Anonymous (via GotQuestions)
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S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
The conscience is defined as that part of the human psyche that induces mental anguish and feelings of guilt when we violate it and feelings of pleasure and well-being when our actions, thoughts an...
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Jack Gutknecht
Supporter
Conscience in the Bible is an inborn sense of right and wrong. It is spoken of as "defiled" (Titus 1:15), and "seared" (1 Tim. 4:2). 3 main interpretations of a “seared conscience” are (1) the consciences of these false teachers are “branded” with Satan’s mark to indicate ownership, (2) their consciences are “branded” with a penal mark to show they are lawbreakers, or (3) their consciences have been “seared” (i.e., totally burnt and desensitized) so that they are unable to notice the difference between right and wrong. I hold to # 3 interpretation because the word seared means “cauterized.” Just as a person’s flesh can be “branded” so that it becomes hard and without feeling, so a person’s conscience can be deadened. Whenever we affirm with our lips something that we deny with our lives (whether people know it or not), we deaden our consciences just a little more. The conscience is either faithful, guilty or dead. Guilty John 8:9; Acts 2:37; 1 Tim. 4:2 Instances of: Of Adam and Eve, after they sinned, Gen. 3:7, 8. Of Cain: "Cain murdered his brother Abel. What's interesting to me in this passage is that this murder happened about 2,500 years before God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. But Cain still knew murder was wrong, even though it hadn't been written out on the tablets. Those stone tablets weren't necessary for mankind to know right from wrong. Cain even knew what justice required. He knew there would be a natural consequence for his actions, because in Gen. 4:14, he feared other people killing him in response to him killing his brother." The Bible Recap Mark 14:72; Luke 22:62. Of Judas, after betraying the Lord, Matt. 27:3-5. The accusers of the woman taken in adultery, John 8:9. Dead 1 Tim. 4:2; Tit. 1:15 As you can deduce, "conscience" in 1 Timothy 4:2 speaks both of a guilty and dead conscience.
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