Early Church Fathers on confession as essential sacrament

The post presents early Christian writings to show that sacramental confession existed from the first centuries. The Didache, dated to the first or early second century, commands Christians to confess sins in church before prayer and the Eucharist, citing Didache 4:14 and 14:1: "Confess your sins in church, and do not go up to your prayer with an evil conscience" and "On the Lord's Day gather together, break bread, and give thanks, after confessing your transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure."

Tertullian, writing around 203 AD in On Repentance chapters 8-9, describes exomologesis, a public confession before presbyters with the community interceding, and states: "Confession of sins lightens, as much as dissimulation aggravates them." Origen, around 248 AD in Homilies on Leviticus 2:4, speaks of the sinner declaring sin to a priest of the Lord to seek medicine: "The remission of sins through penance, when the sinner ... does not shrink from declaring his sin to a priest of the Lord and from seeking medicine."

The author argues that Protestants accept the authority of these Fathers on doctrine such as the Trinity but dismiss them on confession and other sacraments. The post lists further witnesses: Cyprian on priestly reconciliation, Basil on confession to those entrusted with God's mysteries. It asks whether readers are willing to encounter the early Church on its own terms rather than through modern denominational lenses.

The Orthodox Church, it says, calls people to receive the faith handed down through the apostles. The text includes a repeated section titled "QUESTION THAT CANNOT BE IGNORED" and an Arabic phrase meaning true faith.