Culture of Conscience

Conscience is a topic not often written of in this era as well as did John Gill write of it in chapter 22 of 'Practical Divinity'. In Latin 'science' meant 'knowledge'. Conscience is thus a science, or a state of mind with knowledge of itself able to judge its own actions. Today though conscience is made with God's laws and instructions for right behavior criteria preponderantly absent in the minds of many Americans under the influence of the unconscionable broadcast media and to a certain extent, government. Each have removed God as the individual to whom their conscience is normalized and reset it just unto themselves and secular opinion. The effect is notable.

It is a scientifically established fact that by 27 weeks a fetus can recognize words and even syllables. A newborn that has often heard a particular word while gestating can recognize and react to it. The unborn can even learn to recognize syllables. A newborn that did not experience a specific word while unborn will be as unresponsive as an atheist adult is toward claims of Christian conscience when the word is said. With more than 50 billion abortions served since Rowe v. Wade, the conscience of the U.S.A. has taken a beating from spiritless thugs.

Gill describes elements, relationships and forms of human conscience in this chapter within a section on internal forms of worship and the relationship with God that illuminate the important role conscience plays in the mind and life of Christian. Christian conscience is free from sin knowing that Jesus Christ has freed them from what they could never have liberated themselves. It is an important distinction not made plain enough even in churches today sometimes where forgiveness of sin seems to be an abstract sort of event accomplished metaphysically rather than actually.

There is a very large difference between the conscience of an individual with personal egoism and atheism setting the parameters than there is for than for those reborn in the blood of the Lord. Christians of good conscience with moral criteria reset to those of the Lord Jesus Christ are free indeed. When the Christian fails to live up to those standards it is to those standards that he seeks to return, while the atheist and egoist have no such direction as they swim blind to the light in the darkness waiting for sharks to take them under. Instead moving in the dark pool of Lord Vader (only joking) phenomenally adjusting his/her/its subjective psychologically attenuated heart of darkness toward the light-hearted frivolity of secular sensualist satisfaction he/he/it moves from next gestaltic drive-fulfillment to another in a succession of theories that evolve like unique snowflakes falling from space-time in showers of for-themselves echoing through Kabuki that is space-time evolving doom they should pray for the merciful spirit of the Lord. The wrong choice has profound impact on tax and foreign policies for-others as well as the eternal spiritual condition of the lost-with-others-destined-to-hell.