approaching conversion for the first time. John acknowledges that believers still sin and need cleansing.

His answer is not that Christians must locate a sacerdotal mediator. He says that if 'we' confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse.

That does not eliminate accountability, reconciliation with people we have wronged, pastoral help, or mutual confession. It does identify God as the one whose faithfulness and justice provide forgiveness.

LOOK AT AN ACTUAL POST-CONVERSION SIN

When Simon sins after baptism, Peter tells him to repent and pray to God.

Acts 8 provides a useful narrative test. Simon had believed and been baptized, but later attempted to obtain apostolic power with money.

Peter rebuked him severely. Yet Peter's instruction is revealing: repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord that the intention of your heart may be forgiven.

An apostle is standing directly in front of Simon. Even so, the instruction directs Simon toward repentance and prayer to God.

That episode does not answer every later question about pastoral confession, but it belongs in any serious attempt to reconstruct the apostolic practice of seeking forgiveness after conversion.

THE PRIESTHOOD QUESTION

The New Testament already identifies its High Priest—and describes believers themselves as a priesthood.

Hebrews gives extraordinary attention to priesthood, mediation, sacrifice, and access to God. Its central Christian priest is Jesus Christ, the great High Priest.

Because of Him, believers are told to approach the throne of grace with confidence.

First Peter then describes Christians collectively as a holy and royal priesthood. Who Changed the Church? considers that combination significant: Christ is High Priest, and God's people constitute a priesthood, yet the local elders are not presented as a separate sacrificing priestly caste through whom every Christian must approach God.

WHAT ABOUT JOHN 20:23?

Jesus really did speak about forgiving and retaining sins.

Any discussion of confession to priests eventually reaches John 20:23: Jesus tells His chosen disciples that if they forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven, and if they retain them, they are retained.

That text should not be ignored or weakened simply because later Christian traditions interpret it differently.

Who Changed the Church? makes a specific argument about it. The manuscript connects John 20:23 with the unique divine authority given to the apostles and with their Spirit-confirmed foundational work.

That creates the next question in this investigation: does John 20 establish a continuing sacerdotal office for later priests, or is Jesus addressing the commissioned apostles whose authoritative gospel proclamation would announce the terms on which sins are forgiven?

CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION ARE NOT IDENTICAL

A biblical practice can acquire a later institutional form.

There is no need to deny confession in order to question sacramental confession.

Christians can confess wrongdoing to one another. They can seek help from mature leaders. They should reconcile with people they have harmed. They should acknowledge sin before God rather than hiding it.

The historical and theological question begins when those practices are joined to a distinct sacerdotal office and forgiveness is formally administered through that office.

That is precisely the kind of distinction the book asks readers to investigate: which elements belong to the apostolic foundation, and which institutional forms appear later?

• The New Testament commands confession of sin.
• James 5:16 says believers should confess to one another.
• First John identifies God as faithful and just to forgive confessed sin.
• Peter tells Simon to repent and pray to the Lord after Simon's post-baptism sin.
• Hebrews presents Jesus as the great High Priest through whom believers approach God.
• John 20:23 must still be examined because Jesus gave the apostles real authority concerning forgiveness.

ASK THE PRECISE QUESTION

Not 'Is confession biblical?' but 'Did the apostles require sacramental confession to a Christian priest?'

Those are not the same proposition.

The first is easy to establish. Confession, repentance, prayer, accountability, and forgiveness are everywhere in the Christian message.

The second requires evidence for a particular office, authority, and procedure.

Who Changed the Church? argues that such claims should be tested against the apostolic foundation rather than assumed simply because they became longstanding Christian practices.