Our Conscience as our guide to heaven?
If we had a roomful of people...wait we do....right here in JU. Okay right here on JU it's hard to get even two of us completely on the same page regarding what good is, forget about how we can make it to heaven. How can that be if God has given us a conscience to follow? Wouldn't he place the same things in there for us all?
In Stanley's book on being good he put in a story about an anthropologist who spent time in New Guinea with a tribe that celebrated betrayal. The ability to win the confidence of someone in order to later betray him was viewed as a virtue. When the story of Jesus was told, members of the tribe stood up and clapped when the story got to the part about Judas betraying Jesus. They thought Judas was the hero. That was their mindset. Betrayal was good.
There is no true consensus of conscience amoung us. We go by what "feels" good to us. I think we should all adopt my personal value system and act accordingly. Isn't that what we think? But yet, we keep seeing others who insist on doing things they "feel" is right. They are not listening to us.
A problem with trusting in our own internal sense of right and wrong as a divine compass is that our compass keeps changing. What I was dogmatic about when I was younger doesn't matter much to me now some twenty years later. Getting drunk, living with the opposite sex, cheating on taxes that I could rationalize about, wouldn't have bothered me like it does today. What does this mean? I thought I was good back then. I wasn't as bad as most. According to the world I was pretty squeaky clean.
It means we change. Our morals, values and ethics change over the years. So which standard does God use? Does he use our adolecent standard? Our single not married standard? Our married and now think differently standard? Our now have children and can understand things much differently standard? How come God hasn't told us which standard he's using?
Ok, this is about the time somebody throws the 10 commandments my way and says...this is it. The problem is, there is no connection with the 10 commandments and heaven. Nada. Zilch. Check it out yourself. There is no promise of heaven attached to these commandments. In fact, a big Jewish elite group...the Sadducees didn't believe in an afterlife at all!!
Nowhere can we find these commandments guarantee eternal life. Too bad for all those that depend on these do's and don'ts to get them past the pearly gates. They are going to be disappointed big time. So what was their purpose then?
They were to provide a social and civil way of life for the nation of Israel in much the same way as we have laws that govern our society. They needed laws to live by as we do now. When they left Egypt they had no rules or system of government. So God gave them a set of rules to live by but nowhere did he promise heaven for those who kept the law. Nowhere did he threaten hell for those who didn't. He expected they wouldn't be able to keep these laws so that's why he set up the sacrificial system.
They got off track many times and God sent warnings via the prophets. They chose to ignore God more than once but even then God never threatened hell on them or abandoned them for that matter. They had consequences that would come into play but never the promise of heaven or hell mentioned during any of these times.
The NT comes right out and give us what the OT implies. "There is none righteous, not even one.........Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by observing the law; rather through the law we become conscious of sin." Rom 3:10, 20.
So there you have it, no one can reach heaven by being good. That pretty much sums it up. Good people are not going to heaven because they are......... well....just good people.
Later....taking the test.