More thoughts:

Isaiah 55:7-8 says,
"'Let the wicked forsake his way
and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he
will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will FREELY
PARDON.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,'
declares the Lord.
'As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow come down from
heaven, and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seek for the sower and
bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.'"

As I read this passage today, since this is where I am in
my long-standing quest to read through the whole Bible
on my own (I'm slowly but surely getting there), I was
struck with several things in light of my current quest
to understanding Catholicism.

First of all, it continues to become more and more clear
to me that God only requires us to turn to Him for forgiveness
of sin and that a Priest is not needed for this. This is actually
the Catholic stance as well as I have come to understand it.
I think they would say that the Priest is merely a human
representative who will freely pardon whatever the offense that
is confessed, in order to allow the sinner to hear the words of
God ("Your sins are forgiven") from an audible voice.

I can see how this might be of benefit. However, I would want
it made very clear that the Priest was not the one forgiving the
sin, because only God can forgive our sin, in Christ.

The Catholic claim (see "Catholic Christianity" by Peter Kreeft)
is that "There can be no forgiveness without Christ," but that
the church was given the authority to forgive sins, through
Christ, and it is only because of Christ that they have this authority.

They claim that John 20:21-22 is an indication of this authority
being given to the church. ("'As the Father has sent me, I am
sending you.' And with that he breathed on them and said,
'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they
are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.'")

It is just interesting to me how different of an outlook Catholics
have then Evangelical Protestants. I think that as and Evangelical
Protestant I was taught that the Bible is the Word of God, and that
the Word of God (meaning primarily actual physical words on a
page) exists only in the pages and the stories of Scripture.

It seems to me that Catholics have more of an understanding of
the Word as being both a physical Word and also something
Incarnational--the Word made flesh. This seems to be applied
in the Isaiah passage above. They also seem to see the Scriptures
as a foundation and a starting point for that Word. They do not
see the working of that Word as ending with the last word of
Revelation, but seem to see verses like John 20:21-22 as a
starting point of something that would continue to be a working
out of that Word by the church in the ages after those words of
Jesus were spoken.

So I guess what I'm wondering is, what if they are right? Or at
least, what if they are not all wrong? What if as the church of
Christ, we have been given the authority to forgive sins, through
Christ. What if we are supposed to confess them, and not just
in a casual, haphazard way, but intentionally, in order to restore
the relationships in the body of Christ by recognizing the effects
of sin on the body, and confessing those sins to the church authority?

Yes, God freely forgives the repentant one. But what if there is a
sense in which the vehicle of his forgiveness is now the church,
who forgives in the name of Christ?

And what if Protestant churches have this authority as well, they
are just working it out in a less formalized, ritualized fashion
by confessing sins one to another? Maybe the Catholic church
is limiting God by saying that it has to be done in a certain way
in order for it to be effectual.

And yet, if this is the case, then the Catholic church is in no way
injuring the truth of Scriptures by taking this verse seriously and
by formalizing this process of freely receiving God's grace.

I don't think it is all that much different from what Protestants do,
or at least, what they are supposed to do. We are supposed to be
confessing our sins to each other within our church bodies. How
exactly that is to be done is not explicitly stated in Scripture. But
I'm not sure I can fault the Catholics for taking the matter seriously,
so long as their constituents do not misunderstand from whom that
forgiveness is freely coming (from God, because of Christ).

Alright, those are my thoughts for today. Any comments? Anyone
still reading? : )