I am just doing a little private study on the origins of confession. I know that John the Baptist encouraged people to confess their sins so they could be closer to the Kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew). But was there anything of confession in the Old Testament?
The four gospels give lots of advice of how one is meant to behave and the odd piece of advice about that it is better to loose a limb than your whole body go to hell. That is sort of punishment. But how do I begin to find how the anglican church reached the point of how they deal with confession today? I personally use the private confession as I find it a very good place to talk about issues you wouldn't otherwise discuss. I feel cleaner for doing so. I know I am one of the very few in our own parish which does concern me slightly but I can understand why people don't go to confession. Their outward argument is that why should a priest listen to their sins? For me it helps that a preist is listening to my sins and can give advice. It hopefully makes me a stronger person. But anyways. How did it all start because confession in the Old Testament doesn't seem to really appear. God rewarded and God punished but confession is more than punishment. It is about saying sorry to God. Any hints where I can look up passages within the Bible.