During the years I was growing up in the United States, people who committed crimes were vilified and treated like, well, criminals; they were investigated, arrested, prosecuted, and, if found guilty, imprisoned, fined, or both. Their illegal activities were frowned upon by a majority of the citizenry and the law enforcement agencies that did the investigating, and the entire community was better off when they were not on the streets doing mischief.
People anywhere in our nation who engaged in riotous behavior would usually be jailed immediately when captured and would face the sentences they deserved. Now, if they are actually caught, they are considered ‘untouchable’ for being prosecuted, either due to a matter of ethnicity, religious affiliation, or some other meaningless factor, and are then released without basil and allowed to return to the streets to continue the lather, rinse, repeat the cycle of crime. It was actually a true statement back then that “No one is above the Law.” There was a healthy fear/respect for those whose job it was to “keep the peace.” Although it was not a perfect country then, the United States was more or less peaceful and orderly.
Ironically, now it is common to hear the blowhard socialists/leftists spouting the phrase, “No one is above the Law” (except themselves, of course). Meanwhile, our cities burn, stores are looted, police officers, as well as innocent people, are viciously attacked, even murdered by mobs in cities where the evil element is in control politically, and we are still told by the useless politicians, both Democrats and RINOs, that “No one is above the Law.”
Now we all know that when the Democrats spoke that phrase, they meant that those who oppose them are the ones NOT to be considered above the law. But when we see thousands of vicious thugs running amok in those burning cities with millions, even billions of dollars of stolen property disappearing from stores with no law enforcement officers giving chase, most of them under orders to stand down, it becomes apparent to anyone with a functioning brain that our nation is in a lot of trouble. Many major retail stores are closing their doors, and most will likely never reopen. The lawless mobs are showing just how obvious it should be to all that when they are allowed to run wild through the streets with no attempts to apprehend them, yes, there ARE those who are, or appear to be, above the law. They are, at best, a mob of ‘misguided young people’ or, at worst, the result of a failed/failing culture and useless education system, and even worse, the sad prospect of what the future holds for all of us here in what was once the greatest nation on earth.
That time from my past, which is quickly becoming the distant past, when any political officials were deemed guilty of even a misdemeanor, it was a shameful thing since they were expected to be ‘representatives of the people’ in every way, not just in Congressional settings, and because of their roles as “lawmakers” they were expected to set an example for good, they were to be admired and respected because of their high moral standards and lofty character. Looking back through old eyes that now have seen so much more of our national history, I realize that, perhaps due to my youth and immaturity then, I was seeing our ‘leaders/representatives’ as more than they truly were.
Yes, all that I knew as a child has been turned completely around, and I am finding it very frustrating to live in a country where all the values I was taught and highly valued are now trampled underfoot as though they are worthless. When I consider these things, I must admit that I no longer know the country I am living in.
Is it possible to understand why all this evil has been so successful in destroying our once-great nation?
The Human Conscience: What Role Does It Play in Human Behavior?
Since a “conscience” is something that cannot be seen or photographed, even under a microscope, how do we know what it is and what function it serves? Let’s look at several dictionary definitions of “conscience”:
Conscience:
Notice that the second definition calls it “the inner sense,” or a sense connected with the spiritual side of a human being. This conscience is the moral connection between a physical, human being, and a spirit being, the connection that enables the spiritual side of humanity to connect with God’s Spirit and allows His Spirit to become the guiding force that can bring humanity into line with God’s moral expectations.
God created Adam’s physical, flesh, and blood body as a “vehicle” that would transport his spirit around a physical planet. God is all-knowing, and He does not leave out any detail necessary for the full functionality of His creation. He pronounced the creation of Adam as “very good” (Genesis 1:31). However, He was obviously aware that, at some point, Adam would be confronted with the spiritual force of evil that would try to destroy all the good God had created. Shortly after God breathed life into Adam’s nostrils, He gave him specific instructions that were intended to prolong his life and make him a successful administrator over all the Earth. Had Adam only followed those instructions to the letter, no curse would have been given by God that ended the close fellowship God had desired to have with him. After the curse, man’s relationship to, and fellowship with, God were reduced to a “long-distance” relationship because, when man rebelled against God, his sin became a barrier that made it impossible for him to have a face-to-face relationship and fellowship with God.
After the curses of Adam were implemented, the instrument that God used to communicate His will to man was man’s conscience, the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one’s conduct or motives. In His wisdom, God knew that no fallen, sinful man could see His face and live, so in His wisdom, God used that inner sense to communicate to man how he was to behave in order to have some form of fellowship with God.
Even though direct face-to-face communication with man was cut off, God did not give up on having that fellowship. He called out prophets who allowed their “inner sense” to guide them and used them to present Himself to mankind through the oral and written prophetic word. All those who would be God’s prophets had to possess a conscience that was open to God’s direction. This meant living a life that was morally aligned with God and His word.
This process was primarily the means that God used to guide His chosen Earthly people, the Jews. While it worked to some degree, man in his fallen state was often unable to resist the sin that would corrupt his conscience, and that sin once again presented the roadblock that prevented communication with God.
The Seared Conscience
In 1 Timothy 4:1-2, the Apostle Paul speaks of the human conscience of former believers who have departed from the faith, having listened to “seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” Anyone who has ever grilled a steak knows what happens when the raw steak touches that hot grill: it sears the flesh, sealing in the juices and also sealing out anything from getting in; anyone who has ever sustained a serious burn, one that is bad enough to leave a scar and/or needing skin grafts, is aware that the seared flesh has become impervious to all feeling as all the nerve cells are damaged beyond repair, making it impossible for the nerve cells to communicate with the brain, to such an extent that a hot fire could be held again to that scarred tissue and the brain would be unaware of it. This is what Paul was referring to when talking about a “seared conscience.” The person whose conscience is seared has allowed a barrier to be placed in his spirit that prevents being reached by the Holy Spirit of God, and that is indeed a very bad place to be because the only way for a person to recognize that he is a lost soul is by the urging of the Holy Spirit, through man’s conscience, to come to a place of repentance.
The writer of the Book of Hebrews elaborated on the connection between the human spirit, the human conscience and the Holy Spirit of God. In Hebrews 4:12, we read: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” This connection between God and man is one of the greatest blessings man could ever experience.
When a person loses the ability to be examined by the Holy Spirit with the intention of reaching and changing him, he risks being permanently cut off from God. In the battle we all face between good and evil, if the “God connection” is eliminated due to a seared conscience, the only connection then is between man and man or man and Satan, and nothing good ever comes from that.
I believe we are now seeing the results of so many people, some who were formerly solid believers in Christ, who have allowed repeated sin to sear their consciences and alienate them from God’s attempts to contact them. In this condition, their consciences do not function as God created them to function, their moral compasses go totally out of whack, they do things that a person with a true functioning conscience would never consider doing, and the results are what we now see in the United States: lies, deception, violence, theft, murder, dealing in deadly drugs, and generally every unrighteous and evil act that can be imagined. Paul describes these times and the people who commit such deeds in Romans 1:18-32.
The human toll of these acts is immeasurable, with millions of people dying or dead or living with their lives in tatters, having no hope for a future, only waiting for a miserable end.
I have a personal opinion that had the human family structure not been attacked and nearly destroyed by Satan, mostly through human greed, parents would still be raising their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, as Paul taught in Ephesians 6:4. But, Satan being the cunning deceiver that he is, used lust to cause husbands and wives to accept the lie that “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” That lie has caused divorce among Christians to skyrocket in the last 50 years, with the result being broken families, their children being raised by one parent or the other, or an outside-the-family entity, with no unity and little sound teaching to guide them into adulthood.
Is divorce the only cause of our failed/failing society in the United States? No, but it illustrates just how easily a culture/society can be destroyed when the human conscience is not allowed to function as God intended. It certainly proves the Bible statement from Proverbs 22:6 is true: “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
In every area of our society, you can see men and women of all ages, especially in places of high responsibility, who live with their consciences seared, displaying the type of behavior proving they were not given sound training when young, the training that would have helped them develop their consciences to be instruments of communication between them and God. Without those working instruments throughout their lives, they became easy prey for a devil who would gladly steal from them, kill them, and destroy them. Meanwhile, their actions cause misery and pain not only for themselves but also for others they associate with.
Daily, we see many pundits trying to find the person to blame for all the misery and destruction in the World, and they all seem to think they know to some extent what the problem is and how to fix it. I have yet to see one of them point to what I believe is THE PROBLEM: The Killing of the Human Conscience. In my last article, I stated that the Real Problem is a lack of righteousness throughout our society. The person whose conscience has become seared is incapable of being righteous or committing any righteous acts and often exercises little control over his unrighteous acts
Is There Hope?
The only possible hope for humanity is through Jesus Christ. If the Body of Christ can return to the place God wants it to be through much prayer, supplication, and intercession, there is still hope, but only if the hearts of those whose consciences are still functional can be turned before they also become seared.
Politics and politicians will not, repeat NOT, solve the problems of this sick World. As Bonnie Harvey of Hebrew Nation Radio said so eloquently, “There is no political solution to a spiritual problem”, and the greatest spiritual problem causing the misery that we see is……
The Sin That is Killing the Human Conscience. Let us pray that we still have time to make a difference in the lives of those who can still be reached by God’s Spirit with the word of God that can save their lives, both in this World and that to come.
Maranatha and Blessings!
