Posted on 10/29/2015 5:12:44 AM PDT by Gamecock
Listening to Your Conscience
“My conscience is held captive by the Word of God. And to act against conscience is neither right nor safe.â€
These words formed a crucial part of Martin Luther’s fateful response to authorities of church and state when he was ordered to recant of his teachings at the Diet of Worms in 1521. He was pleading that his intention was to be neither rebellious nor obstreperous, but to be faithful to Scripture. What Luther was declaring was not so much that he would not recant but that he could not recant.
Luther used the metaphor of the prisoner. He was as a man in chains, incarcerated, with no option of liberty by which he was able to do what the authorities commanded. He was not physically restrained. The irons that gripped him were of a moral sort. It was his conscience that had been captured by the Holy Ghost.
The only option by which he could please men was the option to act against his conscience. To act for men was to act against God. Though the stakes were high, the decision was actually a “no brainer.†Scripture declares that whatever is not of faith is sin (Rom. 14:23).
Coram Deo
Reflect on this statement: “To act for men is to act against God.â€
Passages for Further Study
Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Hebrews 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
1 Timothy 1:18 This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith,
Ping
"What Do You Say When You Talk To Yourself ?"
“...at the Diet of Worms ....”
Sounds so... unappetizing. Like something from “Naked and Afraid”...
Pass the ketchup.. a LOT of ketchup...
Someone said “the conscience is fallen man’s last link with the living God.”
To go against it is ultimately a slow form of suicide, the final result of not heeding it to be the destruction of the individual.
After multiple refusals to listen to it, one’s conscience becomes “hardened”, and eventually dead. At which time the individual has no morals whatsoever.
Two Democrats come to mind immediately.......
I am bought with a price—my life is not my own.Being dead to the world _ I am alive in Christ. (With apologies to the
authors I so poorly reflect. ) T’anks for this post is both timely and oh so relevant.
The conscience doesn’t always work:
1Ti 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;
1Ti 4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
Demonic cauterizing of the conscience is what produces “Christians” that see nothing wrong with abortion, homosexuality, etc. But calling God a liar ain’t the way to get on His good side. In claiming He didn’t say something He said, and claiming He said something He didn’t say makes them false prophets, and Christ promises an eternally excruciating end to false prophets in Matthew 7.
Only two? There must be hundreds, if not thousands. 😆
That was supposed to be a smiley face. Do they still work? Maybe not.
That was supposed to be a smiley face. Do they still work? Maybe not.
Luther was right.
There’s been a lot of problems with formatting lately on FR.
Stuff that used to work fine is now not working at all but giving bizzaro images or shapes.
If you check out other threads, you’ll find FReepers everywhere asking the same question.
I’m sure the boss is well aware of it by now and probably working on it.
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