Candle in the wind conscience in natural man Part 2

Keep listening 

Although the conscience of the unbeliever is imperfect and fallible he ought to be encouraged to listen to it. Like a Supreme Court judgement or one from the House of Lords (or should we say Strasbourg?) the conscience speaks categorically and absolutely. There is no room for further appeal. (11 Kant spoke of conscience as the "Categorical imperative". A Professor Shairp in the 19th century spoke of it as "The absolute in the soul". In his "Sermon on Human Nature" Butler says that "without being consulted" the conscience magisterially asserts itself in approving or condemning), In each case conscience must be followed. At one point in his Christian Directory Richard Baxter opposes this view. (Richard Baxter, Christian Directory, Soli Deo Gloria Reprint, Grand Direction X: " ... There is a dangerous error. .. that a man is bound to do everything which his conscience telleth him is the will of God and that every man must obey his conscience as if it were the lawgiver of the world, whereas indeed it is not ourselves but God who is our lawgiver. Conscience is not authorised to make us any duty which God bath not made us, only to discern the law of God and call upon us to observe it: an erring conscience is not to be obeyed, but to be better informed.") He calls it a dangerous error to think that the conscience must always be followed. What about when the conscience is misinformed? One recognises his point but once you begin to ignore or disobey your conscience, confusion and trouble are bound to follow. Surely Luther's famous dictum is correct, "To act against conscience is neither right nor safe". Matthew Henry agrees, "We must never be over-awed either by majesty or multitude to do a sinful thing and go against our consciences." It is surely never right for a man to do what he believes to be wrong. "Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves" (Romans 14:22).

There is a dilemma here of course. RC Sproul has dubbed it the "double jeopardy dilemma". (R C Sproul, Right and Wrong: Ethics and the Christian Today, Scripture Union, 1986, p. 93). If we follow conscience into sin we are guilty. Yet to act against conscience is also a sin. This is not to support the Roman Catholic idea of what is called invincible ignorance, rather it is to stress that it is imperative that all men seek to conform their moral record to the revealed will of God. When we mention Luther's dictum quoted above we must remember that he began by saying "My conscience is captive to the Word of God". It is not enough to set your watch by the kitchen clock, you must also be sure that the clock is conforming to the astronomical standards of time. Bishop Charles Gore, the first Bishop of Birmingham, got it right when he said "Man's first duty is to enlighten his conscience not to follow it". Do not waste time and cause damage by endeavouring to get anyone to act against their conscience. Instead concentrate on encouraging them to keep their moral record informed by the Word of God. Listening to your conscience is not a problem. It is a good thing. It is in the inadequacies of the moral record that the problem lies.

The content

We can understand, then, why John Knox could say to Mary, Queen of Scots, that her conscience was useless- because it was not properly informed! What matters so much is the content of the moral standard to which conscience bears witness. Jiminy Cricket's advice in song "always follow your conscience" is fine as far as it goes, but what good is it if my moral record is ill-informed?

Oswald Chambers points out in his book on Biblical psychology that to speak of educating the conscience is half truth, half error. As A H Strong puts it, conscience itself can only be educated "in the sense of acquiring greater facility and quickness in making decisions". (Chambers p 219, Strong p 500).

Chambers uses the illustration of the effects of coloured light. We need the pure white light of Jesus Christ shining in our hearts if we are ever to see things as they really are. The education we need is for God's requirements to be laid on our hearts.

Similarly, in his book on Ethics, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who died at the hands of the Gestapo, speaks of people in his day who said, "Adolf Hitler is my conscience". By that they meant that the Fiihrer was their moral standard. The ramifications of such a hopeless statement are now obvious to all. Rather, as Bonhoeffer rightly says, people should say, "Jesus Christ is my conscience".

The high court of conscience is not the highest court, it can only look to a higher one, the law of God itself. Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 4:4, My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. (The apostle is a notorious example, before his conversion, of an excusing conscience where his actions were anything but pleasing to God. Cf. Acts 23:1, 26:9; Philippians 3:4-6; 2 Timothy 1 :3; John 16:2).

As Herman Ridderbos and many of the older Reformed commentators point out, the reference here is not so much to the inadequacy of conscience but to the importance of the coming judgment. (Ridderbos, Pauline Theology, p 292ff.). What matters is not what our peers think or what other men think. Not even what we think ourselves. What matters is God's verdict. However, the verse also implies the imperfect nature of the conscience and this ought to be remembered. The judgment of conscience does not mean the end of all dispute - something to which those who break the law in just causes ought to give careful thought.

The healthy conscience is often consistent, although never infallible. A healthy conscience is not easily fooled. It is stubborn. It is not swayed by popular opinion or fear of danger. Obstinate, persistent and inflexible your conscience is a good friend to have when it is right, but it is a real handicap otherwise. A misinformed conscience can lead you into big trouble and also cause harm to others. It is something like a magnetic compass. While the needle points to magnetic north all is well. But if at some stage you enter a strong magnetic field which is not that of the earth itself disaster may well follow if you continue to rely on that compass. Or to put it another way, following your nose is a good way to get to a place, but first you have to point your nose in the right direction!

Resistible

Another problem with the conscience, even the well informed conscience, is that although it is usually persistent it can be resisted. The conscience can pursue a man for crimes committed decades ago. Even the memory of a relatively minor misdemeanour can haunt a person for years. "The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul" wrote Calvin. "I would bear any affliction rather than be burdened with a guilty conscience" said Spurgeon. Thunderbolts, tornadoes, a dungeon full of snakes, being burnt at the stake- all were preferable to him. (C H Spurgeon, see the entry under "Conscience" in Tom Carter, Spurgeon at his Best, Baker Book House, 1988).

Some people have even taken their own lives rather than live with their accusing conscience. The conscience truly is, at times, "an awesome force with which to reckon" (Rudnick, p 127). Nevertheless, it can be resisted. If it cannot be ignored it can still be defied. An active conscience will guarantee nothing. If desensitised enough it can even be hardened to the point where it virtually ceases to function.

Inadequate yet an ally

We need a balanced view of the strengths and weaknesses of conscience. On the one hand, the conscience is inadequate to save a man.

"Did any man's conscience, unenlightened by the Spirit, ever tell him that his sins deserved damnation?" asks Spurgeon. "Did it ever lead any man to feel an abhorrence of sin as sin? Did conscience ever bring a man to such self-renunciation that he totally abhorred himself and all his works and came to Christ?"

Such questions have to be answered in the negative. The conscience is not the same as God's own Word.

On the other hand, the conscience is still a God-given gift witnessing to the state of our relationship with our Maker. It is an eternal voice speaking into this temporal life, "a certain mean between man and God", "a line connecting man to his Creator". (The phrases are those of Calvin and P E Hughes respectively.) Every man has a conscience, even total pagans. In each case the conscience is a potential ally, a fifth columnist, in the war to recapture the souls oflost men and women. Thanks be to God for the conscience!

Gary Brady BA is the minister of Childs Hill Baptist Church, London

Candle in the wind conscience in natural man Part 1

This article originally appeared in Fouondations

Matthew Henry speaks of conscience somewhere as, "the candle of the Lord which was not quite put out". Though it is not God's voice as such, the conscience, including the moral record in the heart and a man's mind or opinion, is a good gift from God. However, like every other good gift from God, the conscience has been affected by the Fall of man. George Washington spoke of the conscience as "that little spark of celestial fire" and the Puritan George Swinnock called it a "deputy deity in the little world man". Such expressions are acceptable as long as we remember that conscience is only a spark and the deputy is a fallible deputy at best.

Fallen

It has been denied by some but it is a fact that man had a conscience, that is a moral faculty, even before the Fall. The way Eve responded to the serpent by stating God's command concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil shows this. When Adam and Eve fell man fell. When man fell his conscience fell too. The Dutch theologian G C Berkouwer, in his work on the doctrine of man, rightly insists that any inclination to good characteristic of the conscience is:

dispelled by the reality of man's inclination to evil. .. We can never look to conscience as something which enables man to retain a relative goodness in a special organ standing outside the effects of corruption. (G C Berkouwer, Man: The Image of God, Eerdmans, 1962, p.170)

Similarly, the great Jonathan Edwards though he spoke of the natural conscience as being "as it were, in God's stead, as an internal Judge" yet he also argues very strongly in many places for the biblical doctrines of original sin and total depravity. In a sermon on Hosea 5:15 he says, Natural conscience remains, but sin, in a great degree, stupefies it, and hinders it in its work. (See Jonathan Edwards in Nature of True Virtue and On Original Sin and sermon, p. 61 in Select Works, Vol. 11, Banner of Truth Trust, 1958, quoted and summarised in REO White, The Changing Continuity of Christian Ethics 2 volumes. Paternoster Press, 1981, 2:259,260).

This is one reason why in the 19th century Scots holiness teacher Oswald Chambers, German Lutheran Franz Delitzsch, English doctor Alfred Schofield and others who wrote on the conscience all insisted that it is wrong to speak of conscience as the voice of God. Similarly, A H Strong, in his Systematic Theology, quotes D W Faunce approvingly, Conscience is not God - it is only part of one's self. To build up a religion about one's conscience as if it were God is only a refined selfishness. (A H Strong, Systematic Theology, Pickering & Inglis, 1962, reprint of 1907 edition, p. 501).

Chambers says "If conscience were the 'voice of God' it would be the most contradictory voice ever heard." To demonstrate this he instances the conscience of a Hindu mother and that of a Christian mother. (Oswald Chambers, Biblical Psychology, London, 1912, p. 217).

Schofield asserts that conscience is no more God's voice than the piano is Paderewski's voice. It will respond to a little girl's touch as much as to the master's. (A T Schofield, The Springs of Character, London, p 198).

Conscience is not the single virtue untainted by the Fall. Every faculty in every man is affected by the sin of our father Adam. We are separated from God. His image in man has been defaced, shattered. Just like all God's other gifts conscience is misused, abused and defective. This is true also of the record of God's requirements in our hearts (the moral record) and our capacity to think correctly (the mind).

The moral record

The mediaeval Roman Catholic scholar Aquinas spoke not of the moral record but of sunteresis or synderesis. The word was apparently first used by the Greek church father Origen to denote man's nature or the remnant of the image of God after the Fall. Aquinas held that this faculty, which supplied moral principles, was itself infallible. Later this idea was upheld by certain mystics but denied by the Jesuits who were happy to supply its place with their own rules. Although the term synderesis was used by the Puritans there was no suggestion that it was anything less than fallible. When Paul says in Romans 2:15 that the Gentiles have the requirements of God's Law written on their hearts he cannot be suggesting that each individual is born with an innate and thorough knowledge of God's Law. If that were so why would there have been any need for the revelation at Sinai? Paul is not holding up the very limited conformity of the Gentiles as a moral example. The point he is driving at, in fact, is that "there is none righteous, no not one" (Romans 3:10). As Professor John Murray points out in his commentary on Romans, Paul specifically states that it is the requirements of the Law that are written in men's hearts. (See John Murray, The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, New International Commentary on the New Testament, Eerdmans, 1955-65. In other words, everyone has some idea of right and wrong, but not a clear idea of God's holy law. Even if fallen man's conscience functioned perfectly it would not be bearing witness to a full and accurate record of God's commands. Thus in John Bunyan's classic, but lesser known allegory, The Holy War, we read that Mr Mind had only, "some old and rent and torn parchments of the law of good Shaddai in his house". (John Bunyan, The Holy War in Works, 3 volumes, Baker Book House, 1977 reprint of 1875 edition, first published 1682, 3:263) We should not be surprised, therefore, to find men not only excusing and defending themselves for things such as murder, idolatry and immorality contrary to God's Law; but also condemning themselves for eating meat or travelling in a car or missing mass, things not forbidden in the Law. Conscience itself is a witness not a lawmaker. It can only act on the evidence available and the known law.lt is like a skylight not a light bulb, a means of knowledge not a source. It refers us back to our own moral standard and urges us, with varying strength, to comply. If our moral record is faulty, proper obedience to God will be impossible. There are a number of contenders for the role of chief informant to the moral record. Tradition and trends vie with the truth. This is the reason sometimes for inward confusion and conflict. In his Bishop Sanderson Lectures, Christopher Wordsworth warns against following the example of men however learned or pious they may be. We must teach our consciences not to consider highest the opinions of others or even our own opinions as such but the Word of God.

Conscience proper

The conscience itself is also imperfect, of course. It is not useless, but it is unreliable. It can be variable, deceived, corrupted, intermittent or simply unable to cope with complex issues. Bunyan has Mr Conscience as the town recorder. After the fall of the town of Mansoul he would have terrible fits at times when he would "make the whole town of Mansoul shake with his voice" and yet at other times he would say nothing at all. (Bunyan 3:261) We can all identify with that state of affairs. Speaking of this element in conscience Oswald Chambers uses the illustration of what Ruskin called "innocence of sight". Artists are usually trained to paint what they see, not what they believe is there. The fallen conscience is like an untrained artist, it makes the mistake of not recording exactly what it sees. There is always a distortion.

The mind

Further, when conscience's faulty message is assessed in a man's thoughts he often suppresses it or finds other ways of ignoring it. In Holy War terms Mansoul becomes convinced that Mr Conscience is mad and not worth listening to. We see "the whole town in a rage and fury against the old gentleman". "Yea" says Bunyan "the rascal crew at some times would be for destroying him". (Bunyan 3:262) John 3:19-21 reminds us of the usual reaction of the fallen conscience.

God's spy

Everyone has a moral awareness. Anthropologists have failed to discover a totally amoral society. All realise there is right and there is wrong. The beginning of Paul's argument in his letter to the Romans makes clear that even unbelievers know there is a God, a God who will judge them concerning right and wrong. Therefore, even though the information available to the conscience is incomplete "the echo of the voice of God" does reach them. Jacques Ellul notes that, "The protests that indignity and injustice evoke from unbelievers as well as Christians indicate that the voice of conscience has not been utterly silenced and obliterated." (Ellul, quoted by P E Hughes, Christian Ethics in Secular Society, Baker Book House, 1983, p. 33).

It is important for believers to remember this. God has a "spy" in the hearts of unbelievers, what Thomas Brooks called "a preacher in the bosom". The conscience, however imperfectly, gives a man at least some idea of what God thinks of him and of his actions. Of course, the better informed a man's conscience the better the preaching; the more effective the espionage. This is why the unbeliever so often studiously avoids going to church or reading the Bible or having contact with Christians. He wants to "turn down the volume" or "do a deal" with his conscience. He will do almost anything to pacify it. We can almost always reckon on a man having a conscience that is active in some area. It is important for Christians to bear this in mind when witnessing to unbelievers. Where a man's conscience is relatively healthy we have an ally on the inside. As we bear witness to the truth from without, so does conscience within. Like Paul, we should aim to set forth the truth plainly, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God (see 2 Corinthians 4:2). We seek to enlighten the conscience of the unbeliever with the lamp of God's Word.

What is the conscience? Part 2 (First of two articles in parts)

Complexity

Before we come to a formal definition perhaps we should warn against the temptation of thinking about the conscience simplistically. Whatever it is, the conscience is something complex. Recognising this, some of the Puritans allowed their imaginations free rein in order to describe the worlcings of conscience. William Perkins speaks of conscience being assisted by mind, the storehouse and keeper of rules and principles and by memory, the recaller of omissions and commissions.

In THE HOLY WAR Bunyan is even more elaborate with Mr Conscience the Towncrier who goes mad. Richard Sibbes says, 'God hath set and planted in man this court of conscience, and it is God's hall, as it were, where he keeps his first judgement .... his assizes. And conscience doth all the parts. It registereth, it witnesseth, it judgeth, it executes, it doth all. ' (Quoted by Packer, AMONG GOD'S GIANTS, Kingsway, Eastbourne, 1991, pp 143, 145). Such pictures are helpful as long as we keep in mind the complex mysteries involved. The worlcings of conscience include the process of perceiving what is required, assessing this and then deciding how to proceed or what judgement to give on the subject. This culminates in an over-riding impression of 'ought' or 'ought not'. Although this may happen very quickly a host of mental perceptions and emotions are involved. For instance there is the comprehension of right and wrong; using the memory, mind and will; a resulting complacency, delight or pride, on the one hand;or disquiet, shame and pain on the other as reward or punishment is contemplated.

The breadth of mental and emotional intetplay involved can be gauged from the variety of legitimate illustrations employed by different writers in their attempts to bring out the manifold character of conscience. These include spy, watchdog, monitor, bloodhound, window, skylight, mirror, pope, lash, sword, barometer, sundial, alarm clock, plumbline, sense of taste etc! These various illustrations highlight the fact that conscience cannot be thought of as a simple mechanism or reflex.

Definition

Now we come to a definition. It is clear that when the Bible speaks about the conscience it is really speaking about the heart or soul or spirit itself. More definitely, it is referring to a particular aspect of the soul or, better, the soul's worlcings. We should not think of the conscience as a department of man's personality or a faculty of his soul. It is useful to speak of it in these terms for the purposes of study but it is important to realise that the conscience is, in fact, simply one aspect of man's personality, one function of his soul, namely the moral worlcing or reasoning. Hence the complexity we have spoken of. Hence the way in which the Bible is willing to talk about the heart rather than using the more specific term, the conscience. The 'joint knowledge' is not necessarily something shared with God himself. Rather it is a knowledge we share with ourselves. Put simply, the conscience is man's power of self-reflection and of self-criticism. It is the moral reason. American Milton Rudnick helpfully defines it as, 'the self in the process of ethical deliberation and evaluation ... '. He says, 'It is not someone or something else worlcing in or u~ man, but the moral self at worlc, involving all of a man's rational and emotional faculties.' (Milton Rudnick, CHRISTIAN ETHICS FOR TODAY, Baker, Gtand Rapids, 1979, pp 125,126). In Sibbes' words, 'The soul reflecting upon itself.' We can agree, too, with Kenneth Kirlc who, earlier this century, wrote, 'The exigencies of language force us often enough to speak of conscience as a distinct entity; but we must continually remind ourselves that it is no such thing ... conscience is myself so far as I am a moral man. ' (8 Kenneth Kirk CONSCIENCE AND ITS PROBLEMS, Longmans, London, p 57).

Conscience is remarlcable. It is one of the things that distinguishes us from the animals. In his mid-twentieth century classic on the subject Norwegian Ole Hallesby writes, 'It is through the conscience that man acquires a consciousness of his humanity and is thus distinguished from the brute ... This ... is very remarlcable. A sort of doubling of our personality takes place. The 'I' takes a position, so to speak, outside of itself. .. it then pronounces judgment upon itself ... Then follows the most remarlcable result of all. The judgment which the 'I' pronounces upon the 'I' is entirely objective and unbiased ... at the judgment bar of conscience it is the accused person himself who passes judgment. ' (9 0 Hallesby, CONSCIENCE, (tmns. C J Carlsen), NF, London, 1950, p 11). As remarkable as the conscience is we must not place it above other abilities, however. As R L Dabney points out in his PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY conscience is not a separate faculty. Why should we think of our ability to judge ourselves as somehow essentially different from our ability to judge others? It is only the filet that we ourselves are involved that makes us feel the process is so much more rematkable. (R L Dabney, THE PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY, 1897, Sprinkle Reprint 1984, pp 282, 283).

Romans 2:14,15

The nearest the New Testament comes to anything like a definition of conscience is in Romans 2:14,15. A number of things emerge from these verses.

Firstly, everyone has a conscience, even pagans. The conscience belongs to man as man. These verses also help us to distinguish and identify the elements involved in making a moral decision. Although the word conscience is often used to refer to the whole process of making moral decisions there are in fact at least three clearly identifiable strands in the process.

1. The requirements of the Law of God which are written on every man's heart. The Moral Record.

2. The conscience itself which makes its judgments on the basis of the preceding element. The Conscience Proper.

3. A man's thoughts, his opinions. These come as he makes a decision on the basis of the mediation of his conscience. The Mind or Opinion.

When we use the word conscience, therefore, we should really restrict it to this second aspect of moral decision making, although it is easy to see why the word is also used for the whole process. The Dutchman, Willem A Brakel wrote of the three elements as knowledge (ie of God's will and law), witness (ie of conformity or lack of it) and acknowledgement (ie of deserving punishment or reward). (W A'Brakel, THE CHRISTIAN'S REASONABLE SERVICE, SDG, p 317).  This corresponds to the Puritan idea, gleaned from Aquinas and the Schoolmen, of the conscience worlcing syllogistically. A syllogism is an inference from two premises, one major and one minor. The Puritans spoke of syllogisms of duty and syllogisms concerning our state before God. Jim Packer gives an example of the former in an essay on the Puritan Conscience, 'God forbids me to steal (major premise) To take this money would be stealing (minor premise) Therefore I must not take this money (conclusion)' He also quotes two from Ames concerning our state before God, 'He that lives in sinne, shall dye: I live in sinne, therefore I shall dye.' 'Whosoever believes in Christ, shall not dye but live. I believe in Christ; therefore I shall not yie but live.' (Packer, p 143)

The major premise corresponds to the moral record (referred to as sunteresis or 'nature'), the minor one to the conscience proper (suneidesis). The conclusion is the work of the mind, defending or accusing. Some would suppose that the conscience only acts in a negative, condemning way. One twentieth century theologian spoke of it as 'alien, dark, hostile and sinister'. This may have been the Greek view but Paul points out that there are times when even the Gentile conscience can provoke thoughts which excuse as well as accuse. A person can have either a 'bad conscience' or a 'good conscience'. (Strictly speaking, of course, it is not the conscience that is good or bad, any more than a barometer is bad if it correctly predicts stormy weather.)

Certainly a Christian can have a good conscience. This is clear from 2 Corinthians 1:12 and 1 Timothy 1:19, for instance. Romans 2:14,15 plainly teaches the moral responsibility of all men. As Waiter Chantry has observed, 'Conscience alone has witnessed sufficiently to the moral law, so that everyone is without excuse.'

Past, Present and Future

It would seem that the judgements of conscience can concern not only past and present but also the future (some would draw this conclusion from Romans 2:14,15 itself). In this latter role conscience acts more like a guide than a judge. Packer speaks of conscience as 'a mentor,prohibiting evil (Acts 24:16, Romans 13:5)' (future), 'a witness declaring facts (Romans 2:15, cf John 3:20f (present) and 'ajudgeassessing desert (Romans 2:15; 9:1; 2 Corinthians 1:12)' (past). Hallesby also observes that conscience is generally at its weakest during sin (present) (Contrast this with, 'Conscience is a cowanl, and those whose faults it has not strength to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.' (Oliver Goldsmith, THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD, 1766) but at its strongest after the event (past). Conclusion The conscience is not the result of evolution. It is not simply the interiorisation of cultural norms or of social mores. The conscience undoubtedly bears witness to the culture and the morality around about it but this in no way explains its origin or how it functions. Nor is conscience 'the voice of God' except as far as it is part of his general revelation to each individual of the existence of right and wrong and the need for judgement. It is rather what Opperwall labels, 'the internalised voice of those whose judgment of a person counts with him. It is the inner voice that testifies for the moral authorities that we recognise'. (R Opperwall, article on conscience in THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPEDIA, ed G Bromiley, Eenlmans, Grand Rapids, 1975, p 762). Keil says it is, 'not the echo of an immediate divine self-evidence at every moment, but the knowledge of a divine law which every man ... bears in his heart .... an active consciousness of a divine-law established in man's heart ... '. (Keil, pp 162, 165). Thus it is a most important voice, one you dare not ignore. Fallen conscience's judgements are inevitably inadequate, nevertheless they always bear some relation to the coming judgement. The voice is not as loud or as clear as before the Fall but it is still there anticipating, in Bishop Butler's words 'a higher and more effectual sentence which shall hereafter second and affirm its own'. (Bishop Butler, quoted by REO White, p 232). God has given every man a soul. The word conscience refers to that aspect of the soul concerned with morality. The conscience bears witness to the moral record in a person. On the basis of its witness decisions are made about right and wrong. We do not always like the witness that our conscience bears. Sometimes we do not even agree with it. We must all realise, however, 40 that the voice of conscience ought not to be ignored. John MacArthur (John MacArthur Jr, THE VANISHING CONSCIENCE, 1994, p 61) suggests that the conscience may be the most under-appreciated and least understood attribute of humanity. He may well be right. Modern psychology, he goes on to suggest, is more concerned to silence it than to understand it. Let those who seek to make Christ the Lorl of their conscience not do the same.

Rev Gary Brady BA is pastor of Childs Hill Baptist Church, London

'Conscience ... is as essential a part of man's motal nature as feeling is of his physical constitution. It is also like the other noble powers of his mind, indestructible. Neither life nor death, nor time nor eternity, nor the happiness of heaven, nor the misery of hell, will be able to extinguish this spade of momllife within the human breast.' John King,

What is the conscience? Part 1 (First of two articles in parts)

This article first appeared in Foundations

'What are conscience?' is Pinocchio' s question in the Walt Disney adaptation of Collodi's charming children's story. The grammar is wrong but the question is a good one. What is the conscience? Of course, we all have an idea of what conscience is. We all know we have one. We can think, perhaps, of the hard times it has given us. People say 'My conscience is playing on me' or 'My conscience pricked me'. We know what it is to have something 'on your conscience'. We know about a bad or guilty conscience and, hopefully, a good conscience too. However, as one writer points out, 'of the number that make use of the word nineteen in twenty perhaps may be ignorant of its true meaning.' (CA Pierce CONSCIENCE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, SCM, London 1955 p 5)

He is not exaggerating. Other words found in the Bible are used quite loosely. People still talk about 'living in sin' and use phrases like 'as ugly as sin' or 'more sinned against then sinning'. But how often is the word understood in its Biblical sense, the transgression of God's law? It is the same with the word conscience. The word is seldom used with any precision. In every day use it can have a range of meanings. We are all familiar with the word but how many of us have a carefully defined biblical cocncept of what the conscience is?

A survey of biblical material relating to the conscience and an examination of the Greek word employed in the New Testament will enable us to attempt a biblical definition.

The Old Testament

There is no actual reference to the conscience in the Old Testament. (The LXX translation of Ecclesiastes 10:20 using the Greek word for conscience is a case of mistranslation.)The Hebrews did not seem to find it necessary to use such a term. This was probably because as God's chosen people they received direct revelation from God and so were not as immediately aware of conscience as the Gentiles. Old Testament believers spoke more readily of their hearts reflecting on revelation, as in the Psalms (see Psalms 16:7, 40:8 and 119:11).

Nevertheless, the idea of conscience is certainly present in a number of places and some modem translations introduce the word at certain points. In the opening chapters of Genesis we read that Adam and Eve, following their disobedience, were ashamed of their nakedness and hid in fear at the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8,10). What else is this but the earliest manifestation of man's conscience at worlc? There are other places where the word heart clearly stands for the conscience. Thus in Genesis 20:5,6 the Gentile Abimelech speaks with God. ' .. .I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.' Then God speaks to him in a dream, 'Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me.' (NKJV). We also read Job's words, 'I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.' (Job 27:6 NIV).

On at least two occasions David' s conscience is seen to be at worlc. 'And it came about aftetwards that David's conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul's robe.' (1 Samuel 24:5 NASB). Also 'David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men.' (2 Samuel 24:10 NIV), cf Samuel 25:31, 35. Similarly, in Psalms 32, 38 and 51 the conscience is active. Psalm 32:3,4 is descriptive of the pangs of a bad conscience, 'When I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.' Psalm 38:3-5 is similar and Psalm 51:10 speaks of David's desire for a good conscience ('Create in me a pure heart, O God, etc.') It was on the basis that every man has a conscience that the Law was given and that the prophets preached. A striking example is the way in which Nathan dealt with David following his adultery with Bathsheba (1 Samuel 12). In the story of Joseph and his brothers the conscience plays an important role (see Genesis 42:21). 1 Kings 8:38; Job 4:16,17; Proverbs 20:27 and 28:1 and Ecclesiastes 7:22 are other places where some have detected possible references to the conscience.

The New Testament

In the Gospels there is no direct reference to conscience (excepting the questionable instance of John 8:9 where the word appears in some manuscripts). However, there is reason to believe that there were occasions when the conscience was in view. For example, in Luke 12:57 Jesus asks the people, 'Why don't you judge for yourselves what is right?'. This appeal is directed to .the conscience. Similarly, some writers suggest that in Matthew 6:22,23 where Jesus refers to having a 'single eye' he is talking about the conscience. A pure heart · must also be something similar to or allied with a clear conscience (Matthew 5:8). In Mark 3:5 Jesus rails at the 'stubborn hearts' or hardened consciences of the Pharisees. The meaning of John 1:9 is a matter of debate amongst Reformed and Evangelical writers but Calvin and others may well be right when they see conscience as at least partly the point of reference here.

The bulk of direct New Testament references to conscience are found in Paul's letters. In fact, of the thirty or so uses of the word twenty are in his writings. Two others are found in speeches by him recorded in Acts and five are in the letter to the Hebrews which if not by Paul is certainly characteristic of him. The only other New Testament writer to use the word is Peter, in his first letter. It is, therefore, very much a Pauline word. But where did Paul get it from? At one time it was widely thought to be a specialist word taken from Stoic philosophy but it has now been demonstrated to have been an every day word going back, in one form or another, to at least the sixth century BC. It has been suggested that it was a 'catchword' amongst the Corinthian believers taken up by Paul and used not just in writing to them but, consequently, as part of his own Christian vocabulary. (See Pierce's book)

Certainly Paul and other New Testament writers were happy to take up words and fill them with Christian meaning. Peter does this in his letters more than once and Paul, for example, takes up the word Saviour (soter) in this way. Like the Old Testament and the Gospels, the rest of the New Testament is perfectly able to speak about the conscience without using the word. For example, in 1 John 3:19-21 the apostle uses the word heart where the word conscience would fit equally well. 'This then is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts (consciences) at rest in his presence whenever ow hearts (consciences) condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts (consciences), and he knows everything.' However, in the writings of Peter and especially of Paul the word conscience itself is used.

Etymology

The Greek word is suneidesis. It is universally agreed that the word is made up of two parts. The first part (sun) means 'with' or 'together' (Cf the English words, synchronised or symphony). The second part (eidesis) is from one of the Greek words meaning 'to know'. The root meaning, therefore, is 'to know together' or 'joint knowledge' or 'knowledge shared (with another)'. The English word is from Latin and is made up in exactly the same way, CON-SCIENTIA. Some other modem European languages are similar. So in Welsh you have CYD-WYBOD, in Swedish SAM-VETE, etc.

This does not bring us immediately to a biblical definition. There has been much debate as to who shares this 'joint knowledge'. Obviously there is, on the one side, the person himself, but who is the other? Many have maintained that the other must be God. Conscience has been spoken of as 'The voice or oracle of God', 'The vicar of Christ' or even 'God's intimate presence in the soul' . (Phrases of Lord Byron, of John H Newman and of William Worlsworth respectively. Cf the definition 'Privity of the soul with the omnipresent, omniscient God' von Schubert).

Such phrases are often used on the basis that the etymology proves that what conscience reveals to a man's mind must be knowledge shared with· God. Thus we have definitions like that of Aquinas and approved by the Puritan William Ames, 'a man's judgement ofhimself, according to the judgement of God of him'. Ames' tutor William Perkins is similar. He sees God and man as 'partners in the knowledge of one and the same secret'.

Conscience is undoubtedly part of God's general revelation but to speak of it simply as God's voice agreeing with ours is potentially confusing.

Usage

It is unwise to base a definition of a word on etymology alone. The way a word is used matters much more. (September is not our seventh month. There is surely nothing sinister about left-handed people.) Scholars are not in total agreement about the usage of the word suneidesis and its family of related words. It is clear, nevertheless, that when the Greeks used this and related terms it was not always in the context of moral judgments. There is an example where Socrates' young disciple Alcibiades speaks of being conscious he could put up no resistance to the power of his teacher's arguments. (5 C Maurer, THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, ed G Kittel (trans G Bromiley), p 900), There is no moral element here. Least of all, in Greek thought, is there any necessary connection between conscience and God.

In the New Testament we find a related word being used in a context where God is clearly not the one who shares the knowledge. In Acts 5:2 we read that 'with his wife's full knowledge' Ananias kept back money from the apostles while claiming it was being given over. The word used is sunoida, 'to know with another'. Ananias knew what he was doing and so did his wife. He knew with her. Then in Acts 12:12 and 14:6 the NIV speaks of something 'dawning' on Peter and of Paul and Bamabas 'finding out about' a thing. Words from the same family are again used. Thus, at their most basic, these words can simply mean 'to become conscious or, 'to realise'.

Most interesting in this connection is Hebrews 10:2. There the ASV speaks of worshippers who 'would have had no more consciousness of sins'. The word used is the same as that found in Hebrews 10:22, 'having our hearts sprinkled to save us from a guilty conscience' (NIV. Cf TCNT: ' ... purified by the sprinkled blood from all consciousness of wrong.') In Hebrews 10:2 it is really only the addition of the words 'for their sins' that brings in a moral element. At root the Greek word does not necessarily imply anything more than 'knowing'.

(Continued)