In the old days Israel pleaded its case through the mountains to God, and God made his accusations through the mountains to the people. These mountains were the mediators between God and His people. However, in the last days, Christ will be recognized as the chief of all mountains! The old mountains have only existed since creation, but This Mountain is the One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity! For He is our direct and Divine Mediator, the Word, and the Law!

     Christ (the Cornerstone) becomes the new Temple/Mediator when He is "Cut Off" by God from top of Mount Zion (Jerusalem) to shatter the statue (kingdoms of men) and become the Mountain that fills the whole Earth, an everlasting Kingdom for which no statue will ever compare!

     When you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart the promise of this Mountain, He will tread your sins underfoot and God will cast your sins into the sea, for this Mountain took your sins upon it when it was "Cut Off" by God. No one stands between our voice and this Mountain. We speak directly to Him regarding the forgiveness of our sins.


Supporting Verses:
Paragraph 1:
"Hear now what the LORD says: "Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, O mountains, the LORD's indictment, you enduring foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against His people, and He will argue it against Israel:" (Micah 6:1-2)

"In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and the peoples will stream to it. And many nations will come and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths." For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem." (Micah 4:1-2)

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity. (Micah 5:2)

Paragraph 2:
"Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing." (Daniel 9:26)

"As you watched, a stone was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them. Then the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were shattered and became like chaff on the threshing floor in summer. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that had struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth." (Danial 2:34-35)

"It will shatter all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself stand forever." (Daniel 2:44)

Paragraph 3:
He (Christ) will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You (God) will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:19)

Truly I say to you that whoever shall say to this mountain, 'Be you taken away and be you cast into the sea,' and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he says takes place, it will be done for him. (Mark 11:23)

James 5

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; 15 and the prayer of faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. A prayer of a righteous person, when it is brought about, can accomplish much.

I am sorry, the title was misleading, but the content still stands.

I know there are many New Testament verses that support that Christ can directly forgive our sins.
I wanted to study if the Old Testament supports this, and I think there is a strong case.

However, I won't deny the following verse at face value seems to conflict with the majority view the others verses in New Testament portray.

"If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld." (John 20:23)

I'd love to hear how others reconcile this verse.

We no longer need a high priest, as that is fulfilled by Jesus. He is our high priest. The purpose of the high priest was to accept our offerings to God for forgiveness, an intercessor between God and man. Jesus, after his death and resurrection, became our high priest, and our intercessor. We do not need to go before man to be saved or to be forgiven.

Hebrews 7:25

Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Romans 8:34

“Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”


We are to forgive others that have sinned against us, showing them mercy and preparing our hearts and minds for our own forgiveness, as if we cannot forgive others. we cannot be forgiven.

Confessing our sins to each other does not attain forgiveness from God, it is a way that we, the church, can help each other resist sin.

Only God can forgive sin, and only Jesus can intercede for us under the new covenant through Christ. Salvation and forgiveness, is the reason Christ was sent to us to die and to be resurrected. To say that we must rely on another human, is to say that Jesus failed in his sacrifice. By saying another human can intercede after the crucifixion, we are saying that another human has the same power and standing as Jesus Christ. That would mean that the Son of God did not receive that power, and that we didn't need him.

I do not disagree with anything you have said. I believe I stated such in my original post.
However, it I believe there to be a more proper interpretation of John 20:23

Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I am doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. (John 14:12)

Whatever these greater works are , they do not indicate "a failed sacrifice" for they would not exist if it weren't for the fact that He is now with the Father. Have you ever been curious what these works were? Is there any evidence that the substance of the visible spiritual works of these men ever exceeded the miracles of Christ?

Romans 4:3
King James Version
3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness

Romans 10:10
King James Version
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Acts 5:30-32
King James Version
30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.

31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.

32 And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 2:5

Because people always want to argue one or the other, whereas there is no reason it can't be both.  

I can confess my sins to a priest.

I can confess my sins to my wife.

I can confess my sins to a friend.

I can confess my sins to a total stranger.

Best of all I can confess my sins the Lord.

Having said that, I believe in the sacrament of reconciliation, but that does not mean that I can't and don't ask God for forgiveness.


Do protestants intend to say they have never gone to their pastor for help about anything in their lives?  I know I certainly did as a Methodist, and I got to speak with him again at my Grandmothers funeral this year.

The 3 verses together spell it out pretty well.

21He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.

22When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost.

23Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.

1 Timothy 2:1-7

1I desire therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men:

2For kings, and for all that are in high station: that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all piety and chastity.

3For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour,

4Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

5For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus:

6Who gave himself a redemption for all, a testimony in due times.

7Whereunto I am appointed a preacher and an apostle, (I say the truth, I lie not,) a doctor of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

If your point is that we should pray and intercede for and confess our sins to each other, I agree. But that isn’t what this thread is about.

I thought it was relevant to other posts and the premise of the thread, my apologies if it is out of bounds.

But;

I believe an outward, earthly sign of confession is important and even necessary, but it doesn’t replace confessing straight to God.

I think your utiliization of various "forms" of spoken/prayerful confession reflects both Holy Scripture and Church tradition, Gullskjegg. Plus, good mental health.

Agreed on those grounds. I don’t think it’s necessary for salvation or actual forgiveness from God, but I think it’s an important and necessary part of Christian living.

Christ taught his Disciples how to pray (Lords Prayer) to the Father, "Forgives us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.."

RE: "If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld." (John 20:23)

I am inclined to interpret the above challenging passage in light of Jesus' most specific and explicit teachings about forgiveness such as Matthew 18:21-35 (the parable of the unforgiving debtor), as well as in light of Chris's explanation immediately following His giving of the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6:12-15:

Matthew 18:21-35 (the parable of the unforgiving debtor): Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers from your heart.”

Matthew 6:12-15 (excerpt from the Lord's prayer and Christ's explanation of it):
"...And forgive us our debts,
   as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
   but deliver us from the evil one.’
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."

Christ has the only salvation power and authority to forgive sins. We are beholden to God to forgive those who sin against us because of the forgiveness offered to us in Christ in the great debt He paid for us, and any unforgiving on our part is a matter of revealing the highest peril to our own souls because it exposes us as not having understood or accepted the forgiveness of Christ for our own debts.

We should not interpret John 20 as us having power over others to withhold saving forgiveness from them or delve it out to them, but as us having an alarming, preeminent, central accountability before Christ Jesus to forgive our brothers from our heart flowing from our understanding of His forgiveness of our debt against Him, in order to be in right standing before Him.

Confession before others is not strictly necessary for salvation, but is beneficial.  The Office of the Keys provides the most direct assurance one can receive that one’s own sin is forgiven when the pastor, as the mouthpiece of God, says “I forgive YOU.”

The passage in John 20 is not saying that any sin not confessed to the apostles is retained.  They are not omniscient and can only forgive or retain the sins brought to them, which could not include every sin.

Little known fact:  in the sacrament of reconciliation, the priest acts in persona Christi