The final step in considering the use and presentation of a religious exemption in the face of mandates is the sanctity of the conscience. The conscience is that inner voice or guide you at times “hear” telling you the rightness or wrongness of a decision or action. It is at times illustrated as the picture of the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other shoulder. Your conscience resides in your spirit (note the uncapitalized “s”), which is the place where God’s Spirit communes and resides in you (Romans 8:16). So, when a person says, “Let your conscience be your guide”, that can be good advice IF His Spirit resides in your spirit. (If your conscience is broken, defiled, or weak, then we have problems.)
When Luther was mandated to recant his teachings at the Diet of Worms, he said, “I cannot and will not recant anything. To go against one’s conscience is neither right nor safe. My conscience is BOUND to the Word of God, I can do no other.” Your conscience is absolute hallowed space. It is sacrosanct. It is sacred space. You cannot be forced to violate your conscience as it is bound to the Scriptures and to the Holy Spirit who illuminates those Scriptures to be applied to your life. What this means in short is that the State has no authority or right to leap over the jurisdictional boundaries of your conscience. The State is not lord of all.
Now in making the appeal to conscience there are at least 3 keys from which the appeal is based and formulated.
1. The Conscience is Complicated but Essential.
In our antinomian age, we hear little concerning the need and function of conscience. We rarely teach on it; yet it is the place many times of God’s greatest leadership and dealings.
Pray for us; for we are confident that we have a good conscience, in all things desiring to live honorably.
Hebrews 13:18 NKJV
The Hebrew writer connects the conscience to ALL THINGS. There is no arena or subject of life that the conscience may not speak to. It may have to deal with convictions or priorities. It most certainly would have something to say in the area of health and medicine. How many people do we all know that have health, fitness, and medicine convictions? How many people make decisions daily as to what food will or will not go into their bodies? Reasons can vary, but foundational it is linked to a conscientious standard of living. Untold thousands of decisions in people’s lives are made daily based purely on conscience. This is an essential and non-negotiable aspect of personal freedom.
For the Christian, it is also the place for the “divine alarm”.
Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
John 8:9 NKJV
The conscience is the place where God speaks HIS right and wrong, HIS good and evil. To submit the conscience to the sole dictates of the State is at best dangerous and at worst, idolatry.
2. Our Era has Diminished the Value of a Good Conscience.
Our generation elevates the “soul” part of human-beings rather than the “spirit” part of our being. The soul is normally described as that part containing you mind (logic), your volition (will or choice), and your emotions (feelings). While the spirit is often described as that part which contains discernment, communion (with God), and conscience.
We live in a time which bases truth primarily in “feelings” (sometimes logic, but rarely), and consequently makes significant decisions solely on the basis of how they “feel” a situation should be addressed. Any guilt or conviction which runs afoul of a proclivity which “feels” normal is to be rejected. This is why perversion has swept our nation as people feel compelled to act or speak in a certain way with no regard to what God might say or direct. Since it is a personal “feeling”, and my feelings can never be wrong, therefore my actions and expectations must align with those feelings. Societally, we are ignoring our conscience which often times is bearing witness against the very thing we are being told is truth.
If we do not reject this relentless assault upon our consciences what will eventually happen is that our conscience will be “seared”. The Greek indicates a cauterizing which neutralizes its function.
Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron…
I Timothy 4:2 NKJV
3. The Sanctity of Conscience is being Challenged.
Because the conscience is such an essential part of our relationship to God, the devil makes every attempt through the world’s systems (The State and corporations), to sear and violate consciences so you will be more inclined to walk in their mandates. They are, in very real terms, attempting to pick off and capture weak consciences.
This is why Bible verses are quoted (incorrectly) to manipulate you into behavior and slavery which the WHOLE counsel of God prohibits. You are made to feel guilty (ie. I am not “loving” my neighbor) when in reality you have nothing to feel guilty about.
They have been consistently DEFILING our consciences for years.
To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.
Titus 1:15
Sadly, this appears to be a part of the cultural grooming which will need to take place in order for the antichrist to finalize his evil plans.
Then I saw another beast (This is the false prophet) coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. (False Pentecost?) And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image (To create a transhuman likeness) to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark (This is a “brand”, perhaps an inoculation mark?) on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.
Revelation 13:11-18
I regularly hear from church members concerned that their pastors are not demonstrating more leadership in this day. They say, “Pastors need to be more courageous”.
Yes, they do…
But they are legitimately concerned with people getting irritated and leaving. It affects lots of things in their life. They don’t want to offend people over human opinions or preferences if it can be avoided.
“Well, they should just trust God and do what’s right”, say the passionate church members zealous for sermons on individual liberty and conservative causes…
Yes, they should…
I think the pulpits of America could stand an infusion of courage and directness with less ambiguity…
That said…
The day has come for the whole Body of Christ to wrestle with conscience and courage…
Some of the same people who criticize their pastors for lack of courage, are rolling over easily when mandates touch their job, their paychecks, or career.
The day has arrived where we all are being touched and asked to be like Daniel…
This is what end times looks like folks…
The Chinese Church
The Russian Church
The Middle Eastern Church
The Afghanistan Church
They have all faced issues…
Now it’s our turn.
To just say NO.
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