Christian life issues, and ongoing
wickedness examined in the light of
the King James Bible

EDITOR:
Steve Van Nattan

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DOES MY CONSCIENCE AGREE
WITH THE WORD OF GOD?

A study in Bible teaching about the conscience,
including discussions about examining my
working conscience and whether or not
it tells me what the Holy Spirit is saying.

By Steve Van Nattan

PART ONE- YOUR CONSCIENCE
AND HOW TO HAVE THE MIND OF JESUS

The only guide to man is his conscience.
Winston Churchill
The question is, does God own
your conscience?

CAVEAT

When I was about fifteen years old, my parents were traveling back to the USA on furlough while serving as missionaries in Tanzania. We had a flight from Nairobi to London, and as we got over Sudan, it was the monsoon time of the rainy season. The pilot came on the intercom and said, "There are tropical storms ahead of us. There are too many of them for us to go around them, so we have to go through them. This will not be dangerous, but we will have some very rough falling and bouncing. So, tighten your seat belts, and please do not walk around until I give the all clear."

Did we bounce! If was like falling off a cliff as the plane hit pockets of thin air, and then once through that, the far side of the pocket was like hitting the sidewalk.

Be warned. The following discussion of the conscience of the Bible believer will be rough. But, it will not do you any permanent harm. Just promise me you will not black out and go into denial. There may be something here that God wants you to see.

I will tell you when it is all clear.

INTRODUCTION

Your conscience belongs to you and the Holy Spirit. You answer ONLY to God for what your conscience allows and does not allow. Your conscience is like your finger prints. No one else has a carbon copy of your conscience, and you must stop falling at the feet of any tyrant who demands that he be given power over your conscience, whether in your social life, your work place, in politics, or in your fellowship in the Lord's Church.

If you send me email and tell me you totally agree with everything I have written below, I will respond by rebuking you for not doing your own thinking. NO ONE on earth must totally agree with me. I have feet of clay, and what I am convinced of today I may soon learn from the Holy Spirit is a bad idea.

Consider this admonition from the Apostle Paul:

Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Paul is not telling you to work for your salvation. He is telling you that, beginning with your salvation, and continuing all your life, YOU are the one who answers for your mind, soul, and conscience. "Work out" in verse 12 is the Greek word "katergazomai" from which we get our English word "agonize." The arrest and maturing of your conscience is YOUR personal battle. Take that battle lightly, and all Hell will break loose in your life by and by.

This is what is called a long form article. The reason is that I believe everything here is part of the discussion of the Christian's conscience. There are today many delusions in the world and in society and politics. But worse, there are many delusions in local churches calling us to join the mob and run along waving both the flag and the Bible as tyrannical leaders and pastors scream slogans, labels, and accusations. We are all guilty at one time or another of letting our minds be called away from "work out YOUR OWN salvation" to follow a simple but very defective message.

If I sound like I am mad at you, please forgive me. I do not mean to give that impression. I simply do not want to see my friends who read here become robots or tyrants, not as Americans, but especially not as my brothers and sisters in Christ. I promise, I am not mad at you.

Finally, as with everything I write, I join the Apostle Paul and declare any reader "noble" who examines everything I teach by comparing it with the Word of God.

Acts 17:10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

I refuse to be your guru. I insist that you examine all things based on the Word of God. Now, if you examine what I teach by telling me, "That is not what Pastor __________ teaches," I will slap you up the side of the head with a wet shingle, well at least verbally. No one man has a corner on biblical truth, including me AND your pastor.

Please get ready to think for yourself, and ask the Holy Spirit for light.

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE TELL ME ABOUT MY CONSCIENCE?

1 Timothy 1:5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

Biblical use of the conscience:

Acts 24:16 And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.

Every person on earth has a conscience. It is the inner voice from God that tells us when we have done well and when we are an offense. The unsaved man only worries about offending other people. The Christian hears from his conscience about how he appears to Christ and his brother in Christ. God holds you responsible for what you do with your conscience. If it is defective, God expects you to find out why and make corrections.

When I was growing up in Africa, we had to deal with merchants from India who owned all the shops where we bought our supplies. They seemed to have no conscience to tell them when they were lying If you asked if they had a product, they would tell you it was on order or in their storage shed elsewhere in town. "Come back in a couple of hours, and I will have it waiting for you." They did not have it anywhere. As soon as you would leave, intending to come back later, the Indian told his kid to run all around town trying to find one of what you want from another merchant and buy it. The Indian could tell you he would find one, but he wants you to believe he actually has it in hand.

Do Indians even have a conscience?

J.P. Patel, in Nansio, had a conscience. He figured out that my Dad was very aggravated at the other Indians in town who lied to us all the time, and Patel decided to tell my Dad the truth. He would tell the truth even when it was to his disadvantage because he saw how it pleased Dad. Patel had learned that telling the truth was very good for business. My Dad would always go to him first to find supplies we needed. So, they have a conscience, but they learn to totally obliterate it in order to charm the customer. Here is the process which has been around for centuries.

1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

You must have seen a dog that rolls over and pees on itself whenever anyone comes up to it. That is a dog that has had his spirit totally destroyed by a cruel master. If you beat your conscience down often enough and long enough, your conscience will simply stop talking to you. It will be seared like a piece of meat left on the fire too long. Even the ungodly world can tell when a person has destroyed his conscience, and they will avoid them. There are people in the Lord's Church who whine to pastors, telling them that they have no friends. When I hear that, I am very suspicious that this person has no guilt when they offend people, and other Christians are avoiding them.

I must also warn you that some pastors are of such low morals that they WANT your conscience totally destroyed. This is so that you will finally be so crippled morally that you will only do what your pastor has allowed by way of his standards. This is what happened in First Baptist of Hammond, Indiana, Jack Hyles had so thoroughly destroyed the consciences of the people in the pew that they saw nothing immoral in Hyles' behavior with women and girls. The obsessive love affair, out in public, between the women in that church and Hyles, and the girls in the college, was vile. They virtually worshipped Hyles. He also took his private secretary with him on a trip to Hawaii to a pastors' conference..... without his wife along, and without the secretary's husband along. The leaders in the church, and the members, were so void of a conscience that no questions were asked.

If you let a pastor intimidate you until you hand him your conscience, you will also soon be addicted to porn and chasing women and ruining your marriage. This is an old pattern, especially in Baptist churches where pastors have no authority holding them accountable.

The Catholic Church at least finally catches up with pedophile and adulterous priests, but in Independent Baptist and nondenominational churches the pastor has no man on earth to whom he is accountable. Paul was accountable to the Apostles in Jerusalem, and he answered to the church leaders where he had planted churches. This is why some pastors become bullies and tyrants, and no power on earth can arrest them. They are lone wolves in sheep's clothing, as in Reverend Doctor Lobo.

How bad can it get?

Some of us remember Jim Jones, who was an American preacher and political activist. He led the Peoples Temple in Indianapolis, a new church movement, between 1955 and 1978. In what he called "revolutionary suicide", Jones and the members of his inner circle orchestrated a mass murder–suicide in his remote jungle commune at Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978. Jones gave his whole "church" following poisoned Kool Aid, and they died like flies. This is, or course, extreme, but Fundamental pastors can develop the same spirit as Jim Jones if they give place to the lust for absolute power.

You may be thinking I chose an extreme example that rational people would resist. President Jimmy Carter and his wife visited Jones' church, and they came away singing his praises. When you hang around a tyrant, you WILL eventually be deceived. And, in the context of our discussion in this article, that pastor will work your conscience until you submit. You will become filled with guilt if you do not become his slave.

IS MY CONSCIENCE TELLING ME WHAT
THE HOLY SPIRIT WANTS OF ME?

When am I in trouble?

I know enough to have a clear conscience, but I do not know enough to be sure the Holy Spirit agrees with me.

Perhaps the largest issue in the use of our God-given conscience is the tendency to deceive ourselves into thinking our conscience is clear. We have considered everything involved in some life choices, but we missed something. What we missed will lead to offenses toward God and toward our fellow Christian.

When I go to Elena's Mexican Restaurant, the dining room is often full, and I don't want the feeling of being packed too tight as I eat. So, I go into the Cantina, a second room that is for drinkers. If it is noontime, or afternoon when I often go, the Cantina is empty. So, let us assume you are eating in the restaurant also. What do your think of that? I need to ask myself about you, and if you would think poorly of me for eating in the Cantina, I would eat in the dining area or leave. But, if there is no one in the place that knows me, what does the Holy Spirit think about my choice. That is the question we seldom ask. If Jesus was with me in person, would he be comfortable eating in the Cantina. The fact that I have a clear conscience in the choice is not the last question I need to ask. When we do not finish the process of "let a man examine himself," we may offend our Lord.

I used this example because I want you to know that, like you, I still am processing some issues with my conscience. No one ever arrives at a point when the task is finished.

This section of this article is very short. That is because it is so simple that I feel stupid trying to say a lot more about it. It is also very simple to ask the old question, "What would Jesus do?"

 

Going to extremes

We are warned in the Bible to beware of the extremes of overmuch righteousness and overmuch wickedness.

Ecclesiastes 7:16 Be not righteous over much ; neither make thyself over wise : why shouldest thou destroy thyself?
17 Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish : why shouldest thou die before thy time?

Is Solomon telling us to not be too righteous or wise. Wisdom is highly recommended in this book of the Bible. The point here is that, if you become obsessed with righteousness, you will become self-centered and lose your closeness to the Savior of righteousness.

I have known many Christians who got saved, and then things in their life were shown to them by the Holy Spirit. But, some area of separation seemed to be left out, something that I had victory with, but that Christian did not. Could you mind your own business and let the Holy Spirit decide when to show the brother his need? If your righteousness is over much, and you are very pleased with it, you have added pride to your standards. This will make you perfectly worthless to your fellow Christians.

Like the preacher I heard who got up in a pastors' rally and said, "I thank God that pants have never touched my wife's legs." What a damned Pharisaical pest. Some preacher in the audience and his wife were saved later in life, and his wife wore pants for many years. Is she a lower valued Christian because of that? If you become obsessed with righteousness, you may well end up with a do-it-yourself Christian zeal and conscience. The end product is man made righteousness, and the Holy Spirit is not in the process.

Also, while you are busy finding ways to distinguish yourself as super righteous, what are you missing? I can assure you that your obsession is making you a lot less useful to God. And, you are simply NOT as righteous as you think you are. A truly righteous man does not notice his own level of righteousness.

This all involves your conscience. You are training your conscience to tell you, as time goes by, when you are heading in a profane of sinful direction. If you are obsessed with righteousness to distraction, you are missing other issues the Holy Spirit wants you to take care of in your conscience.

 

The world will tell me I am OK

When you have set a standard in your life that you intend to never violate, the advertising world will make no effort to win you over to their offerings. But, if you have not yet set a standard in some area, when the advertising is before you, you may start reasoning in favor of the thing. Friends who are backslidden, or fellow workers at work, are always eager to justify themselves in some sin by recruiting you to join them. When another Christian indulges in a sin, and when he claims to love the Lord, you can easily conclude that if he feels comfortable, it must be OK.

For example, you have determined you will never drink alcoholic beverages. When the advertising for liquor is before you in some magazine, you will totally ignore it. But, if you have not yet made up your mind about some sorts of drinking, you will look at the ad for wine. You will notice the charming lady, and you will feel comfortable simply noting that wine seems to go with good social gatherings. When you walk past the liquor section at the grocery store, you will notice how artistic the bottles are. The first step to Hell is to notice how lovely the neighborhood of Hell is landscaped. You are on your way, friend.

Your conscience is in peril as soon as you put off the verdict on anything. Once you decide what is holy and what is profane, you will have committed your mind to ignore temptation. While you linger at the verdict, the world will tell you that no standard is necessary. You can indulge in whatever the issue is, and every occasion of that thing will be easily decided at the time it happens. This is how to fry your conscience with reasoning and end up walking away from the Holy Spirit.

If you have an area of ethics or activity that is still pending for the verdict, how about getting on with it now? Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you about it from the Word of God.

WHAT SHALL I DO WHEN MY CONSCIENCE DOES NOT AGREE WITH
OTHER CHRISTIANS' CONSCIENCES?

Back to Elena's Mexican Restaurant. This time, you are my guest. If I know that you have been defeated by alcohol before you were born again, my conscience should tell me that you will not be helped by eating in the Cantina. I will not suggest it, and we will eat in the dining area. If you are a legalizer who has no alcohol problem, but you like to foist your legal system on other Christians, I will not take you to Elena's. I will take you to Dairy Queen and we will eat junk food. This is not because I feel the need to pamper your legalism. Your legalism it disgusting. But, I do not want to be judged by you in an area where I have liberty. Indeed, if your legalism gets involved in our friendship, I will simply avoid you.

But, there is the new Christian who has been given to all sorts of evil indulgence before he was converted to Christ. I must learn from the Apostle Paul the importance of taking responsibility for more than just my conscience. I must consider how I might lead my brother into backsliding as he sees my liberty.

1 Corinthians 8:4 As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.
5 For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)
6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
7 Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.
8 But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.
9 But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.
10 For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols;
11 And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?
12 But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.
13 Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.

The fact that I have no guilt when eating meat offered to idols is not the end of Christian responsibility. If you still see that meat as consecrated to idols, I MUST NOT invite you to violate your conscience which tells you it is wicked to eat that idol-blessed meat.

Back to Elena's Mexican Restaurant. If you have gained victory over alcohol after you were born again, I MUST NOT invite you to suspend your personal standard and eat in the Cantina. And, PAY ATTENTION SAINT, I must not chatter and talk about my liberty and how people drinking Margaritas around me does not bother me. It bothers you, and YOUR VICTORY is my top priority for the moment.

When a Christian tells me that Italian food is just not right without a glass of white wine, I know they do not have a clear conscience. They want to evangelize me to see if I will join them in approving of drinking wine. A Christian who has a clear conscience in some question of life will keep his big flap trap shut and keep it to himself.

One of the hardest things for Fundamental Baptist preachers to do is to accept the fact that the Holy Spirit does not deal with every saint the same way, and another saint may have life standards that the preacher does not share. I have learned, the hard way, that some of the sweetest fellowship I have had was with brothers who did not walk in my footsteps..... they walked in Jesus' footsteps.

Here is a man of whom, I must say, it is a good thing the prophet was not a Fundamental Baptist.

2 Kings 5:15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.
16 But he said, As the LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused.
17 And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD.
18 In this thing the LORD pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing.
19 And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.

Elisha sure was not a Baptist. Imagine that, not taking an offering.

But, what about Naaman's issue with the house of Rimmon? Would YOU have said, "Go in peace?" Or, would you have told Naaman that he needed to find another church to attend? Or, would you have told Naaman to go find a job where he does not have to compromise. OK, don't panic, I trust that you would have done the right thing. But, all too many preachers cannot hear from the Holy Spirit at such times, and their advice is all about what THEY want, not what the Holy Spirit wants. Don't forget, Naaman also asked for a load of Hebrew dirt to make a mound in his back yard where he could do sacrifice to Jehovah. There was NO doubt about Naaman's zeal for God.

1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

A deacon who quits smoking and cussing but still goes hunting on opening day of deer hunting on Sunday should bless your heart because of what he DID get right, NOT what he still needs to take care of. If you will control your Baptist instinct to supervise the saints' spiritual maturity, you will have some priceless surprises when saints with problems figure it out by applying what you teach from the pulpit. I know what I am telling you works because I have seen some amazing life decisions made by saints based on nothing but Bible teaching and the work of the Holy Spirit. But, I had to get my posterior out of the saint's face in order to see these blessings.

If you are a member of a local church, the same principle applies to you. Can you learn to keep your mouth shut with a new Christian when you realize he needs to get victory in some moral issue? If you butt in and start trying to "help him" understand how he is "not pleasing the Lord," you may drive him clear away from your fellowship. Or worse, he may rebel and reject you and the voice of the Holy Spirit. Pray for the man, and keep close to him so that you are there when he needs someone to ask questions on moral issues. Be a friend, not a cop.

 

It is the nature of sin to cause misery, and misery, as we all well know, loves company. It self-propagates to try to consume everything God has created. We have a duty to resist the evil, misery, and wickedness and bring praise upon our creator. Daniel Chauncey

WHEN I AM SURE MY CONSCIENCE IS CLEAR,
BUT THE HOLY SPIRIT DOES NOT AGREE

Quote:
"Beware when you know enough to be sure of yourself,
But you do not know enough to understand you are wrong."

King Saul was told by the prophet Samuel to go against the Amalekites and kill every living thing in Amalek. God did not want any chance of their filthy pagan religion to be restored in the future.

1 Samuel 15:1 Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD.
2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
4 And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.
5 And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.
6 And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
7 And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt.
8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
9 But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
10 Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying,

Saul knew the orders of Samuel as God had given them. His conscience had to tell him that he was not supposed to save the Amalekite king Agag, nor any of the animals. So, what did Saul change in his conscience that allowed him to disobey God?

1 Samuel 15:10 Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying,
11 It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.
12 And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.
13 And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD.

Saul's conscience came up with an alternate plan to the one God, through Samuel, gave him. You see below that it was a very religious plan. It would bring about a great worship service with sacrifices to God. Was God pleased with Saul's hybrid arrangements for his conscience?

14 And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
15 And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
16 Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.
17 And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?
18 And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
19 Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?

Saul now realizes that his version of a clear conscience, indeed, his notion that he could improve on obedience and substitute religious sacrifices for obedience, was defective reasoning. So, he lied. When you start buttoning your shirt wrong at the top, it will be wrong all the way down. Saul had to come up with a cover story for his defective version of obedience, so he just flat lied to Samuel.

20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

Finally, finding himself guilty of violence against the command of God, Saul gas lights the people who went to battle with him. This is the same thing Adam did in the Garden of Eden when God confronted him with his disobedience in eating the forbidden fruit. Adam said, Genesis 3:12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

My wife backslid. Since when do we sin to keep fellowship?

Saul's version of Adam's alibi:

21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
22 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

The end of the story is that God told King Saul that he would not be king anymore of Israel. The consequences of ignoring our conscience are tragic. Worse, it is a sad day when we consult our conscience and we conclude that we can disobey the Word of God if we substitute something very religious in place of simple obedience.

When someone decides their rock music is dishonoring to the Lord, should they sell it on eBay? They could give the money to God in the church offering, right? You see, we have the same logic of Saul with us today.

I heard Jack Hyles teach that, if we win enough souls to Christ, God will not punish and chasten us for willful sin. He titled the sermon, "Merits and Demerits." That notion is rank heresy. It may fly well with Hinduism and Catholicism, but it will not fool our holy God for one second. You cannot do religious or holy acts enough to escape the consequences of rebellion against God and his will. With Hyles, I had the distinct feeling that he was whistling in the dark. He had recently been accused of having an affair with his church secretary. His heretical teaching actually served to cause a lot of suspicion.

The key to being sure my conscience is one hundred percent in fellowship with God's will is to be in the Word of God daily so that the Holy Spirit can use the Word to speak to my conscience. Garbage in, garbage out. If I load my mind and soul up with rubbish from online and social media, and if I give my loyalty to ungodly men, I will not hear from the Holy Spirit. I am sure, from what I have seen, that the vast majority of Christians do not read the Bible once between Sundays. If that is you, you will ALWAYS get God's will wrong, and he will chasten you for it.

Do you want to saturate your mind and home with the Word of God? There is no substitute for reading the Bible. You must make time to read it. But, to raise the level of hostilities in the battle for your mind, I suggest you go to the YouTube site for Alexander Scourby reading the King James Bible, and play his videos while eating your meals or while just sitting at rest. THIS IS THE URL TO SCOURBY READING THE BIBLE. I do this regularly, and it is amazing how many things jolt my mind in areas where I need to make choices between the profane and the holy. Choose the "Voice Only" videos. The dramatized ones are distracting with background music.

If you simply consider Bible reading an interference, you are doomed to a mediocre life.

Hebrews 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

OUR CONSCIENCE AND THE VOICES WHICH SPEAK TO US

There are three voices that can speak to your conscience: The Holy Spirit, Satan, or the flesh.

 

The Holy Spirit speaks to us through our conscience.

The Holy Spirit is at war with Satan. Don't panic. Satan is God's fallen angel. God created Satan, and God knows how to defeat him every time.

The Holy Spirit is not shy about his eagerness to be the voice behind you saying, "This is he way, walk ye in it."

James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?

The Holy Spirit speaks to you when you are walking close to the Lord and when you pray to God for direction. Also, the Holy Spirit speaks through the Word of God as you regularly read it. The Holy Spirit also speaks to us through our conscience when we walk away from his will for us. The rest of this article tells you how to know that the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, and I show you how to tell when Satan or the flesh is speaking to you. Here are several Bible verses about the Holy Spirit's work with you that are pretty much self-explanatory.

Isaiah 30:20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:
21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
22 Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.

A Bible teacher who really studies and teaches, without bombast and mindless jabbering, is a great blessing. The Spirit led teacher will help you understand what various Bible texts mean. After that, you will hear from the Holy Spirit himself, as in Verse 21. Finally, as in Verse 22, you will be the one to throw away your fetishes and compromised thinking and actions. Please get this straight..... God wanted the average Hebrew to be the one saying, "Get thee hence." That Old Testament Hebrew is not experiencing complete victory until HE is the one separating himself from idols. God did not want the teachers from Verse 20 to do it for him.

What is the goal of a good teacher?

Ezekiel 44:23 And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
24 And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to my judgments: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies; and they shall hallow my sabbaths.

A biblical teacher does not make a long list of rules for you to live by. He shows you the difference between what is holy and what is profane. Profane means common in King James English. Profane is not always sinful. But, profane can be anything that calls you away from close fellowship with Christ. Again, a biblical teacher shows you the difference, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, YOU make the difference in your life into a covenant between you and God.

Romans 9:1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,

There is no one who needs to approve of your personal standards and choices in the Holy Spirit. He is the ONLY one whom you must make sure approves of your zeal and choices. And, he is the one who should give you a clear conscience, just as with Paul in the text above. What your pastor or friends think about your use of your conscience is not important. Indeed, it is none of their business.

I knew a pastor in Michigan who insisted that the ladies sew all their dresses. They could not buy them from stores. And, making a total jerk of himself, he insisted the ladies submit the patterns for their dresses so he could decide if they were modest enough. That pastor was managing the wives of the men in the church, and that sort of men will soon be in bed with one of the ladies.

The pastor should teach you the difference between choices, and then he should mind his own business and leave you in the hands of the Holy Spirit. You should also teach your wife and children the same way, and then you must step back and let the Holy Spirit convince them which way to go. If you try to manage their conscience, when they leave home, they will backslide because you took the place of the Holy Spirit who will stay with them the rest of their life.

This does not imply that you should let your kids run wild. When they are clearly in violence to the Word of God, you must guide them and set bounds. But, as they grow older, you, sir, must step back more and more and hand them over to the Holy Spirit. Never hand your kids over to any other man, especially not your pastor. Never let any other man try to guide your wife. Any man, even your pastor, who tries to take charge of your wife or kids must be rebuked and asked to back off. If he refuses, flee from that church. It is being dominated by devils.

A word of caution. Do not take everything I say as binding on you. Check up on my teaching by comparing it with the Word of God. Anything that is in contradiction of the Bible is useless. Please SEND MAIL if you find anything here that appears to contradict the Word of God. If I agree with you, I will change it at once.

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

You can be taught by the Holy Spirit alone. If, for some reason, you cannot come under the teaching of a pastor, you are not suddenly an orphan. Ask God to send the Holy Spirit to teach you. Then, get into the Word of God, and see how the Holy Spirit speaks to you.

Ed was a leader in a Fundamental Bible church in California. He also had a smoking habit. He was not addicted, and he smoked like some of us enjoy coffee. He had no guilt about it. One day, Ed was walking downtown, and he met a lady from the church with her young son. They stopped and chatted for a while. Ed told me that he always held the cigarette away from people so as not to trouble them if they did not smoke. As they parted, and as Ed walked away, the boy said to his Mom, "See, Mommy, uncle Ed smokes. It must be all right." Ed immediately was smitten by what he heard. He realized, by what the boy said, that the mother was trying to instill in the boy an aversion to smoking. Ed did not want to sabotage the training of any kid by his parents. Ed stopped smoking cold turkey. He never smoked again.

No preacher had rebuked Ed for smoking. Ed wanted to glorify God in all things, so the Holy Spirit arranged a situation in which Ed would be confronted by reality. Ed threw away his smoking pleasure to the glory of God. The whole thing had nothing to do with anyone but Ed and the Holy Spirit. If your pastor tells you that the standards he forces on you and the church are for your good, he is a liar. They are based in his tyrannical lust to take power over the people. What is really "for your good" is only what the Holy Spirit shows you that you need to change or rearrange.

This was supposed to be just a few words. But, I hope it helps you see how you should be making your way through life and building up a sound and godly conscience with the help of the Holy Spirit.

 

Satan speaks to your conscience based on legalism,
permission to sin, and accusation.

If you are in a church which is saturated with a legal system of standards driven by an autocratic pastor, Satan will use those standards to put you into bondage to law. You will hear from Satan that you are not dressed right, even when you are not an offense to anyone. You will hear Satan tell you that you must examine your zeal to perform good works, even when you have served the Lord with zeal. And, Satan will accuse you regularly if you listen to him as he tries to manage your conscience instead of letting the Holy Spirit teach you from the Word of God.

We had a lady in a church I pastored who believed she had reached a state of sinless perfection and could never sin again. Once she had to ride with some ladies to a meeting, and one of the ladies was a smoker. She did not try to smoke in the car, but she smelled of smoke. The allegedly sinless lady started popping Vitamin C pills over and over all the way to the meeting. Satan had convinced her that she would be polluted if she sat next to a smoker. She was a huge offense to the lady who smoked. The alleged sinless lady was a terrible offense many times, and I finally had to tell her that she was not sinless because she was an incorrigible gossip. She grabbed her cur dog for a husband and fled to a Nazarene Church. The pastor of that church, who taught sinless perfection himself, begged me to take her back, which I did not. She was letting Satan seduce her with false doctrine, and her conscience told her she needed to protect herself from the sinners around her. By the way, I sent a message back to the pastor of the Nazarene Church telling him he should actually WANT the lady in his church to illustrate what a person who is sinless acted like. I think he failed to see the humor in my suggestion.

Eve was told by Satan that she could sin and get away with it.

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

Dumb lady. NEVER imagine you can teach Satan anything, nor his dedicated warriors in the world. Quote God's Word, and tell him to shove off.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Now, watch how Eve ignores her conscience and sells the sin to herself. At this point, Satan could take a vacation. He won the battle. As soon as she started rationalizing away the Word of God, she doomed herself. Satan gets blamed for a lot of tricks we do to ourselves. She also became an evangelist for her sin to Adam. The most deadly temptations you will experience will come from allegedly sincere Christians and pastors. What line of bologna do you suppose she used to convince Adam? Whatever it was, Satan did not need to help. Eve did just fine on her own. Beware when you imagine you have reached a level of sanctification where you will never again make a dumb decision about good and evil.

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

Verse 5 is where Satan subverted Eve's confidence in God. He implied that God was withholding a priceless secret from Eve. All she had to do was ignore her conscience, and she could be as wise as God. She totally forgot that she was created by God, and he might know what was good or bad for her. This is what we do when we listen to Satan, or his helpers, convince us that God is taking all of our fun away by not letting us know everything.

Christians know very well how ignoring her conscience worked out for Eve, but Christian men still get caught in adultery, tax evasion, porn, and playing the lottery. The consequences always work out as God predicts.

Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

The Bible believer who imagines he actually "got away with it," when he sinned, soon finds that he cannot pray, teach the Bible, or win souls anymore because he is out of fellowship with God. The alleged Christian who sins over and over and never gets caught, AND seems to keep teaching the Bible or witnessing is not born again. He is a devil playing games with the Lord's people. When one of these sort climbs into a pulpit, he soon destroys the church that called him to be their pastor.

But, Satan is bold in his program of disinformation and temptation. He even tried it with Jesus.

Jesus' was told by Satan that he needed to prove he was God by making a show of his power.

Luke 4:9 And he (Satan) brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him,
If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:
10 For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:
11 And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.

Satan tried to bait Jesus into proving he was the Son of God in Verse 9. "If thou be the Son of God" implies that Jesus needed to prove he was. Satan will do this with you also. He will tempt you to prove you are special to God by doing something that your conscience does not let you do.

A preacher in a southern US state was told about a person who was possessed by a devil. The preacher decided he had the power of God in him, so he would go cast out the devil. Casting out a devil when God has not told you to is a deadly error. This preacher went and tried to cast out the devil, and the next time anyone saw him, he was running through the woods naked as a jay bird yelling his head off.

God has given you the time, the money, and the energy to work for the Lord. But, he does not want you using those gifts to exalt yourself and feel powerful. We must hear from the Holy Spirit before we go into action for the Lord.

 

Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. Psalm 97:10

 

The flesh also speaks to our conscience.

James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. 16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.

The flesh speaks to our conscience when we get messages from worldly people tempting us to panic over something in our life. It may be how and what we eat. It may be where we go to buy things which we need. It may be the people we must associate with. The Apostle Paul had to rebuke the church at Corinth because they were avoiding unsaved people completely thinking they had to totally avoid sinners in order to please God. This tells us that their vain self-righteous minds had worked on their consciences to destroy their zeal to win souls by terrifying them of sinners. If you think this would not happen to you and me, consider the way many men in our churches rage with hate for sodomites and transgenders. How will a sodomite who is under conviction of sin ever hear the Gospel of Jesus if we show him nothing but hate? Here is Paul rebuking the Christians at Corinth.

1 Corinthians 5:9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

If we all went out of the world, nobody would hear the Gospel because we believers are the ones God has chosen to give these grievous sinners the Gospel. These believers' minds had spoken to their consciences telling them to totally avoid sinners so that they would not give them the Gospel. Can you see how deadly it is to act upon the voice of our mind when it is not lead by the Holy Spirit?

The flesh tells us in our conscience that we are doing just fine when, in reality, we are way off the mark in our separation and walk. Here is an experience of mine.

When I was in High School I became a fan of Southern Gospel Music. Later, while in college in California, I would attend SGM concerts in Long Beach, California when the quartets came through. After attending for several years, I began to get uncomfortable about the singers. One bass singer never had a word to say in Christian testimony. Another, a tenor, would hang out in the seating area during intermission, and there were always a covey of hot sexy young ladies around him flirting with him. I also heard a few things about the singers that made me suspect they were not entirely faithful to their wives. The leaders of the quartets did nothing to control the lusts of the other singers.

My conscience was lighting up, but it was very dim. I still thought I could listen to the music and separate the sinful signals I was getting from the alleged message. I convinced myself that my conscience was clear when the Holy spirit did not agree.

One evening I was riding my motorcycle home from a church event back to the college. Along the side of the road I saw a big coach with a name on the side. It was the Stamps Quartet, a very famous SGM quartet. A very famous quartet bass singer had recently joined the Stamps quartet to improve their fame because he was a star of the genre. I stopped beside the bus, and I decided to knock on the door and see if I could inhale the incense of these famous Amoses.

Just as I got to the door, it flew open. Down the steps came the village whore. I knew at once what she was. She was wearing a skimpy black sexy outfit with white lingerie looking accents. The famous bass singer was standing at the top of the steps, and he said, with a thick whiskey slur, "We were just stopping to visit one of our friends here in Norwalk." He then slammed the door shut, and the lady tripped off into the night.

What was happening that night? I am 100% convinced that the Holy Spirit was not happy with my very slow response to the lustful things I had seen in the quartet men, and he was slapping me with a verdict. There was no way I could then avoid the very obvious fact that Southern Gospel Quartets who traveled around the USA were moral dogs.

The next day I took all of my Southern Gospel Music long play records and walked to the dumpster behind my apartment. I dropped them into the dumpster and dropped the lid. I can still hear the clang of the lid hitting. And, I still remember the joy I felt because I knew for sure that I had pleased my Savior.

I did not tell this story to exalt myself. I really am ashamed I did not figure out what the Holy Spirit was telling me without him having to slap me with a special dispensation to get my attention.

So, what is the point:
If you are listening to your conscience, the Holy Spirit will arrange events so that you get an assist in the right direction. My happening along just when the Stamps Quartet bus was letting the village whore out the door was clearly the Holy Spirit adding the killer punch to what I was already thinking about. The best way to live with the Holy Spirit is to react at the first revelation of your own conscience so that he does not have to shock you.
MORE AT THIS JOURNAL ON SOUTHERN GOSPEL MUSIC

 

The flesh in other Christians

Everyone has their breaking point. Wicked pastors, and their wicked church members, sense this, and they will hammer you with a limitless barrage of nagging and threats to force you to tell your conscience that you do not really believe what you thought you believed. Long sentence. Sorry. Please read it again.

The objective of these pastors and church members is to force you to cast aside your conscience and replace it with Baptist law. It may also be Pentecostal or Presbyterian law. Many denominations have this legal team who attack other Christians and try to redesign them.

With most tyrannical preachers you can tell this is happening when the pastor is sweet and loving to you one time, and bullying you another time, back and forth. This is a brain washing technique used by the Nazis against American and British prisoners of war. It wears down your resistance to the propaganda.

This is mental torture. Mind torture is very subtle because there are no bruises or scars visible. So, the mind can be attacked, and the evidence is not easy to see or discern. It often takes a professional counselor to sort out the thing, and the victim may never completely recover.

You may wonder where I get all of my observations. Over the years, since going on the Internet with this journal in 1995, I have received hundreds of pathetic emails from victims of Baptist preachers, and the problem is also found in many other denomination. Reformed denomination pastors are quite capable of mind attacks also, but they smile as they are launching the attack, as if they are doing it out of compassion. The Dutch Reformed Church is one of the most deadly in this, as is the Reformed Baptist church. Not all such pastors are guilty, but many are.

The point is, the longer you stay and take the attack on your mind and conscience, the more ugly the adversary becomes. It gets very confusing because the adversaries are you brothers and sisters in Christ. They have time, and they do not care if they totally destroy your peace. They will feel very pleased with themselves if you end up on anxiety drugs to preserve your sanity. That is when the pastor gives the verdict, "He refused to get under authority." Getting under authority is done by killing your conscience and becoming a slave to the pastor and the legal system called "Baptist Standards."

If you stay in that snake pit long enough, you WILL give in. You WILL abandon the convictions you got from the Holy Spirit. We all have a breaking point. So.............. LEAVE NOW. If you stay on and take the offenses, as I have warned elsewhere, your kids will see Daddy being hammered into the ground and assume Daddy is worldly and evil. When your kids get old enough, they will figure out what a chamber of horrors your church is, and they will rebel against God. Type "I used to be a Christian," into the search box of YouTube, and you can read the horror stories of kids who were subjected to the war against their consciences and who rebelled and went AWOL from the Christian life.

We need to examine this war zone better. Thus......

 

STANDARDS, RULES, AND BRANDING THE FLOCK

Before going on, we need to try to understand the psychological origin of Baptist Standards. And again, I am not talking only to Baptists. Virtually all denominations have a tendency to slide from walking with Christ alone to walking with the rules and regulation of their group.

Standards, when made by men, are to Christians what the brand is to cattle ranchers. The calf is rounded up at a young age and is castrated and branded by burning an image into its hind quarter with a hot iron. We will not talk about castration in this discussion, but I am certainly tempted to. Once branded, all question of who owns it is settled. Anyone found with that calf on their ranch may be accused of rustling.

Most tyrant pastors will deny this, but I am convinced that their standards and rules of life for church members are not as much about Christian victory as they are about ownership.

The temptation to brand the members of the church with Baptist Standards is caused by a real problem. That is, most Baptist preachers are sheep rustlers and are always trying to woo new members from nearby Baptist churches. If a pastor gives his people a standard that makes them unique, he hopes they will feel too different from other churches to be tempted to wander off. If you are in such a local church, you will soon be bored with winning souls for Christ as you learn to rustle sheep instead.

The Assembly of God ladies of the 1960s are mentioned elsewhere in this article where they were forbidden to wear make up but could have huge bee hive hair styles. My buddy and I would go to Gospel concerts, and we enjoyed trying to figure out what denomination people came from by how they looked. The AOG girls stood out boldly with their plain Jane faces and hair styles. Other ladies did not look like them. But, this had nothing to do with holiness. The AOG pastor knew that, with the no-make-up standard, the ladies from his church would not be attractive to men in other churches.

The Amish of Pennsylvania have been looking peculiar for centuries. They do not look objectionable, but no one else looks quite like the men, ladies, and kids of the Amish. And, this is not a style..... It is a spiritual and denominational requirement. You simply cannot be accepted by the Amish if you do not wear the right clothes and make serious deletions of conveniences from your home and conduct. The Old Order Mennonites are the same way but much less so. Back in Kansas and Minnesota, Mennonite men might buy a car. But it had to be black, and he would take a new car to a paint shop and have the chrome carefully painted black to eliminate shiny effects. That is considered worldly. But, these peculiar standards make sure pastors from other denominations do not try to rustle the Amish.

So, Baptists have their standards, and these brand them and indicate who owns them. And, it is not Jesus. Pastors make, or import from afar, standards that make their members stand out. Seventh Day Baptists gather for worship on Saturday which is a powerful brand. Some Baptists used to wear a button on their lapel that said, "100% for Hyles." This marked them as rabid disciples of Jack Hyles. I never heard of a button that said, "100% for Jesus." Jesus has to step aside when the brand for Hyles is on them.

The other indication of brand is all of the standards taken inclusively. When a calf was branded long ago in the US West, the first brand was on a very young calf. Later, the calf might be sold to another rancher, and another brand would be added. Finally, cattle rounded up for driving to market up north were often branded one more time to show who owned them during the cattle drive. All three brands told the history of that calf. In like manner, all of the Baptist Standards taken together give other people the knowledge of who those branded Baptists belong to.

Again, the Hyles Baptist cult shows this. The Hyles people all adhered to all the usual Baptist Standards, but they added the lapel button to show they belonged to what to them was a superior breed of Baptists. Along with this, as you walked into their church for the first time, a deacon would walk up to you and ask, "Are you 100% for Hyles?" If you said you did not know Hyles, they would assume you were not even born again and welcome you. If you simply said you were not 100% for Hyles, they would ask you to leave at once. You are simply not carrying the right brand. If you, trying to outsmart them, asked for a button to put on your lapel, they would not give it to you until they grilled you to make sure your attitude was one of total submission to the Hyles cult.

Many world religions have identifying branding requirements. These are external signals that the follower is loyal. What is happening to them mentally and morally? The external fixtures area a cheap substitute for a changed life and spirit. This is possibly the most deadly aspect of Baptist Standards, or any standards. A pedophile who wants to infiltrate a church will happily put on the brand items of that church to cover up his real intentions.

Lastly, let us consider the author and finisher of our faith and his Church, Jesus Christ. Why did Jesus not require his disciples to don some branding signal of loyalty. He could have required the disciples to wear a blue turban, or wear a sash around the waist with the words in Hebrew for, "100% for Jesus." Jesus gave his followers NO external branding features at all.

The law of the Old Testament forbade the marking of the body. This is often used by tyrant pastors to justify their codes for physical signaling and fashion issues. This is apples and oranges. The laws of Moses given by God were ALL related to pagan rituals and branding from Egypt of the neighboring tribes around Israel. Baptist Standards, and other group rules, are almost always about fashion and how the member looks to the public. I have yet to hear of a standard meant to keep us from looking like a Mormon or Buddhist. Also, what was needed in Israel to prevent paganizing the Jews by wicked neighbors is never the same problem today.

Paul told the ladies in Corinth that if they were going to wear their hair short, he wanted them to shave their heads. This was dripping with sarcasm by Paul. The whores in Corinth had short hair, and many of them shaved their heads. Paul did not want Christian ladies to be mistaken for whores. When a pastor claims that a woman with short hair looks like a whore, that is hyperbole. Short hair in today's culture does NOT mean that woman is a whore. Beware of pastors who grab a serious issue from past history to justify their church laws today.

There is much more that needs to be discussed about branding of the saints, but space is not allowing me to do that now. Let us end with two texts that show us how to live above the trivial level of rules and regulations:

Romans 14:13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.

1 John 2:10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

Instead of worrying about how people identify you and the group you belong to, please arrange your life and conscience so that you never do anything or give any signals that will cause your brother to stumble or sin. The lost sinner has to be included also. Never allow anything in your life that will cause a sinner to be more comfortable in his sin or rebellion against God.

1 Timothy 6:1 Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.

When you put a Gospel messaged bumper sticker on your car, does your conduct, and the way you do business, enhance that message, or do sinners say, "If that guy is a Christian, I want nothing to do with it." And, I can assure you, the way you LOOK is not nearly as important as the way you TALK and ACT toward sinners.

Finally, your uncle Steve from Texas has a request of you: "When a jackboot preacher comes at you with the branding iron of Baptist Standards, please tell that preacher that he is rustling Jesus' cattle." If you want to be even more bold, ask him, "Are you going to castrate me also, preacher?"

Come to think of it, could we suggest that Baptist Standards are a form of spiritual castration?

As usual, I say all of the above in all good Christian charity.

 

TAKE AWAY FROM PART ONE

Someone is always talking to your mind. They are the World, the flesh (yours or other people), or the Holy Spirit. The devil cannot enter your mind and talk to you if you are born again. He also cannot read your thoughts.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

So, what is the problem with our consciences?

Your conscience is a work in progress for life, and the ONLY authority over your conscience must be the Holy Spirit. Any intrusion into that arrangement is an invasion of privacy and a sin against you AND the Holy Spirit. Thus, our next topic:

 

GO ON TO PART TWO

SEND MAIL- Feel free to send your story. But, if it is a horror story about a wicked pastor, please promise me this will be the last time you tell it to anyone.

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