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The Bible on Entertainment - PART 5 The Conscience Filter

THE CONSCIENCE FILTER

Another way in which the Christian can determine if a particular form of entertainment is something to avoid is to consult the conscience. This is a bit of a confusing subject because no one really knows what the conscience is? I’ve been doing some research on the subject and hopefully will be able to make sense of it.

The bible does speak about the conscience, so we can draw some conclusions from there. Most of us understand the conscience to be that “inner voice” that helps us determine right from wrong. However, there is a little bit more to it than that. The conscience doesn’t actually determine what is right or wrong. More precisely, it recognizes the rules, customs, and laws that it has been educated in, and then responds with affirmation or guilt when an action is taken.

The conscience must be educated through the proper teaching of God’s truth. The bible never indicates that the answers of conscience come directly from God, so the conscience can not always be trusted and should only be used as a guide for making decisions. God’s word is the only infallible “standard” by which to judge right and wrong. The bible gives several categories for a person’s conscience. It can be pure, weak, wounded, seared, defiled, or evil. Christians should strive for a “pure” conscience. This is the conscience that can respond as closely as possible to the “divine” standard when an action is about to be taken. The response is either, “go ahead, everything is fine” or “don’t even think about it”.

The way we can utilize the conscience, is to inform ourselves of the content of our entertainment, and then “listen” to the conscience. Does it affirm, or convict? To go ahead and ignore the warnings of the conscience is to sear or weaken it. The more we do that as we go through life, the more defiled and "evil" our conscience can become. If you have to hide, in any way, something you do, watch, or listen to, then you are ashamed and this thing has been condemned by your conscience. Consider why you are ashamed of that thing.

In Romans Ch. 14, in verse 22-23, (My paraphrase here) Paul tells us that our conscience represents an aspect of our faith, and that it is a sin to act in a way contrary to your faith. So, soak yourself in the words of Scripture to properly educate your conscience and then set about the task of protecting and listening to your conscience, so that it can properly function to assist in good decision-making.

Part 6
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To view this entire essay in all it's parts click the link below:
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dd39qkdv_128g6hwg3dr

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