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I have been trying to sort out what the Urantia Book tells us about confessing our sins. Is it necessary to confess our sins? In the thread about guilt, Mark Kurtz posted this quote:
156:2.7 “Said Jesus: “My disciples must not only cease to do evil but learn to do well; you must not only be cleansed from all conscious sin, but you must refuse to harbor even the feelings of guilt. If you confess your sins, they are forgiven; therefore must you maintain a conscience void of offense.”
Which seems as if Jesus is advising that we confess our sins. Does he mean confess them to another individual/ in public? Or confess them to ourselves/ to our TA and ask for guidance in doing better? I am unsure on this point. Other quotes dealing with confession seem to muddy the waters more for me. I am interested in others’ thoughts on this.
From the paper on “Sin, Sacrifice and Atonement”:
(976.2)89:2.5 The idea of confession and forgiveness early appeared in primitive religion. Men would ask forgiveness at a public meeting for sins they intended to commit the following week. Confession was merely a rite of remission, also a public notification of defilement, a ritual of crying “unclean, unclean!” Then followed all the ritualistic schemes of purification. All ancient peoples practiced these meaningless ceremonies. Many apparently hygienic customs of the early tribes were largely ceremonial.
From paper “Tuesday Morning in the Temple”:
1. Divine Forgiveness
(1898.1)174:1.1 For several days Peter and James had been engaged in discussing their differences of opinion about the Master’s teaching regarding the forgiveness of sin. They had both agreed to lay the matter before Jesus, and Peter embraced this occasion as a fitting opportunity for securing the Master’s counsel. Accordingly, Simon Peter broke in on the conversation dealing with the differences between praise and worship, by asking: “Master, James and I are not in accord regarding your teachings having to do with the forgiveness of sin. James claims you teach that the Father forgives us even before we ask him, and I maintain that repentance and confession must precede the forgiveness. Which of us is right? what do you say?”
(1898.2)174:1.2 After a short silence Jesus looked significantly at all four and answered: “My brethren, you err in your opinions because you do not comprehend the nature of those intimate and loving relations between the creature and the Creator, between man and God. You fail to grasp that understanding sympathy which the wise parent entertains for his immature and sometimes erring child. It is indeed doubtful whether intelligent and affectionate parents are ever called upon to forgive an average and normal child. Understanding relationships associated with attitudes of love effectively prevent all those estrangements which later necessitate the readjustment of repentance by the child with forgiveness by the parent.
(1898.3)174:1.3“A part of every father lives in the child. The father enjoys priority and superiority of understanding in all matters connected with the child-parent relationship. The parent is able to view the immaturity of the child in the light of the more advanced parental maturity, the riper experience of the older partner. With the earthly child and the heavenly Father, the divine parent possesses infinity and divinity of sympathy and capacity for loving understanding. Divine forgiveness is inevitable; it is inherent and inalienable in God’s infinite understanding, in his perfect knowledge of all that concerns the mistaken judgment and erroneous choosing of the child. Divine justice is so eternally fair that it unfailingly embodies understanding mercy.
(1898.4)174:1.4“When a wise man understands the inner impulses of his fellows, he will love them. And when you love your brother, you have already forgiven him. This capacity to understand man’s nature and forgive his apparent wrongdoing is Godlike. If you are wise parents, this is the way you will love and understand your children, even forgive them when transient misunderstanding has apparently separated you. The child, being immature and lacking in the fuller understanding of the depth of the child-father relationship, must frequently feel a sense of guilty separation from a father’s full approval, but the true father is never conscious of any such separation. Sin is an experience of creature consciousness; it is not a part of God’s consciousness.
(1898.5)174:1.5“Your inability or unwillingness to forgive your fellows is the measure of your immaturity, your failure to attain adult sympathy, understanding, and love. You hold grudges and nurse vengefulness in direct proportion to your ignorance of the inner nature and true longings of your children and your fellow beings. Love is the outworking of the divine and inner urge of life. It is founded on understanding, nurtured by unselfish service, and perfected in wisdom.”
My interpretation from this is that God does not need for us to confess our sins because God knows us in our immaturity and our many flaws and forgives us even before we confess. However, this does not address the matter of whether or not confession of our sins is beneficial to our spiritual development and growth. I have tended to avoid religious services in which “confession” is an institutionalized practice, but I’m curious how other readers of the TUB view this. Thoughts?
My interpretation from this is that God does not need for us to confess our sins because God knows us in our immaturity and our many flaws and forgives us even before we confess. However, this does not address the matter of whether or not confession of our sins is beneficial to our spiritual development and growth. I have tended to avoid religious services in which “confession” is an institutionalized practice, but I’m curious how other readers of the TUB view this. Thoughts?
Crucial to understanding this is the fact that a sin is not a sin unless one is conscious of it. Sin is conscious and deliberate disloyalty to Deity. Forgiveness of sin means simply conscious a return to loyalty relationships with Deity. Confession is merely a way of acknowledging one’s disloyalty, taking ownership of responsibility and then changing one’s conscious attitude toward Deity. Confession is useless unless one is conscious of having been disloyal, in which case it isn’t a sin at all.
I hope I explained that well. It’s all about being conscious of one’s own disloyalty. And consciousness of disloyalty, or sin, is destructive unless it changes course by confessing or admitting culpability.
I think confession is an after the fact confirmation that something transformative happened inside between you and God.
I don’t think that forgiveness can be separated from this experience. We are told that we must forgive before we can be forgiven.
Great topic and post. This has always plagued me as well Keryn, as a child primarily, when I was told that I was guilty by birth and had to confess my sinful “nature”, I was quite perplexed.
I have come to believe that this “confession” spoken of is more of a sincere acknowledgment of a specific thought and/or act that is unworthy and unrighteous that we first discern, then accept responsibility for our poor response ability, and acknowledge to ourselves and to God within that there is a change of mind needed and a new will to learn and grow by this “confession”.
Too often in churches one need only publicly confess or do so to a priest to be “absolved” and yet for many such an act brings no true contrition or change. Confession without change is not confession as described in the UB. It is the discernment for a need for change that makes our acknowledgement/confession a moment of transformation, progress in spirit, and transcendence from material attachment.
Or so I think.
Great harmony in this choir of voices. Just read other’s posts after mine went up. We were all writing at the same time…hahaha! Well said by all.
Great harmony in this choir of voices. Just read other’s posts after mine went up. We were all writing at the same time…hahaha! Well said by all.
Yes, indeed, this is wonderful. It is very validating for me to learn that others here view this subject similarly and in a way that matches my own perceptions of TUBs teachings about sin and confession. Being able to acknowledge our disloyalty and then to take action to change it for the better is very different than attending a church service or going into a tiny stall and admitting some small wrongdoing and then going away feeling absolved, yet changing nothing.
But there is some value in absolution. Not everyone is confident that they’ve made the proper changes, or realignments. Some people need their thinking validated by others. Don’t get me wrong though. I don’t think there are any combinations of magical words that can be said to absolve someone else of their sins. It’s all about sharing the experience with others, openly admitting guilt and having someone else acknowledge your contrition as valid. I don’t think everyone needs this, but there are some weak souls who are helped by it. It can be comforting, in a way.
But there is some value in absolution. Not everyone is confident that they’ve made the proper changes, or realignments. Some people need their thinking validated by others. Don’t get me wrong though. I don’t think there are any combinations of magical words that can be said to absolve someone else of their sins. It’s all about sharing the experience with others, openly admitting guilt and having someone else acknowledge your contrition as valid. I don’t think everyone needs this, but there are some weak souls who are helped by it. It can be comforting, in a way.
Bonita, this is very insightful; thank you. I have not thought of it that way, but what you posted does make sense to me.
What about the fact that “nothing of value is ever lost”?
are memories valuable? Many seem to be tattooed to our brains and effort to erase them are futile if not damaging. I think that learning to co-exist in peace is what Jesus would like us to do.
Sometimes I think we make a conscious effort to hang on to memories but other times I think they remain for a reason – they have value, even if they are ugly.
so where are valuables being stored?
Personally, I don’t think ugly memories will have value after we leave our mortal bodies. They have value while we continue on earth, because unpleasant memories serve as a deterrent for making the same mistake over and over again. But after we pass through death of our physical bodies, my interpretation of TUB is that only those memories that are spiritually or intellectually edifying will remain in our conscious awareness. Although, who really knows since we have no experience of the morontia existence.
Just a personal anecdote, when I think of whether or not it is good to have memory, I think of a situation in my town where a mother accidentally left her baby in the car on a hot summer day and returned hours later to find her child dead. I pray for her sake that her memory of that horrible day can be erased from her, while not in this life, hopefully when she continues her ascension career. I cannot imagine having to live with such a memory for all eternity ….
But the mother in your town did not sin. At least I like to believe she only was negligent and had no desire to kill her baby. Guilt about mistakes – does it differ fro guilt from conscious deliberate sin? Maybe after repentance?
Keryn wrote: . . . only those memories that are spiritually or intellectually edifying will remain in our conscious awareness.But some of the worst experiences in life bring the greatest rewards spiritually. There are many mistakes I have made over the years that I never want to forget. We’re supposed to learn to “fatten upon disappointment” (26:5.3). I think that includes disappointment in ourselves, our own erroneous reactions to life’s vicissitudes.48:7.14 The greatest affliction of the cosmos is never to have been afflicted. Mortals only learn wisdom by experiencing tribulation.I think it’s safe to say that some tribulations can be of your own making. It’s good to hold onto these memories, in my opinion. And I think you almost have to if you are to claim that you’ve gained wisdom by going through them. The wisdom contains the experience within it, either negative or positive, it doesn’t matter. I think negative experiences actually offer more opportunities for wisdom and growth. At least, looking back over the decades of my life, I can say it is true for me. I want all of those rememberies because they are an organic part of who I am.Bonita,
I agree with what you posted, and I agree those memories are important during our mortal existence, but I honestly do not see how remembering tribulations of our earthly existence can be of value on the Mansion Worlds and beyond. Yes, having these experiences that cause bad/ ugly/ unpleasant memories yields wisdom to us in this life, and we retain that wisdom after we leave here (“nothing of value is lost”). But the actual memory of the time I hit my sister out of anger when I was 9 years old? I see no value in remembering that when I move on after death; only the wisdom it created in me when I learned that deliberately making my sister cry made me sad inside and to acknowledge that I had done wrong and not to do it again.
These quotes from TUB express what I am trying to say much better than I can.
(1235.1) 112:5.19 3. When these prerequisites of repersonalization have been assembled, the seraphic custodian of the potentialities of the slumbering immortal soul, with the assistance of numerous cosmic personalities, bestows this morontia entity upon and in the awaiting morontia mind-body form while committing this evolutionary child of the Supreme to eternal association with the waiting Adjuster. And this completes the repersonalization, reassembly of memory, insight, and consciousness — identity.
(1235.2) 112:5.20 The fact of repersonalization consists in the seizure of the encircuited morontia phase of the newly segregated cosmic mind by the awakening human self. The phenomenon of personality is dependent on the persistence of the identity of selfhood reaction to universe environment; and this can only be effected through the medium of mind. Selfhood persists in spite of a continuous change in all the factor components of self; in the physical life the change is gradual; at death and upon repersonalization the change is sudden. The true reality of all selfhood (personality) is able to function responsively to universe conditions by virtue of the unceasing changing of its constituent parts; stagnation terminates in inevitable death. Human life is an endless change of the factors of life unified by the stability of the unchanging personality.
(1235.3) 112:5.21 And when you thus awaken on the mansion worlds of Jerusem, you will be so changed, the spiritual transformation will be so great that, were it not for your Thought Adjuster and the destiny guardian, who so fully connect up your new life in the new worlds with your old life in the first world, you would at first have difficulty in connecting the new morontia consciousness with the reviving memory of your previous identity. Notwithstanding the continuity of personal selfhood, much of the mortal life would at first seem to be a vague and hazy dream. But time will clarify many mortal associations.
(1235.4) 112:5.22 The Thought Adjuster will recall and rehearse for you only those memories and experiences which are a part of, and essential to, your universe career. If the Adjuster has been a partner in the evolution of aught in the human mind, then will these worth-while experiences survive in the eternal consciousness of the Adjuster. But much of your past life and its memories, having neither spiritual meaning nor morontia value, will perish with the material brain; much of material experience will pass away as onetime scaffolding which, having bridged you over to the morontia level, no longer serves a purpose in the universe. But personality and the relationships between personalities are never scaffolding; mortal memory of personality relationships has cosmic value and will persist. On the mansion worlds you will know and be known, and more, you will remember, and be remembered by, your onetime associates in the short but intriguing life on Urantia.
The discussion reminded me to this:
154:6:8 Mary and Jesus’ brothers thought that Jesus did not understand them, that he had lost interest in them, little realizing that it was they who failed to understand Jesus. Jesus fully understood how difficult it is for men to break with their past. He knew how human beings are swayed by the preacher’s eloquence, and how the conscience responds to emotional appeal as the mind does to logic and reason, but he also knew how far more difficult it is to persuade men to disown the past.I am grateful for the ups and downs of life. All if it contributes to where I am now and going forward.:5:13 8. Is unselfishness — the spirit of self-forgetfulness — desirable? Then must mortal man live face to face with the incessant clamoring of an inescapable self for recognition and honor. Man could not dynamically choose the divine life if there were no self-life to forsake. Man could never lay saving hold on righteousness if there were no potential evil to exalt and differentiate the good by contrast.Self-forgetful caught my eye.
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