The doctrine of the conscience

1. Definition: A conscience is a norm or standard residing in the right lobe of the mentality of the soul. The conscience is located in the heart or the right lobe of the soul — Romans 2:15; Titus 1:15.

2. The conscience establishes norms for both human and divine relationship — Acts 24:16.

3. The conscience also has a part which is designed to establish concepts of wrong or right. The conscience, therefore, convicts of wrong or evil — John 8:9.

4. The conscience establishes norms for morality, for laws of establishment, for relationship with God — Romans 2:15.

5. False norms and standards in the conscience produce legalism or self-righteousness — 1 Corinthians 8:7.

6. The law of liberty and freedom, and certain superseding laws for the believer — love, expediency, supreme sacrifice, are also related to the function of the conscience — 1 Corinthians 10:24-29.

7. Conscience is the basis for patriotism and establishment — Romans 13:5.

8. Human happiness in the field of neutral H, which is legitimate happiness, is based on compliance to the standards of one’s own conscience — 2 Corinthians 1:12. No person is a happy person who is violating his own standards.

9. Norms and standards reside in the conscience for the communication of doctrine — 2 Corinthians 4:2. By having these norms and standards in the conscience we avoid intellectual dishonesty as well as academic snobbery.

10. The function of GAP builds up the divine standards in the human conscience — 1 Timothy 1:5,19; 3:9.

11. The conscience can be distorted or destroyed by negative volition toward doctrine. Great destruction of the conscience is wrought by blackout of the soul and scar tissue of the soul.

12. Conscience establishes norms and standards for serving God — 2 Timothy 1:3; Hebrews 9:14.

13. Conscience containing doctrine is the basis for meeting the exigencies of life, handling all the problems of life during maltreatment, misunderstanding, and is directly related to capacity for life — 1 Peter 2:19; 3:16.

There are certain things that feed the conscience, like the original environment. Environment is no way of explaining away your failures, your maladjustments in life, your bad personality. But it is true that your original norms and standards are based upon your early environment. We also acquire a conscience from our early environment, whatever it may be. For this reason a stabilised early environment gives you your first great thrust in life which is a good strong conscience. So the environmental factor is a contributor to the conscience whether it is good or bad. These norms and standards are standards you carry for life, and unless there are some radical changes you pretty well have the same norms and standards that you had when you left school. Bible doctrine can change that, it si the greatest factor in adding dynamics to conscience, but outside of that there isn’t much hope. As a generation is influenced in the elementary high school stage of its life that is the way the generation will shape up or ship out, and the only thing that will ever change it is a radical disaster whereby a maximum number are destroyed in a shocking manner and the survivors have to undergo a complete change of norm or standard to survive.