Thursday, October 17, 2019

A bad conscience leads to bad theology

Blacked out, power outage, bible study, last night...
Our church, bible study (home group) discussed 1 Timothy 1: 18-19, from last Sunday's sermon.

1 Timothy 1:18-19 New American Standard Bible (NASB) 18 This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my [a]son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, 19 keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to [b]their faith.

Footnotes: 1 Timothy 1:18 Or child 1 Timothy 1:19 Lit the

Bible Hub συνείδησιν 1 Timothy

Noun, accusative, feminine, singular

Bible Hub Strongs

4893 Strong's Concordance suneidésis: consciousness, spec. conscience Original Word: συνείδησις, εως, ἡ Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine Transliteration: suneidésis Phonetic Spelling: (soon-i'-day-sis) Definition: consciousness, conscience Usage: the conscience, a persisting notion.
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In my agreement with my pastor and his sermon (paraphrased by my theology)...

A bad conscience leads to bad theology.

A significantly corrupted conscience, is not under submission to the Holy Spirit and therefore produces corrupted theology, which is also not in submission to the Holy Spirit, and is not biblically correct.

Verse 20 from the NASB, quote Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme. These men are placed put of the Church, until they do not present blasphemous doctrines, which are not based on divinely inspired apostolic teachings.

They are excommunicated. Nute (1476).

John Calvin explains in the Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 13, Section 3:

Conscience, when it beholds God, must either have sure peace with his justice, or be beset by the terrors of hell.

A regenerated (Titus 1), justified (Romans) Christian conscience, under the applied atoning and resurrection work of Jesus Christ, must either submit to God's justice, including doctrines, dogmas and theology, or else be beset by philosophies and theologies of hell. I am not stating that all in the Church that embrace key false doctrines are hellbound; the Apostle Paul, for example, does not indicate this in the 1 Timothy, example. But, I agree with John Calvin (paraphrased) that a scarred conscience, spirit and mind that embraces bad theology is facing the terrors of hell, even if just in this temporal life, in a filtered 'hellish' sense.

Allan G. Nute in his 1 Timothy commentary explains that when a consciousness of sin fails to repent in forgiveness, it creates a destructive faith, which the Apostle Paul calls blasphemous. (1476).

CALVIN, JOHN (1539)(1998) The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, Translated by Henry Beveridge, Grand Rapids, The Christian Classic Ethereal Library, Wheaton College.

CALVIN, JOHN (1539)(1998) The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III, Translated by Henry Beveridge, Grand Rapids, The Christian Classic Ethereal Library, Wheaton College.

CALVIN, JOHN (1539)(1998) The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, Translated by Henry Beveridge, Grand Rapids, The Christian Classic Ethereal Library, Wheaton College.

NUTE, ALAN G. (1986) in '1 Timothy', The International Bible Commentary, F.F. Bruce, General Editor, Grand Rapids, Zondervan/Marshall Pickering.

STRONG, J. (1890)(1986) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Pickering, Ontario, Welch Publishing Company.
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Bonus

Burning a bridge is a way to prohibit potentially threatening premises and conclusions.

(Not usually my recommendation)