Violating Much More Than Conscience
In his latest show Gov. Mike Huckabee was seen interviewing a Catholic priest, as they spoke, the Governor said that since the Catholics have come under attack “we are all Catholics.” The audience accepted what he said and while they knew the Governor was not referring to some giant ecumenical switch to Catholicism he was stating the obvious. When the government suspends or denies first amendment principles to the church, be it Protestant or Catholic, we all tend to close ranks.
In what is known in theological circles as the antediluvian period (before the flood) men were guided not by the Mosaic Law or by the New Testament but only by their conscience. That particular dispensation failed miserably and it is actually what precipitated the flood. Man’s conscience failed then (Ge 6: 5) and it has not improved at all since. According to scripture that is why God had to reveal what sin and error actually were according to his laws. When that was known he provided grace; because no one could keep all the laws. At no time did God ever allow man to return to the age of conscience, it would have been self defeating.
Nothing has changed, because God, unlike man, never goes backwards. Using only conscience to be our guide is as disastrous today as it was in the ancient world. It is what allows us to lump all religions together and pick and choose one or the other that seems to soothe our conscience. In the process we tend to pick the religions that crush personal responsibility the most. We choose systems where external actions, liturgies, symbolism and religious practice become a substitute for actually connecting to, and obeying, the living word of the Living God. The result is that the conscience actually comes into conflict with God’s revealed word and it is the word that is offended, disregarded and eventually abandoned.
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