Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Salvation: Just click and confess

I was reading a blog and came across this article that was very disturbing to me. Salvation: Just Click and Confess! WHAT??

There is actually a web site that you can go to and confess your sins. Apparently there are others that are similar in nature. I guess that I must live in some kind of a bubble, because I did not know anything about this. According to the article a church created this web site and they have received some negative comments for it too.

Once I read the article, I thought about what confession really is. Is it only me saying what I did wrong so I will feel better about myself? Of course not! Confession should be connected to repentance. I suppose many people are just trying to feel better and getting their sins out, anonymously, is the best way of doing that (or so they may think). But true repentance is the only way to have forgiveness. Spurgeon says this about repentance:

There must be a sorrow for sin and a hatred of it in true repentance. A discovery of iniquity and a hatred of it, without which there can be no repentance.

I am not sure if that is what is going on. I know that not all who go to the site are believers in Jesus Christ, but shouldn't they be told what true repentance is and that there is no forgiveness outside of Christ! 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 Says: As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. 10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

"They are not confessing to God, but a computer."

Another sad aspect of this is that the site is visited by more people who just want to read about what other people have done wrong. How twisted are we when the sins of other people become a form of entertainment to us! According to the article:

"So far, more people are reading the confessions than posting them. The site gets about 1,000 hits a day, with about 200 online admissions."

I am glad that this web site can reach out to people who probably would never enter church or who have been abused and need help. It just all seems a little odd to me. I pray that they are being told the truth by someone through their confession time. That they would produce the godly grief that would lead them to salvation.

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