Forgiveness of Sins
In my deep study of both Catholicism and Mormonism over the past year or so, one question that seems to keep coming up is: how can I know when I have been forgiven of sins?
Latter-day Saints believe that we can know we have been forgiven of our sins when we have truly repented and we feel peace and joy through the Holy Ghost. Forgiveness comes only after repentance. (Repentance is a whole other topic in and of itself, perhaps for another blog post.)
With Catholics, repentance is also a factor in forgiveness, but they also have the Sacrament of Reconciliation – confessing your sins to a priest and the priest pronouncing your absolution. The priest himself is not the one doing the forgiving, but he is acting on behalf of Jesus Christ and represents the Church.
The struggle I'm having with the LDS view is whether feelings of peace and joy are a reliable sign that you have indeed been forgiven of sins. Can you feel like you've been forgiven when you really haven't? How can you know for sure? LDS bishops and stake presidents do not have the authority to forgive sins. They can counsel with you, give advice, and tell you they think you have sufficiently repented and been forgiven, but they don't know for sure. It is ultimately between you and God.
The certainty of the Catholic approach is appealing to me. They believe the passage in John 20:19-23 is clear evidence that Jesus Christ gave his apostles authority to forgive sins. Specifically verse 23: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (NRSVCE) They believe the apostles gave that same authority to bishops, who gave that authority to priests, and so on down through the ages.
So, as a Catholic, if you have sincere sorrow for your sins and desire to turn away from them, give a verbal confession of grave sins to a priest, perform a penance assigned by the priest, and receive absolution from the priest in the name of Christ, you can have certainty that you are – in that moment – forgiven, regardless of whether you personally feel peace and joy or not.
Can Reconciliation be abused? Sure. But the LDS model can, too.
I think any believing, practicing Catholic or Latter-day Saint who is sincerely seeking to follow Jesus Christ would tell you that intentionally committing a sin with the idea that you will repent later is wrong. But it happens among members of both churches.
But the Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation seems to me like a better model with clearer feedback as to your standing with God. Regardless of whether or not you feel forgiven, you are forgiven. You can know that you are starting with a clean slate in that moment.
Whereas with the LDS model, you must hope and trust that you are forgiven even when you don't feel peace and joy through the Holy Spirit. Or you could be suffering tremendous guilt and anxiety for a sin for which you have indeed been forgiven because you still don't feel like you have been forgiven. Or you could feel peace and joy and assume it means you have been forgiven when you actually have not been.
Some sins can take a long time, even a lifetime of work to overcome. There is space in each tradition to acknowledge and accommodate this. Regardless of either church's doctrine and practice, I believe that God knows us. He knows our heart, and He takes all our desires and circumstances into account.
The underlying question for me on this topic and in my investigation over the past year is: which church can best help me to become more like Jesus Christ? That's a question I am still actively wrestling with.
#100DaysToOffload (No. 172) #faith #Christianity