ABSOLUTION BY MAN

ABSOLUTION BY MAN

Can A Person Forgive Sins or Prevent Forgiveness By God?

What does the Almighty say about man claiming to be able to provide absolution for sins, or to deny absolution for sins? He says much, but here are two of the main precepts which causes man to presume to be able to forgive sins, or to deny forgiveness of sins: "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God...I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit" [Isaiah 14:12-23]. "I am the Lord: That is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images" [Isaiah 42:8]. "What is man, that thou art mindful of him..." [Psalm 8:4].

The following article explains just exactly who can forgive sins, who can deny the forgiveness of sins, and the role that man plays in the acts of divine grace bestowed by God through Jesus Christ.

As I have have learned from other brethren, most notably Doug Batchelor and Perry Stone, rather than try to interpret the Bible, let the Bible interpret itself. Amen!

POWER OF DENIAL OF ABSOLUTION

How many of you have ever committed a sin, one that offended a fellow Christian or church member, though not a trespass against anyone except the Lord, or even trespassed against a fellow believer, asked forgiveness from the Lord and received it [Romans 8:16, I John 4:13, 5:10], and apologized to the person to whom it was against? And yet, the offended person still held it against you? Or, how many of you have ever done something for the Lord, perhaps doing something quite scriptural and led by the Holy Spirit, and received a blessing from the Lord, only to be condemned by your fellow believers?

If the offended holds it against you, does that affect your standing with the Lord? Let's see what scripture says to us. Let me emphasize, let's see what scripture says to us, not man's reasoning [II Timothy 3:16, II Peter 1:20, Romans 12:18]. Before going any further, read and keep these three verses in mind. These are keys to understanding the rest of this article.

Many denominations have some doctrines which are either not scriptural, being carnally interpreted, or refuse to go along with certain scripture, and those of us who abide by true doctrine often incur the displeasure of some members, often being condemned. Christ, the apostles and many throughout the ages suffered it, and so will we. And, the ways in which we can inadvertently offend other brethren, or church members not brethren, are many [James 3:1,2].

The word absolution is not found in the Bible. It is a term of man which means 'the act of absolving; specific: a remission of sins pronounced by a priest in the sacrament of penance'. In other words, forgiveness of sins by a human being other than Jesus Christ.

The real object of this article is denial of absolution, or, a retention of sins upon a person by a human being or a group of human beings, but the definition needs to be clarified at root level in order to proceed.

If we confess our sins, it is God the Father who forgives us, and will not turn away from us [I John 1:9, II Chronicles 30:9, 6:35-39]. Once Jesus makes us free, then we are free indeed [Greek men, alethes, ontos and kai gar, all of which mean truly, actually, and in fact].

Remember that Christ came to fulfill the old testament word, not destroy it [Matthew 5:17-20]. We'll expound on that a little more later on. But I will add that those who practice and promote false doctrine are aligned with the bad Pharisees of old, who sought to keep people from obtaining salvation, the very ones who got the Romans to crucify Christ Jesus [Matthew 23:8-10,13,15,16,23-33, 27:18, Revelation 14:12, Deuteronomy 6:1-13,27:10].

During the old testament times of Moses and until Jesus Christ came, a priest would pray for the people for God to forgive them their sins [Numbers 15:25, Leviticus 4:20]. The new covenant, ushered in by the ministry, death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Christ did away with all of that. He became the final sacrifice for our sins, and it is He who intercedes to the Father on our behalf, not another man on earth, nor a group of men, nor an entire church. Jesus Christ is the Christian believers' only High Priest, or any priest at all [Hebrews 1:2,8,2:8,13,17, 3:1,6,14, 4:14-16, 5:1>4,9, 6:20, 7:11,24-28, 9:9, 14,15,10:1,4,10,20-23, I John 2:1,2, 4:9,10].

Many scriptures reveal to us that with God, there is forgiveness of sins, by the propitiation of Jesus Christ, and that it is indeed God who forgives us, not sinful human beings, which includes the apostles.

All human beings are sinful except for Jesus Christ, and not even the Levitical priests were able, or presumed to be able, to forgive sins. It's just that they were the only ones who had access to the holy of holies, the place where communion with God was held [Mark 2:10, Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 1:12-14,18, 2:6,9-13, Psalm 130:1-6, Acts 5:30,31, 14:37,38, 4:10-12, Ephesians 1:3,7,13, 2:8,14,18, 3:17, 4:5-7, Daniel 9:9, Psalm 103:1-4, Romans 3:23, I Peter 2:22]. Most of the people could not, because the Holy Spirit was not yet [freely] given [John 7:39, I Peter 1:11].

Now let's get to the main focus of this article. We have determined that only God, Christ and the Holy Ghost can forgive sins. But what about the authority to not forgive a sin? Does God give man the authority to hold our sins against us, either before or after repentance?

In a nutshell, our initial salvation is dependent upon 2 things: the Holy Ghost convicting our hearts, and; our willingness to repent [Proverbs 1:23-33,Romans 10:9,10, II Corinthians 6:2].

Since neither the priests, nor Moses himself, could forgive sins, why would it be presumed that the apostles had the power of absolution? Moses was forbidden to enter the promised land because of his presumptuous statement to Israel, putting himself alongside God [Numbers 20:7-12], maybe not meaning to, but there was a presumptuous spirit in his heart at the time.

The main verses used to try to substantiate the power of absolution by men are in Matthew 16:19, 18:18 and John 20:23. These verses state that whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted to him, and whosoever sins you retain, they are retained to him. Two other words used are loose and bind, in the place of remit and retain.

From a carnal standpoint, it looks like it means that whosoever sins you forgive, or loose, they are forgiven, or loosed, him, and whosoever sins you don't forgive, or retain, they are not forgiven him. That is thinking straight from satan. That is a human being taking the place of God, or trying to, just like lucifer tried to do [Isaiah 14:12-15].

Only God can forgive sins, or impute sins. Now whether a person forgives another person for a wrong against them, has absolutely no bearing on the other person's standing with the Almighty. If God has forgiven you, then you are forgiven and free from any guilt by God [John 8:36].

We are commanded by Jesus to forgive those who trespass against us [Luke 17:3,4]. Note that we may not know if we have trespassed against a brethren unless we are told that we have. It is an obligation of the offended to let the offender know they have trespassed against them.

Trespass has two origins, hamartema and hamartia. The first is trespass against God, His commandments or against Christ. The second is a trespass against a brethren, as in a “concrete act”.

If a brethren sees you commit a sin or knows that you have, which thing was not a concrete act against that brethren, though you may have disappointed that person, you have not trespassed against them. You may have sinned against Christ, however, by offending the brethren [I Corinthians 8:9-13].

Let's explore the meaning of offend. Offend is from the Greek skandalon, meaning “the name of part of the trap to which the bait is attached, hence, the trap or snare itself”. “Skandalon is ...ordinarily of anything that arouses prejudice, or becomes a hindrance to others, or causes them to fall by the way. Sometimes, the hindrance is in itself good, and those stumbled by it are the wicked”.

There are wicked who are members of the church [Matthew 13:24-30]. Others are babes in Christ and need to learn and grow [I Peter 2:1-9, Hebrews 5:12-14]. We do not refrain from preaching and teaching true doctrine, for any reason. As said Peter, we ought to obey God rather than men [Acts 4:18,19,5:29]. The word ought is rooted in the Greek dei and opheilo. Dei means 'it is necessary', 'one must', and 'behoved it'. It is obligatory, not an option. Opheilo means 'to owe'. We believers owe it to God to obey Him.

For them to say that you have sinned against them as you have sinned against God, is for them to put themselves in God's stead. To our own master, that is, Christ, we stand or fall [Romans 14:4], and the Almighty would like to know who that person thinks he is.

If a brother or sister be overtaken in a fault, those who know are obligated to restore them in a spirit of what? Judgement and vindictiveness? No, in a spirit of meekness, being aware that those restoring the brother can also be tempted, and so proceeding cautiously, not only in meekness, but in love [Galatians 6:1,2, 5:22-24, I Corinthians 4:21].

These days, there seems to be much more works of the flesh than works of the spirit in the churches [Galatians 5:19-21], this article implying an emphasis on witchcraft, hatred, variance, strife, heresies, envyings and murder [mainly spiritual murder].

Jesus specifically tells us that if we do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will our Father forgive us our trespasses [Matthew 6:15]. Does this sound like the power of either absolution or denial of absolution? This is the precept that ties in directly with Jesus giving Peter the keys of heaven [Matthew 16:19]. More on this in a minute.

There is a specific method for brethren to remedy a problem between them and another of the brethren. We are to go to the offender first, privately. If that doesn't work, do it again with 2 or 3 witnesses. If the problem is still not solved, then we are to tell it to the church [Matthew 18:15-18].

Notice verse 18, “whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. This is not power over another, to say whether they are forgiven or not forgiven, not at all.

For a long time, I had not understood the verse where Jesus tells Peter, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church...and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” [Matthew 16:18,19]. It does sound like Jesus gives Peter the power of absolution and denial of absolution. And many times, whenever I thought that maybe that was transferred to others, even a whole church, down through the ages, and that maybe some of my forgiveness was dependent upon what other brethren thought, I felt condemned. Sometimes I'd have to pray for days in order to finally get a witness of the Holy Ghost, that I was righteous in Christ. Thank God I finally have found the absolute truth to it.

Peter does mean rock, yes? Yes, it does. So Christ built His church upon Peter's judgement? Absolutely not. Rock, as in Christ the Rock, comes from the Greek petra, meaning “a mass of rock”, something that cannot be moved, reflected in scripture [Matthew 16:18].

And upon this rock, petra, Jesus' own self, He will build His church. Jesus also meant that Peter would have a large responsibility in the church being built, as Peter was rather a spokesman for the others at times, as well as an elder, and they listened to him. This came into play especially when he had the dream which showed him that the Gentiles would also be given grace by God [Acts 10:9-17, 11:4-17].. And it is certain that the true church, the born again believers, will not be prevailed against by hell, either from without or within the church [Matthew 16:18].

Now here is the straw that broke the camel's back, once and for all. Peter comes from the Greek petros, meaning “a detached stone or boulder”, or, “a stone that might be thrown or easily moved”. That was Peter, all throughout Jesus' ministry on earth, and all the way throughout Peter's life. Fortunately, Peter was easily moved to God's truth, whenever he was in the wrong.

What Jesus was saying to Peter is, that you are petros, and can be moved, though you are solid, and are not perfect, as when he denied Christ, and as when he was guilty of hypocrisy at least 17 years after receiving the Holy Ghost [Matthew 26:69-75, Galatians 1:17,18, 2:1,11-21].

Note also, a few things, that although Jesus gave the keys to the kingdom of heaven to Peter, that: only Christ holds the key of David, and the keys of heaven and hell [Revelation 1:18, 2:1, 3:7], as well as holding the seven stars. Jesus also tells us that what He opens, no man can shut [Revelation 3:8].

If I give someone the keys to my house, to take care of things while I'm away, am I not still the master of the house? Is not the caretaker subject to my rules? Of course.

God is also no respecter of persons [Acts 10:34]. He expects the same out of all of us, and will give His spirit without measure [Acts 17:30, John 3:34, 14:12], including the gifts, and the most important thing: salvation.

Peter was very brash and tended to do before he thought, about things. I believe that Jesus was warning Peter to be cautious and to not be filled with pride. I and II Peter reflect this thought. In effect, Jesus was saying to Peter, I (Jesus) am the Rock upon which the church is built and am fast. You are solid but moveable. It is My precepts which will be followed.

Peter's presumptuousness was clearly illustrated on the mount, after Moses and Elijah appeared. Peter wanted to build a temple for Jesus, for Moses and for Elijah, not realizing what he was saying [Luke 9:28-33]. Peter was, in effect, saying he wanted to deify all three, that being an ignorant thought. As great as Moses and Elijah were, Jesus credited the greatest prophet as being John the Baptist [Luke 7:28]. Yet not even he had the power of absolution.

James and John desired to sit in that position as well, having the same kind of spirit that Moses and Peter had influencing them at one time, and another time wanted to destroy those who weren't following along with the twelve and Jesus [Mark 10:35-40, Luke 9:53-56]. They had no idea what spirit they were of.

Both the spirit that causes people to desire being able to eternally condemn others, and the spirit that causes people to want to destroy those who disagree with them, are closely linked to one another, and are of the devil.

Jesus Christ's church was built on the Rock Petra, on Christ, not on the rock petros. The apostles and prophets were part of the foundation, yes, but they were all dependent upon the Chief Corner Stone, Christ, and subject to Christ, evident by verses we have already covered, and many more [Ephesians 2:18-22].

Forgiving those who trespass against us is a reconciliatory obligation of the offended towards God. This ties in directly with Matthew 6:15, that if we will not forgive those who trespass against us, we seal our eternal doom, because that prevents the Father from forgiving us our trespasses. We even have to forgive our enemies, or else we're doomed eternally.

This brings to mind an interesting misconception of many, as to how the Father is. Firstly, forgiving someone does not mean that a trust is established. I can forgive the dog that keeps on running over and biting me, because as we become more firmly established in Christ, we take on the mind of Christ [I Corinthians 2:16], thus able to realize that the intentional offender is being led by the wrong spirit [Ephesians 6:12, Galatians 5:13-17], whether brethren or unsaved, and that someone who despises us, is actually despising God [I Thessalonians 4:8].

Despise comes from the Greek exoutheneo, kataphroneo, periphroneo and atheteo. The first means “to make of no account, to regard as nothing, to despise utterly, to treat with contempt'. Jesus said to call no man worthless and to love our enemies [Matthew 5:22: raca means utter contempt, signifying empty, vain, worthless, Matthew 5:44].

The definition of a Christ-like love is found in I Corinthians chapter 13. It doesn't mean that we necessarily have to invite the person home to supper or hang out with them. I did recently hear an interesting account of Corrie Ten-Boom having forgiven a former Nazi soldier, who had treated her and her sister badly when they were in a German prisoner of war camp. He had been converted after the war, and chanced to hear Corrie speak at a lecture. Afterwards he approached her and asked her to forgive him, which she did, though not without initial hesitation..

Kataphroneo means “to think down upon or against anyone”. We are not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to, because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God [Romans 3:23, 12:3-10]. There is a difference between looking down on a person, and looking down on something that someone does.

Periphroneo is “to think round a thing, to turn over in the mind”; hence, “to have thoughts beyond, to despise”. This corresponds with Titus 2:15, and one example would be to despise someone for doing good, for doing the right thing, which thing is being heady and high-minded [II Timothy 3:1-9], despising God and the truth of the Gospel [also aphilagathos].

Atheteo is “to displace, to set aside, to reject, to dishonor”, considering someone of no account, perhaps because of appearance [James 2:1-10], or because of one's past. The Apostle Paul's past before conversion was horrible towards the Christians, yet, they forgave him and accepted him as a brother in Christ.

Did Paul have to prove himself to anybody? No. The brethren had to try his spirit, to see if it was of God [I John 4:1-3]. They had to settle in their minds and hearts that he was sincere, judging from his fruit and new manner of living. Is this not proving oneself? No, there is a difference. Does a dog have to prove to me that he is a dog? No, of course not. If I don't believe that he is a dog, he is still a dog. I simply have to determine for myself, from what I know about a dog, whether or not he is a dog.

The main misconception I wanted to point out, is that even though our heavenly Father forgives us, He does still chasten, or punish, us [Hebrews 12:5-13], such as our parents discipline us, as the government disciplines us if we break the law, sometimes if we don't break the law. Is it up to our brethren to punish us if we sin? No, it isn't. To the contrary, as already cited, the brethren are to restore people in the spirit of meekness. There is authority given to pastors by God, to deal with those who intentionally sin and refuse to stop, but that is a different subject than here.

On the subject of forgiving sins, even the Pharisees of old did not consider any man able to forgive sins, only God [Luke 5:21], which thought corresponds with the function of the Levitical priest. They could only mediate, or propitiate, because only they had access to the “prayer closet”. Now, all believers do and can pray for themselves for forgiveness [Romans 5:2].

We have now established through scripture that only God and Christ can forgive sins. The Holy Ghost does not pardon sins, He does what the mind of God thinks. The Holy Ghost is the “long arm of God”. He blesses us when we are forgiven, but he cannot say, you are forgiven, as that is God's prerogative [Exodus 23:21, Romans 8:16, I John 2:28, 3:19-21, 4:13].

Let's reiterate a bit. God has said that he will share His glory with no one [Isaiah 42:8]. Moses himself could not share in God's glory, and because he tried to, he was forbidden to enter the promised land [Numbers 20:7-10,12]. Moses spoke with God face to face, though he did not see God, except for God's hinder parts [Exodus 33:11,18-23].

Our faith is not dependent upon man's wisdom [I Corinthians 2:5], it is dependent upon confession of sins and belief in Jesus Christ [Romans 10:9,10]. As the Lord asked Job, and asks all humans, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? [Job chapters 38, 39]. God was there, the Holy Spirit was there, and Christ was there [Genesis 1:1,2,26, 3:8, Hebrews 1:2, John 17:5].

Why is it, that sometimes a person can make us to feel condemned, even if we haven't done anything wrong? There have been times when some other person knew about some sin I had committed previously. I had already repented, and been forgiven by God. But this person, through their words and demeanor, by their spirit, made me feel condemned, and like I hadn't been forgiven. What was that?

Paul told Timothy that a novice should not be a bishop of a church, because he may be lifted up with pride and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Novice comes from neophutos, meaning newly-planted, which denotes inexperienced and unlearned in that position. The key here is unlearned in that position. Keep this in mind for a moment.

Condemnation comes from the Greek autokatakritos, meaning self-condemned. This is another key.

When someone can make you believe a lie, you are not letting God's spirit discern for you, the person lying has seduced an evil spirit which is now influencing you, and you are, in effect, self-condemned. The spirit of fear has taken hold on you, because you are now afraid of a judgement from God which actually does not exist for that previous sin, because you have already been cleansed [Psalm 103:12], and God may be condemning you for not trusting Him.

God has not given us the spirit of fear, the devil does. When we are, at any given moment, loving and trusting God, we fear nothing, and are not confused. God does not confuse us if we are in Christ and doing our best [II Timothy 1:7, I Corinthians 14:33, I John 4:18].

In a situation like that, the fear is the same fear as when someone is trying to kill or seriously harm us. In that situation, we can either be immobilized with fear, or we can remain calm, cool and collected, though our heart may be racing and the adrenaline is coursing through our veins. Trusting in God and letting the Holy Ghost keep us calm may be the only way that we can remain calm, cool and collected, though experience in situations like that can also have the same effect, on both saved and unsaved people..

When God is angry with us, it is an entirely different feeling than the feeling we get when someone condemns us [Deuteronomy 3:26, Numbers 22:22-35]. It is also yet a different feeling when the Holy Ghost convicts our heart of something done wrong or a right not done [I John 3:20,21]. I say feeling, for lack of a better term, though it is not an emotion.

It is hard to explain, but the spirit that is upon you when it is merely a person condemning you is sensual [devilish], not spiritual from God [James 3:15]. When we believers do wrong, we don't need a person to tell us we have sinned, the Holy Ghost is going to reveal it to us [I John 2:27, John 16:8-14, 14:26], and will usually bring a scripture to mind in order to reinforce what the problem is. That partly depends upon how well read in the Bible we are.

One good indicator of how legitimate a person is, is whether or not they can cite a scripture to substantiate their condemning you, or a Biblical precept, as exact scripture is sometimes hard to remember. But if they are sincere, and not just acting out of human desire, they will discuss it with you.

I have been in a few situations when, upon someone telling me that I was in the wrong, I would say, show me in scripture that I'm wrong, and if I am, I'll make it right. And the person would say something like, well, it says this or that, but...

Now sometimes, the Spirit will tell you that something or someone is wrong, and you can't always recall a verse. I've been wrong and didn't realize it at the time,and welcome constructive criticism. We all need help from others at times. But learn to discern. It will save your soul. There are many dogs in the churches [Philippians 3:2, Titus 1:10-16, I John 4:1-3].

What do we do if someone will not accept true doctrine, and we should try to instill true doctrine, in the right spirit. Keep these verses in mind: I John 4:1-3,5-7, II John 7-11, Matthew 21:28-32.