YGITS: Resident Policeman

One destructive view of God is that of the “Resident Policeman,” aka – our conscience. Our conscience, that little voice of Jiminy Cricket or what have you, is not God. While it may certainly be true that our conscience can indeed give an idea as to right and wrong, it is also extremely susceptible to outside influences and culture. One person’s conscience may say eating meat is wrong, another may say no. Certain training can create a conscience that says taking a life is ok, while another creates one that abhors it no matter what. The point is, if we believe God when He says “I do not change,” (Mal. 3:6), and Jesus when He says “I am the Way…no one comes to the Father except through Me,” (Jn. 14:6), then we must understand the fact that God is not some little voice in our heads. The danger in making our conscience into God is that our conscience is not infallible, nor is it a firm foundation. Indeed, it is often fickle, weak, and easily shut-up when we really want to go against it. If our support is built on ourselves, that Jiminy Cricket conscience will get squashed all too quickly. If, however, we choose to accept God on His terms and place our decisions and thoughts on His foundation, we will have the ability to last through anything, come life, death, demons, powers, ages, wars, heights, depths, or anything else in creation that is thrown at us.