Confession of Sin in the South African Churches

The practice of general confession of sins in South African churches, particularly within the Dutch Reformed Church (NG Kerk) and other Reformed traditions, has its roots in the 16th-century Reformation. Here is an overview of its history, with a focus on the shift to general confession as the norm. This stands in direct contrast to the detailed confession prescribed by the Lord in Leviticus 5, where sins had to be explicitly named to a priest as part of the Old Testament sacrificial system.