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Barnes in Commonthe magazine of Churches Together in Barnes
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Pastoral Letterfrom Graham Pulham, Barnes Baptist Church'...and always let your conscience be your guide.' Discuss. It was one of the essays we were set at college. And the source of this well known quote? Christ or Confucius, the Bhagavad-Gita or the Upanishads? Actually it was Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney's Pinocchio. Vincent van Gogh likened conscience to a compass, stating that, '...though one perceives irregularities in directing one's course by it, still one must try to follow its directions'. Laudable though this may seem, the problem is that (and here we see the limitations of a purely secular conscience) magnetic north periodically shifts and it’s new position, though varying by only a few degrees, needs frequent verification. Where is the compass needle of our society pointing? What are the core values promoted by our centres of education, our political parties, the media, etc. What kind of individual and national conscience do we expect secular values alone to form and promote? Should we be as shocked as we are at the results we see around us? Unless properly shielded, compass needles are subject to any number of disruptions from competing magnetic fields. The Bible has much to say about conscience. It teaches us that the requirements of God's law are written on our hearts. A law to which our conscience bears witness (Romans 2:15). But conscience, like every other aspect of human nature, has been affected by our turning away from God – the source of all righteousness and truth. With its Shield stripped away it has deviated and become a flawed guide. Even the Apostle Paul can reflect on a time when he was 'convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth' (Acts 26:9). If the perverting of conscience lies at the heart of so many of our social and moral ills, then the cure for these ills will not be found in political, educational or social initiatives alone. Something far deeper, far more radical, is needed to bring about the restoration of our God-given guide. The Bible tells us how 'the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanses our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!' (Hebrews 9:14). In other words, when Jesus comes into our heart his life-changing overhaul includes the re-tuning of our conscience to its intended, God-given standard. Again and again the Bible links good faith with a clear conscience, and if conscience is God-given how could it be otherwise? What then the implications for a society that side-lines Christian assemblies in its schools and continually undermines Christian ethics in its striving after secular goals? Where will its disorientating compass lead us? As for my essay – I got an 'A'. Due, I suspect, to the fact that I had to re-submit it to a very apologetic tutor after he’d lost the original. The grade, I suspect, appeased a guilty conscience! |
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