The Role of Conscience in Belief (Part 2)

 

This is Part 2 of an article, by Dale Ratzlaff, that originally appeared in the  Jan/Feb 2002 issue of Proclamation! Read Part 1 here.

 

Next, we must ask, what happens if we go contrary to the known will of God and/or violate our conscience? Scripture leaves no room for doubt here.

 

“keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.” 1 Tim. 1:19

“But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.” 1 Tim. 4:1–2

“To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him…” Titus 1:15, 16

 

Acting contrary to our conscience causes ­spiritual disaster.

 

To illustrate how these four principles operate in real life, contrast two Bible characters: Paul and Balaam. God spoke directly to Balaam giving him a clear indication of His will (See Numbers 22:7, 12, 17, 20; 31:16.) Balaam had no deficiency in his conscience database. However, Balaam was not satisfied to do God’s will which was clearly revealed. He had his eye on the wages of divination so he began to compromise ever so slightly with God’s will. Then little, by little, he went further and further away from God’s side, until he was on the side of the enemy of God. His counsel led Israel into sin, which resulted in the loss of at least 24,000 lives.

Paul, on the other hand, did have a deficiency in his conscience database. However, he determined to always have a clear conscience and do what he believed to be right. He started out as a persecutor of the church, 180 degrees away from God’s intrinsic will. However, God saw his heart, realized Paul was acting in ignorance, and in grace and mercy, God enlightened Paul with His Holy Spirit. Paul repented of his error, and God revealed to him truths, which completed his conscience database. Paul continued to follow his conscience and his life influenced many millions to trust in Christ as their Savior.

God does not judge from outward appearance, but He looks on the heart, the conscience. And today He is looking for people who will always do what they believe to be right. If he finds them, he will overlook their ignorance, enlighten them with His Spirit and expand their ministry for Him.

But what happens to those who have a deficient moral database and refuse opportunities to correct this deficiency?

Notice how the religious leaders who listed to Stephen in Acts 7:54–58 responded.

 

“Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.… But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him…”

 

We concluded earlier that if our moral database is deficient causing us to do the wrong thing when we believe we are doing right, then God would overlook our ignorance and enlighten us. However—and this is an important however—if we refuse to look at the evidence that is within our reach and purposely close our mind to the facts, then this closed-minded attitude may also cause spiritual disaster. In great sorrow Jesus said to his generation “For the heart of this people has become dull, with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them.” (Matt. 13:15) Over and over again, Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” The closed-minded attitude expressed by the Jews cemented them into their rigid theology and they refused to look at the truth of Christianity. Later Paul described this attitude in these words:

 

“just as it is written, ‘God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not,’ down to this very day.” (Rom. 11:8)

 

This leads us to our fifth conclusion:

 

Refusing to study and look at the facts can be as dangerous as going against our conscience which can cause spiritual disaster.

 

I have a deep concern for two groups within Adventism. The first group can be represented by some who send letters to the Editor in Proclamation, and other SDAs I speak with on the phone. In essence many hundreds of the communications I have with Seventh-day Adventists can be summarized as, “We have the truth of the Adventist message, you have left Adventism, therefore we know you and the other writers for Proclamation are wrong and we won’t waste our time looking at your deceptive materials.”

By using this as an illustration I am not suggesting that Proclamation is the source of all truth. God and His Word alone can claim that. What concerns me, however, is that when so many honest SDA pastors leave Adventism, those who remain often do not want to know why they left. Rather, they are content to simply write off their former colleagues as “following the wiles of the devil.” Often they impute all kinds of evil motives on those who leave. Could this attitude of unwillingness to look at the biblical facts be the same as going against one’s conscience? Is this not the same spirit that was manifested by the Jews of Christ’s day? Of Jesus the Jews said,

 

“He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?” (Jn. 9:20)

 

In the recent Sabbath School Quarterly entitled “The Pillars of Our Faith” there is this troubling statement:

 

“As Adventists, we have more reason than ever to trust the prophetic message given to us to present to the world. We must close our ears and hearts to those among us who mock or deny our end-time scenario.” (p. 97, emphasis supplied)

 

It is not our desire to mock any Adventist teaching, but is it wrong to deny the validity of certain doctrines when there is abundant biblical evidence to do so? Is not the quote above similar to the cultic mentality expressed by Jehovah’s Witnesses and other cults who will not openly and honestly study with others “because they have the truth” and therefore “know others are wrong”? We believe it is a healthy activity to probe one’s beliefs to make sure they are built on the solid foundation of God’s word and not on the sands of assumption and proof-text hermeneutics.

A second group within Adventism that concerns me is pastors and administrators now serving in the SDA church who know that many—if not most—of the unique teachings of Adventism are not supported by honest Bible study. I have personally spoken with dozens of them. Yet, they pretend to go along with the party line so they won’t rock the boat. Many congregants have no idea that their pastor or conference administrator does not believe in a number of the “27 Fundamentals.” I know from experience how difficult this situation can be, and it is certainly not for me to judge. However, I do express a concern. Could this situation of pretending to believe something that one does not lead to a searing of one’s conscience? When I was faced with this dilemma, I, with two of my church elders, spent five hours with a leading Adventist theologian seeking some ground of reconciliation. He counseled me to tell my Conference President “what he wanted to hear” but to carefully choose my words so that I could put my own—different—interpretation on them. I believe this type of activity could be the first step leading one down the slippery slope of seared conscience. Martin Luther was right, and biblical, when he said that it is never safe for a man to go against his conscience.

 

In summary

1. Our moral database may be deficient.

2. We should always follow our conscience.

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

4. Acting contrary to our conscience causes spiritual disaster.

5. Refusing to study and look at the facts can be as dangerous as going against our conscience which can cause spiritual disaster.

 

For those of us who are reevaluating our belief system, I believe these are important considerations. These principles from God’s word will serve us well as we seek truth—Jesus Christ Himself.

I conclude with our motto which we take very seriously. “Truth needs no other foundation than honest investigation under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and a willingness to follow truth when it is revealed.” May God help us each to do this very thing!