Every day, millions of precious people, hungry for God`s forgiveness of their sins, line up to confess their thoughts and failings to a priest. They try to forget that he, too, is a man, with the same lusts and weaknesses they have. They must push out of their minds the millions paid by their church to settle lawsuits when priests have acted like ordinary men, abusing the psychological power of the confessional to take advantage of those who trust them.

Lending the support of Scripture to this ancient pagan practice is a perversion of a Bible text, caused by the changing of a single word! James 5:16 says, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." The Greek word used here, paraptoma, is correctly translated faults. It refers to the wounds we cause one another by our careless deeds and unbridled tongues. It is only proper to confess and ask forgiveness from the person you have wronged.

But look at the way this verse is handled by the Jesuit English Roman Catholic bible, with the "explanatory note" they add:

Douay-Rheims, 1610 (pages 262-263):

"Ver. 16. Confess your sins one to another. That is, to the priests of the church, whom (ver. 14) he had ordered to be called for, and brought in to the sick; moreover, to confess to persons who had no power to forgive sins, would be useless. Hence the precept here means, that we must confess to men whom God hath appointed, and who, by their ordination and jurisdiction, have received the power of remitting sins in his name."

How can the Jesuits justify adding this note to their bible? By the changing of a single word! Using the corrupted Catholic manuscripts (which disagree with 95% of all historical textual evidence) they change the word paraptoma to hamartias, which means "sins" in general, including sin against God. Suddenly this verse shifts from the original meaning of asking your brother to forgive you for wronging him. Instead, it is twisted to suggest confession of all your sin to a man to obtain forgiveness!

When confronted with the Bible version controversy, too many Christians yawn and say, "It doesn`t matter which Bible you use. The general meaning is there." Yet word by word, the teachings of the Scriptures are being changed by men who think they can correct the very words of God.

At the end of Revelation, God gave His opinion of men changing His Word. "And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. (Rev: 22:19)

That doesn`t leave much room for "poetic license," does it?

Many died to preserve the true text of God`s Word. That text was compiled and handed down to us in what is known as the "Received Text," used by the translators of the King James Bible. Modern Bible translators have rejected the this text, choosing instead to use texts supplied by the one organization who worked harder to keep the Scriptures away from men than any other... the Roman Catholic Church.