Every person has been endowed with a conscience and this is an internalized component of each one’s constitution. The conscience is the ability that enables every one to distinguish between good and evil. However, like a computer operating system, the software has been programmed to perform a certain function; but what a person writes upon it to create another program is another matter. Consequently, people develop what can be termed moral viruses. Malfunctions occur in their capacity to judge right from wrong, good from evil and truth from fiction.
While everyone starts out with a clean slate, the programming can corrupt a pure conscience so that it becomes one that develops a multiplicity of personalities. This is very much evidenced when people develop an anarchistic conscience yet find themselves possessing a inner conflict when having to make choices about moral decisions within certain situations.
For instance, I have known a person who would steal anything at anytime and at any place—even in front of your eyes without you knowing it; yet from one particular person, when it came to stealing from him, he felt compunction taking something when not asking. The reason being is a bond had formed between the two persons over a decade. The other person was a homosexual who took the young boy in at fourteen and taught him the value of saving money and investing; as a result the boy, now a man, was quite prosperous, owning five houses and possessing a substantial share portfolio.
What this person, who grew up learning to be a pickpocket and prostitute, understood that stealing was something you just did. It was acceptable as long as you did not get caught. Likewise hocking his anus was something he did if he was in need of money as an older child. Later on, as a older youth and an adult, he bit the pillow for pleasure whenever the occasion arose. That is what happens to boys who are seduced and corrupted by perverted adults when they are innocent children. His conscience was seared in two areas.
There is no difference between biblical times and today really. Such activities that I have described already have been going on since the Devil was able to exercise his influence on fallen man.
The Israelites had the Torah but disregarded it. Consequently, Israel was forsaken by God. Then the people would wonder why God did not answer their prayers. So they turned to false gods like the nations around them. In the book of Proverbs we read:
- If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination. (Proverbs 28:9)
The Law was a tool for Israelites by which they could sharpen their consciences. The Ten Commandments when fully understood provide us with true morality. Unfortunately, as do people today, the Israelites turned away from the Ten Commandments. In doing this, they seared their consciences.
Since people have to live with each other, our consciences let us know that some of the things we do are wrong and some are right. Lying, stealing and sexual perversions are the first pricks of conscience we learn to suppress. Across the spectrum of human behavior, searing our consciences in these three areas so that we become unmoved by these actions is all too common. Yet we hate people lying to us; hate people stealing from us; and we hate perverts watching us when we want privacy.
Interestingly, different codes of behavior among humans, while having the metadata (information that informs about the legitimacy of these codes) embedded within our conscience, has people developing different cultures. Stealing and murder are the two big “no-nos”. Yet when we consider what people do, we will find that they have a fragmented conscience, where it is alright to steal some things but not others; it is alright to lie about some matters but not others; it is alright to do certain sexual activities with some people but not others forms of perversion.
Mahatma Gandhi was of the opinion that culture shaped conscience and our worldview towards our gods and mankind. Nothing has changed much since Gandhi’s view some 100 years ago, for this appears to be the case. Just as nothing has changed in this respect since the creation of mankind.
The conscience is actually what distinguishes us from animals. But if people sear it, they become animals. Which is what history tells us that people become when they are left to their own devises. Instead of sharpening their consciences, too many people dull their consciences. The next step is to sear the conscience. A seared conscience is evidenced when someone like Idi (the third President of Uganda 1971–79) obtains enjoyment out of personally torturing those who oppose him. Or when the likes of Vlad the Impaler (1431–1476)—Prince Charles of England look alike and relative—revel in impaling tens of thousands of people alive.
King David of Israel, a man declared to have a perfect heart towards Lord God Almighty, committed adultery, then in the cover up, arranged to have the woman’s husband killed by making it look like an accident. This is a man who claimed that the blessing is found in meditating the Law of Lord God Almighty day and night.
Now when the prophet Nathan used a parable to inform David how a man did such a despicable thing as he had done, the King was furious. David was going to see to it that the person was apprehended and justice was executed—literally! Well, that was until his conscience was ignited when he, being the king, realized that his own behavior was more than despicable, for it was execrable in the extreme, after Nathan had told him that he, King David, was the man he sought to execute (2 Samuel 12:1–13).
Self-deception is the same as lying—only it is lying to oneself. In the biblical case just cited, the cover up had been blown and King David was immediately cut to the quick before God. Anguish from internal torment would have to have been exploding within. Nevertheless internal torments are better dealt with now, while there is hope of mercy, rather than having to front up to one’s malfeasance at the time the Bible points to being the day of the Great White Throne Judgment.
The moral compass that we all possess resides in our spirit. This has been the case with every human being. Unfortunately, it is seared when we override it. Doing this begins to fragment our conscience at first, but eventually it is seared and needs restoration if it is to function properly. Fragmented consciences mean fragmented relationships and nobody, apart from Lord Jesus Christ has kept the Ten Commandments without fragmenting them at one point.
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