Why don't Reformed Christians consider it necessary to confess to a priest? Reformed Christians, like Presbyterians differ from the Catholic and Orthodox Church in their understanding of forgiveness of ones' sins. One way in which they differ is not having the sacrament of Penance.
Why don't Reformed Christians consider it necessary to confess to a priest?
Firstly, penance was rejected at the time of the reformation because the doctrine was based on a mistranslation of the Greek word metanoia - &quot;repentance&quot;. The Latin Vulgate had, poenitenitam agite - &quot;doing acts of penance&quot;. Martin Luther was the one who originally made this discovery.
Secondly, although James 5:16 says &quot;confess your sins to each other&quot;, the New Testament does not contain anything to do with confessing to a priest or doing penance for confessed sins. Protestants believe that confession is something which is a good thing to do in the Christian community, individually and corporately, but it is not something which believers have to do to a priest. Which leads onto...
Thirdly, there is an important difference between Protestant understandings of priesthood and the sacraments. For example, Protestants would reject a pastor being a &quot;priest&quot; (because of the priesthood of all believers, e.g. 1 Peter 2:9 &quot;you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood&quot;. In the Church of England, the word 'priest' was retained but only inasmuch as it is derived from a medieval contraction of the Greek word presbyter - elder). Protestants also believe in only two sacraments - the Lord's Supper and Baptism (e.g. 39 Articles, article XXV).
In sum, to answer the question properly you really have to explore the much bigger difference of priesthood in Catholic and Protestant understandings as well as the Sacraments, Scripture and Tradition. And, because repentance is such a big part of the Christian life, it goes even further back to what Catholics and Protestants believe about the Christian life (e.g. sanctification and justification). So it's no small question!