When do you confess to authorities and when do you confess to God?

I read an article recently about Pastor Andy Savage who sexually assaulted a student 20 years ago. He tried coming out with a book about marriage and the victim emerged and the publisher dropped him. No files were charged but his life was ruined and the Pastor has resigned and completely disappeared from social media and everything else.

I had an incident that happened to me in 1995 that I just thought of because of this article and so much recent news. I think I did something illegal 24 years ago and now it's bothering me. Nobody got hurt but my conscience is bothering me.

If you did something illegal in your past, even if it's little, would you confess to the proper authorties or just take it to God and your pastors and get counseling?

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/sexual-misconduct/tennessee-pastor-andy-savage-resigns-weeks-after-admitting-sexual-incident-n858541

Hi Hank: Welcome to the Forum:

My first thought is to bring this matter to your pastor if you feel God is having you confess this to another man.

The world is unforgiving, the Church in many situations operates after the spirit of the world and it has no forgiveness or proportion to evaluate someone's sin in light of their own, regardless of open repentance and a changed life.

Moses himself would be removed from the ministry in our day. The family and relatives of the Egyptian he killed would have filed charges, accused him of a crime, he would have pleaded guilty and the religious world would have denounced him, defrocked him and jailed him...and his judges would have been proud to do so.

Confession, repentance and God play no part in the minds of so many who are willing to destroy anyone that gives them a bad reputation or a bad image.

If genuine repentance and confession has been made toward God, the only thing left is restitution if it can be done. In many cases it cannot be done.
How can I restore the lost years of my teen friends who I got involved in drugs when was a dealer in high school?

Your post is too vague to give much good counsel regarding the incident, your detailed confession to a trusted man of God will yield a better counsel in my opinion.

God bless you bro in your desire to make things right. Before I knew the Lord I once had done an unlawful thing and years after I came to the Lord I became concerned about it and spoke with my spiritual elder at the time. He gave me sound advice and I contacted law enforcement and things worked out well. That may not be the way you will be lead but whatever happens I concur with the advice given here of speaking with your pastor first or with someone you respect as an elder. The Lord is with you and for you.

If you did something illegal in your past, even if it's little, would you confess to the proper authorties or just take it to God and your pastors and get counseling?

If your conscience is bothering you I would get the matter set straight with authorities right away, you know what you need to do, you don't need counsel.

I speak from experience, I had cheated on my taxes prior to conversion by not reporting some income. The Lord brought it to my attention and I was convicted, I knew what I needed to do. I filed an amended return with a letter describing what I had done. They were gracious in that they imposed no additional interest on the amount that I owed. It was not easy to do but I can tell you there was joy in the obedience.

In Christ,

Before I came to Christ 20 years ago, I did many wicked things of which I am now ashamed and deeply regret. I came to Christ while in prison in 1998, and got out in 1999. In 2006 I got married and my wife and I have two beautiful children whom we are trying to raise in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

The thought of going to the authorities after all these years to confess things for which I did not get caught has crossed my mind as a believer. But in my case all those things may be too numerous and too long ago to even remember all the exact specifics. And the thought of ending up in prison again and losing my family and not being able to provide for them has caused me to dismiss any thoughts of going to any authorities to confess the numerous things I did not get caught for as a wretched and vile sinner.

I appreciate Marvin's encouragement regarding the case of Moses not confessing his crime to the Egyptian authorities and God using him mightily despite his past.

Another example that comes to mind is that of David. After he committed adultery and murder, God could have commanded him to dethrone himself and to turn himself over to the authorities in Israel so that he would have been stoned to death. Yet we see that God forgave him upon his repentance. God had mercy on him not only in terms of inward cleansing but also in terms of outward, temporal mercies, though he did have to suffer certain temporal consequences on account of his sin.

I fully agree with Ron, if it's a civil matter you need to go to the authority. If it's a civil matter that also involves people, you need to make restitution and ask their forgiveness, and place yourself under their mercy as to whether they want to take it to the authority. But if it's a sin committed toward God without harm done to anyone or violation to the civil law, then you need to confess it only to God.

If you go to your elders in regards to something the Holy Spirit is bringing to your conscience, you may not get the right answer. There is so little conviction in the church and if the elder himself is living in sin, he will not see it as a big deal.

I remember when I was saved God brought an instance to my mind that happened many years ago.
When I was about 5 years old I was in our neighbor's house and lifted a pillow and found some money, took the equivalence of 25 cents and bought candy. No one ever knew and I completely forgot about it till that moment when the Holy Spirit brought it to my conscience decades later. I had to contact my mother in the country of my birth and ask her to go to our neighbors and tell them what happened, ask their forgiveness and return what was stolen. With God there is no big sin and small sin.

Wish you the best

Thanks to everyone who responded. I really appreciate that and feel much better. This is probably the best biblical advice I have received in a long time. I don't really have a 'good' church that I'm attending right now, since moving, but I spoke with a Christian therapist and he was more interested in how I am today.

Before you think the worst :), something basically happened 24 years ago in high school but there were no victims. It was all consensual but in light of so much real news and fake news, I got freaked out. Plus, I wouldn't want to shame anybody. Everybody is married with children now and this was all we knew at the time. Nobody knew better. This is more of a personal issue with myself.

I guess the real question is that, Have I forgiven myself, have let God deal with me, have I learned from it? The enemy knows how sensitive my mind is and has had a field day with it. All I hear is lies and that I'm a monster and everybody should know I'm a monster and not the Godly man before them.

The real issue after a few days of meditating on the scriptures you guys gave me and thinking about what happened is: How do I stop these fiery darts that keep penetrating?? What's in the past is in the past and I was a stupid high school unchurched, unsaved, ungodly kid. Thank God he is the real Judge.

This was so good man. This wet my appetite to read the Word more. I really lack that but this is exactly why my mind should be grounded. Otherwise, the devil runs a muck in my mind and I think the worst. Thank you. So on point! Never thought about this.