The Role of Conscience in Belief (Part 1)

 

 

 

This is Part 1 of an article, by Dale Ratzlaff, that originally appeared in the  Jan/Feb 2002 issue of Proclamation!

I have received dozens of calls from people transitioning out of Adventism. These people know about many of the problems of SDA doctrine and have decided to leave Adventism. Yet, at the same time, they have great difficulty in making a full transition to a community Christian church. While their conscience on the one hand is driving them from Adventism, yet on the other their conscience keeps them from going all the way. Only those of us who have made this journey can fully understand the trauma involved. I have taken one chapter out of The Recovering Adventist, a book I am writing, and include a modification of it here. It is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will use this study of God’s Word to help every reader come to grips with the very important issue of conscience. To bring some of the issues into focus, respond to these true or false questions:

 

T / F Our conscience is always a safe guide to lead us into truth.

T / F Due to education and environment our conscience can be misinformed.

T / F We should always follow our conscience.

T / F It is O.K. to go against our conscience when it is misinformed.

T / F It is O.K. to go against our conscience as long as one does not do it too often.

T / F Refusing to look at evidence has nothing to do with our conscience.

 

What is the conscience? Here are some short one-liners on the lighter side.

 

• Conscience is what hurts when everything else feels good.

• The greatest tormentor of the human soul is a guilty conscience.

• A guilty conscience keeps more people awake than coffee.

• Nothing brings more joy, peace and satisfaction than a clear conscience.

• If a sermon is going to prick the conscience, it must have sharply defined points.

 

Conscience is the moral judging faculty of the mind

I believe our conscience functions in three ways: First, it is a judge telling us that what we have done is either good or bad. Second the conscience acts like a starter and causes us to take action to do something that we ought to do. Third, conscience sometimes functions as a break to keep us from doing what we believe to be wrong. An illustration will help.

My father died when I was ten years old and left me his carpenter hand tools. Those were the days before power tools were widely in use. I vividly remember when some years later I decided to sharpen the hand saw. My father’s tools included a little triangular shaped file, a clamp-type vice to hold the saw while it was being sharpened, and a saw set, a complicated little tool which would slightly bend a saw tooth so that saw would not bind. I knew nothing about sharpening a saw, but I didn’t see any reason why I could not do it. So I started. I filed and filed. Then I thought I had better set the saw. Not knowing what I was doing or even how to adjust the saw set, I started bending every other tooth.

When I got done, I envisioned a smooth, sharp, easy-cutting saw. Not so! It was worse than before I had started to sharpen it. So I did it all over again. This time it was worse yet. Not being one to give up easily, I tried again. Now, it would not cut at all. I had filed some teeth more than others so some of them were too short and did not even touch the wood while others were too long and gouged the wood. The set of the saw was not even. In desperation I decided that I had better take the saw to a person who knew what he was doing. Down the road a few blocks from our house was a saw shop. I walked down to this shop and presented him with my saw and simply said, “Would you please sharpen this saw?” He looked at it inquisitively, held it up to his eye and looked down the row of teeth and said, “Whoever filed this saw last sure didn’t know what he was doing.” Then he began telling me all the things that “this person” had done wrong.

I was not prepared for his next words. “By the way,” he said, “who was the dumb idiot who tried to sharpen this saw?” I did not want to be that dumb idiot, so I said, “Some guy that lives down the road a few blocks!” Then, wouldn’t you know it, he said, “What’s his name?” I blurted out, “I don’t remember.” and got out of there as fast as I could!

I had my mother pick up the saw when it was ready as I never wanted to see this man again. But every day on the way to school, guess what we drove by? Right. And every day on the way home from school, guess what we went by? Right again. Twice every day, guess what this thing called conscience was doing to this eighth grade boy? Right. Finally, I decided it would be better to confess my lie than to be stabbed twice a day!

In this illustration, we see the conscience first acting as a judge: “You told a lie and that was wrong.” Then it operated as a starter. “You better go and confess your lie.”

Conscience is something we get as standard equipment at birth. In Romans 2, Paul speaks about Gentiles who don’t even know the law yet have the law written on their hearts. Their consciences alternately accuse or else defend them. Anthropologists have found that in every culture there are prescriptions against murder, incest, untruth, sexual excess, and there are obligations of parents to their children and children to their parents.¹ There seems to be in every person some innate conscience based upon what we call “natural law” which tells us if we are doing right or wrong.

Our social and religious training, however, also influences conscience. In 1 Corinthians 8 Paul speaks about a “weak conscience” which is lacking in knowledge. So our conscience is a very complex thing. It is the moral judging faculty of the mind and it makes its decisions based upon a certain innate, God given sense of right and wrong coupled with our social and religious training. Because of its complexity we must ask ourselves some very penetrating questions.

If our social and religious training can influence the conscience, then is it possible that some people may have an incorrectly or incompletely educated conscience? Take, for example, the intense hatred of the Jews that is present in children who grow up in a radical fundamentalist Moslem home. If the conscience can be educated incorrectly, then can the conscience always be trusted to be a safe guide? Logically we have to conclude, “No.” This, however, leads us to the next most difficult question. If the conscience cannot always be trusted, should it always be followed? Now we find ourselves in a dilemma. If the conscience is the moral judging factor of the mind, and if it is educated incorrectly, it has no way of knowing the inadequacy, and it is incapable of picking up the error. It is like asking someone, “What is it you do not know?” As a computer cannot process data to which it does not have access, so the poorly or incorrectly educated conscience could guide us in the wrong way. This leads us to our first conclusion.

 

Our moral database may be deficient.

Most of us do not want to admit to this, but it is a truth of Scripture, and it is proved in experience. We can see it in the lives of others, but we have a hard time believing it is true for us. Underline in your thinking the next sentence. Recognizing the possibility that our moral database may be deficient is often the first step out of spiritual bondage.

Once we recognize that our moral database may be deficient, then we can do something about it. That is one of the many reasons for continued personal Bible reading, regular church attendance and involvement in small group Bible studies. These activities should be in settings where true inductive study is done and where people are free to kindly challenge the blind spots of erroneous thinking in one another. There should be openness to the Holy Spirit and a willingness to follow truth when it is received.

An incorrectly educated conscience may have two results. First, it may often cause false guilt. Many “Formers” who grew up on Ellen White’s writings can attest to this.² A second result of an incorrectly educated conscience is that we may be doing things with a clear conscience that are actually wrong.³

Now we come to a very important question. Should we always follow our conscience? Let me share with you another illustration from my personal experience. I mentioned earlier that my father died when I was 10 and my mother then supported our family as a schoolteacher. As the years went by, the school children began to get on her nerves. After my sophomore year in academy, my mother took a year off from school teaching to regain her health. I dropped out of school that year and worked full time to support our family. I worked at a large chicken ranch near Napa, California, which had about 18,000 laying hens. Because of my religious upbringing and my own personal Bible study, my sincere belief was that I should not work on Saturday which I knew to be the Sabbath. I made an arrangement with this chicken rancher to have Sabbath off and work Sundays instead. I enjoyed the work, felt I was doing a good job, and this rancher liked my work. After I had been there several months, one Friday evening he called me and asked me to work the next day, which was Sabbath, to fill in for someone who was sick. I told him I could not, because it was my Sabbath and the Bible said that the seventh day was the Sabbath and on that day one should not do any work. The next Sunday, I went to work as usual. However, that evening just before I checked out, he handed me a check and said that he could not use me anymore because he had to have someone who was willing to work when he needed him. I distinctly remember my conscience telling me that I had done what was right. I had been taught that losing one’s job or even one’s life was better than to work on the Sabbath which I viewed to be a direct violation of God’s moral law. I followed my conscience. I felt no guilt. My conscience commended me for my decision.

Did I do what was right? Your answer will doubtless depend upon your own religious training and what is in your moral database! We could turn this into a discussion about correct Sabbath keeping, but that is not our topic. Coming back to the key question: Should we always follow our conscience? To answer this important question let us do some Bible study. Did Paul always follow his conscience?

 

“Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, ‘Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day.’” Acts 23:1

“In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men.” Acts 24:16

“For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you.” 2 Cor. 1:12

“But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” 1 Tim. 3:9

“but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.” 1 Tim. 1:5

I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day,”
2 Tim. 1:3

“I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit.” Rom. 9:1

“and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.” 1 Pet. 3:16

 

From these verses we derive our second ­conclusion:

 

We should always follow our conscience

We should always follow our conscience provided it has not been previously “seared” by repeatedly going against the known will of God. At this point, however, many questions arise. If the conscience may be educated incorrectly—and it can be—are we sure we should always follow our conscience? Could an incorrectly educated conscience lead us to do the wrong thing? What happens when we follow our conscience wanting to do right, thinking we are doing right, when in fact we are doing wrong because our conscience database is either incomplete or programmed with error?

It is clear from the verses listed above that Paul always kept a clear conscience. This was true not only after his conversion but also before it. Note again Acts 23:1

 

“Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, “Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day.”

 

But does the fact that Paul had a clear conscience mean that he always did the right thing? Absolutely not.

 

“I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. In my obsession against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them. On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied.” Acts 26:9–15

 

These verses show that Paul had a clear conscience when in fact he was going 180 degrees away from truth. Note carefully his conclusion. Here we find the answer to our question: What happens when we set out to do right, think we are doing right, when, because of an improperly educated conscience we do the wrong thing?

 

“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.” 1 Tim. 1:12–15

 

God looked at Paul’s heart and there he found a man who had determined to always do what he believed to be right. And God said, “I can use a man like that,” so God called Paul and filled him with His Spirit which enlightened him because God knew that Paul would always be true to his conscience.⁴

This is not an isolated teaching. In Acts 3:17 we read,

 

“Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.” Like Paul, many of the Jewish leaders acted in ignorance (from an inadequately educated conscience), so God enlightened them on the day of Pentecost. Then, after they had received the Holy Spirit, we read, “and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.”

 

This principle is clearly stated in Acts 17:30.

 

“In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.”

 

We must, however, make a clear difference between those who habitually seek to do God’s will as they understand it and those who previously have seared their conscience by not following the known will of God. Here is our fourth conclusion. 

 

When we follow our conscience thinking we are doing right yet because of an inadequately educated conscience we do the wrong thing, God overlooks our ignorance and will enlighten us.

 

¹Tenny, Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. 1, p. 947.

²For example Ellen White said, “It is a s in to be sick.” Health Reformer, 1866-08-01; “Displaying photographs of Family pictures is “a species of idolatry.” Review and Herald, 1907-06-13; “The many, many photographs in your houses are a dishonor to God. They bear silent witness that you have backslidden from righteousness. I look to heaven and cry, ‘Lord, how long shall this evil divert means from thy treasury?’” Review and Herald, 1901-11-26. “There will be no place for outward adornment in the sanctified heart…” Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 1, p. 162; “It is a sin to forget, a sin to be negligent.” Bible Eco, 1901-01-14. Anyone who has seriously read EGW can multiply this list a hundred fold.

³It is my belief that God enlightens the conscience of every person born into the world (Jn. 1:9, Rom. 2:14,15). Those who end up becoming evil (Like some of the Terrorists) have repeatedly gone against their God-given conscience until it was “seared”(1 Tim. 4:2). Then, continuing in a wrong way, they came to believe they were doing right.

⁴I recognize that this may be an oversimplification of a complex issue considering that God chose Paul from his birth.