In 1984, an Avianca Airlines jet crashed in Spain. Investigators studying the accident made an eerie discovery. The “black box” cockpit recorders revealed that several
minutes before impact a shrill, computer synthesized voice from the plane’s automatic
warning system told the crew repeatedly in English, “Pull up! Pull up!”
The pilot, evidently thinking the system was malfunctioning, snapped, “Shut up, Gringo!”
and switched the system off. Minutes later the plane plowed into the side of a mountain.
Everyone on board died.
When I saw that tragic story on the news shortly after it happened, it struck me as
a perfect parable of the way modern people treat the warning messages of their
consciences. The wisdom of our age says guilt feelings are nearly always erroneous or
hurtful; therefore we should switch them off.
But that kind of thinking betrays a deep misunderstanding of what the conscience is
and how it works. Your conscience isn’t the voice of God or the law of God. It’s not an
external force of any kind.
As the Puritan Richard Sibbes wrote, the conscience is "the soul reflecting upon itself."1
Put another way, it is the human faculty that judges our actions and thoughts by the
light of the highest standard we perceive. Like any warning system, it needs to be
programmed—it needs to be taught and trained to discern right from wrong before it can
be fully effective.
Your standard for morality—whatever it is—will shape, guide, and direct your
conscience.
Therefore, it’s absolutely crucial to establish the Lord’s holy standard for purity and
godliness in your own heart. Anything less will lead you to have a weak, shallow
conscience that regularly permits you to fall short of God’s commands.
Or worse—it could lead you to sin. If you subscribe to the world’s no-shame, man- centered standard, your conscience can actually encourage you to sin. It can become so perverted and twisted that it makes you think you ought to be lying, cheating, and gossiping. It might even make you believe, as many people do today, that it is normal to get drunk, defraud people, and have sex outside of marriage.
The fastest way to turn yourself over to the corruption of the world is to adopt its faulty,
post-modern standard of morality and pervert your own conscience.
Instead you need to guard your conscience and protect it from the pollution of the world.
You need to feed it regularly on the rich truth of God’s Word, establishing His perfect
law as the standard for your life. You do that through faithful personal Bible study,
consistent intake of quality teaching and exhortation from Scripture, godly accountability
and persistent self-examination.
The Lord gave you a conscience to help protect and defend you spiritually. But you’ve
got to protect and defend your conscience if it’s going to do you any good.
Reference: gty.org
- Alex Tan
Images taken from:
http://www.nycaviation.com/2012/01/on-this-day-in-aviation-history-january-25th/
http://thedarkglobe.wordpress.com/2012/07/12/guilty-conscience-cure/
Images taken from:
http://www.nycaviation.com/2012/01/on-this-day-in-aviation-history-january-25th/
http://thedarkglobe.wordpress.com/2012/07/12/guilty-conscience-cure/
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