Archive | Conscience

A Breviary of a Hard & Soft Conscience

A Breviary of a Hard & Soft Conscience

Soft_hard_virtual_fixtureJim, a believer, has been living in sin for many years. Though many people have brought his sin to his attention, he has never repented. Typically, he reasons along the lines of justifying, rationalizing or blaming.

The problem for Jim is that his conscience has responded to his methods by hardening itself, much like a person who repeatedly toughens his/her skin by sun tanning. Whether an unrepentant sinner or a sun bather, the result is the same: their sensitivities are altered in unnatural ways.

Conscience Molding

Any conscience is moldable. It can be softened or hardened, depending on how we respond to guilt and conviction. A tender conscience has a sensitivity to God’s Word. It responds promptly and precisely to conviction and the individual lives in a continual state of love, joy, peace, holiness and victory.

But a hardened conscience becomes that way because a person chooses to resist repentance. Rather than experiencing the freedom in Christ’s work on the Cross, they choose their own methods for dealing with sin.

When a person is unrepentant, the conscience has no choice but to harden itself. It hardens in order for the individual to live with himself/herself. If I repeatedly cut my hand, eventually it will toughen to the point where I will not be able to feel the pain. A healthy body is supposed to do this. A biblically informed conscience will do the same, if there is no repentance, until it is no longer biblically informed, but hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Tender or Weak?

A tender conscience is not the same as a weak conscience. A person with a weak conscience, as described in 1 Corinthians 8, is a person on the opposite end of the spectrum from the hard conscience person. While Jim has rationalized and justified his sin away, the weak conscience person has a longer sin list than God does.

In 1 Corinthians 8, the new converts believed eating meat offered to idols was a sin. Paul said it was not, but they had a weak conscience. In such a case, their consciences would need to be trained so they could eat meat offered to idols and not be falsely convicted of their new activity. It was not a big deal to Paul and the other more mature Christians, but it was a big deal for these new, weak Christian converts.

Biblically Informed Conscience

Whether our conscience is hard or weak, it needs to be informed by the Word of God and brought in line with the truth of the Word. Our conscience and the Bible, ideally, should be at the same place as far as an interpretation of what sin really is. A person with a biblically informed conscience is a person who has been freed indeed.

Unfortunately for Jim, he has chosen to ignore his guilt, as informed by the Word of God and his friends, by using various techniques to quiet his conscience. This allows him to continue in his sin and not feel the sting of guilt.

Other Relevant Articles on the Conscience

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Sex Before Marriage Leads to a Trail of Tears

Sex Before Marriage Leads to a Trail of Tears

tearsSue had sex with Bill before they were married. Now they are having problems 15 years later. Truth be known, they have been having problems all along.

While counseling Sue and Bill, I asked them if they had sex together before they were married. I don’t know what the percentages are, but the overwhelming number of couples I see for marriage counseling have had consensual sex before they married one another. Their fornicating as teens is not all of their problems, but there is typically a thin line that courses back through their marriage and is connected in some way to their unresolved infidelity.

Hiding Sin Causes the Conscience to Take Its Revenge

Because the fornication issue was never resolved, their ignoring of the problem has led to their own versions of dealing with the problem. Here is a sampling of some of the twisted processes Sue has gone through, in her head, in order to make amends for her teenage indiscretion.

  • Lying: I’ve tried ignoring our sin
  • Guilt: I’ve done wrong
  • Blame: He did wrong and he is going to pay
  • Self-Loathing: I’ve done wrong so I’m going to pay by punishing myself
  • Anorexia: same as the self-loathing response
  • Atonement: I’ve done wrong and I must pay for this
  • Anger: He did wrong and I’m mad
  • Fear: I’ve done wrong and God is mad with me
  • Repent: I’ve never really done that, don’t know how
  • Forgiveness: I’ve never really done that, don’t want to
  • Freedom: I’ve never really known that
  • Hopelessness: It seems too late for hope
  • Manipulation: I use sex as a weapon to punish Bill
  • Mistrust: I don’t trust what Bill says. He defrauded me
  • Cynicism: I don’t trust God. He let this happen
  • Shame: I don’t want to talk about it with God, Bill or others
  • Regret: I wish, I wish, I wish, ad nausea…

Sin is real and it has to be dealt with in biblical ways. Bill and Sue have made a choice not to confront this particular sin head on. Instead they have used various forms of denials, justifications and rationalizations. But sin will not be fooled. Sin will exact a payment from someone. It must. It’s an unalterable law. This is the beauty and glory of Christ’s death on the Cross. Sin was paid for! We can repent and accept the payment Christ made on the Tree.

The Revenge of the Conscience

Sadly, Bill and Sue have chosen to let sin exact its payment from them instead of Christ. The side effects of letting sin have its way with you is a hardened conscience. Your conscience is God’s kindness to you to let you know you need to respond to sin. But if you choose not to respond to your sin biblically, through repentance, then the hardening process takes place. At that point you enter into self-deception through various forms of lying. (See the list above.) This allows you to hold on to your sin and live with yourself. A hardened conscience is man’s way to cope with his unrepentant sin.

The conscience has been taking its revenge on Bill and Sue for fifteen years.

Look here for other articles on the conscience

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Speak to the Ally Within

Speak to the Ally Within

dsc00591bwYou ever wondered if you were making a “dent” in the person you were trying to help? When you’re counseling your son or daughter, do you feel as though you’re hitting a brick wall?

These are not unusual experiences when you’re trying to communicate truth to someone who appears to not be listening. Here are two biblical truths that may encourage you when the going gets tough.

Remember Your Two Friends When Counseling

The Spirit – if the person you are talking to is a Christian, then the Holy Spirit is in them and working at some level. They may be trying to thwart the work of the Spirit within them, but they cannot totally silence him. They can grieve the Spirit. They can also resist the Spirit, but they can never overcome the Spirit.

There have been numerous times in counseling or small group meetings where I would be talking to one person and someone else inevitably says,

Wow, that not only applies to them, but it also applies to me. While I was sitting there listening to you talk to her, it was like the Spirit was saying, Hey, you may want to listen up here. This applies to you as well. I was feeling pretty convicted, though you were talking to her.

This is how the Spirit works. I’m sure there have been many times in your experience, as you have read the bible, that while Paul might be talking to Timothy or the Corinthians, the Spirit of God begins to work in your heart.

Remember the work of the Holy Spirit. He is for you and he can go where you cannot. This also should encourage you to make prayer a major part of your parenting or counseling. Ultimately, if a person does change, it is the Spirit of God that brings that change. Trust him. Talk to him. Rely on him Rest in him.

Your Other Friend

The Conscience – a part of God’s kindness to us is seen through him “wiring” us with a conscience. The word conscience is a compound Latin word: con science. The word literally means co knowledge.

The conscience is our “moral thermostat”. Its purpose is to tell you if you are right or wrong. Every human has a conscience. Here are some conscience scenarios that may help you discern the people you are trying to help:

Christian conscience – this is the best-case-scenario when working with someone. Their conscience is informed by God, who made their conscience, which means their conscience is informed by the Word of God. You can speak truth to them and their conscience will bear witness to that truth and hopefully they will change their thoughts or behavior according to that truth.

thermometer

Non-Christian conscience – their conscience is not shaped by the Word of God, but they do have a morality of some sort. They will tell you their version of what is right or wrong. They may be for abortion, but against killing dogs, for example. Paul talked about them in Romans 2:14-15. Your goal would be to try to intersect with them at some level of their conscience.

Hard conscience – a person who has been living in unrepentant sin will have a hard conscience. Their conscience has to be hard in order for them to continue to live in their sin. They can harden their conscience several ways, e.g. blame-shifting, justifying, rationalizing. What they are doing is re-categorizing their problems. The more they shift the responsibility of their situation from them to something else, the gradual hardening process will ensue. Without hardening, they could not live with themselves. Additionally, this kind of person has an agenda, which is to continue in their sin.

Weak conscience – this is a self-focused person who has a higher view of sin than the bible. You can find them in legalistic cultures where there are an array of rules that they attach to their religion. You must tread carefully with these people because, unlike the hardened conscience person, the weak conscience person is fear-based and guilt-motivated: they are easily offended, hurt or angered. Their list of right and wrong can be exhausting.

The Bottom Line

You have two friends in your counseling sessions. Pray to the Spirit and speak to their conscience. It is really encouraging when you think about it. You have the power of God in the Gospel. You have the Word of God. You have the Spirit of God. You are the spokesperson for God. And the person you are talking to has a conscience. Inside and out, you have a lot of resources that God brings to the table to help people through their difficulties.

You should not be trying too hard to help people. You don’t have to. And, if you are, then read this: Responsible or Concerned? How to think about those you’re trying to help.

Look here for other articles on this subject

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The Conscience: Friend or Foe?

The Conscience: Friend or Foe?

The conscience is that “inner voice” that is in all of us. It comes from the Latin and means “co-knowledge.” It is how God wired us. He gave us a “voice” to guide us, but when sin is thrown into the mix the conscience can fly sideways and easily send us adrift from what God desires for us. Most certainly the conscience is our guide, but sometimes it can get us lost because of the deceitfulness of sin. The conscience is our highest level of moral authority according to the teachings of Scripture.

John MacArthur has written a very good treatment on the conscience called The Vanishing Conscience. Also J. Budziszewski has written an excellent book called The Revenge of the Conscience. I’ve read both of these books and have found them very helpful in understanding how God has wired me internally and how my culture, religion and other influences can screw up my thinking and practice.

  • Romans 2:15 gives me hints about how the conscience can permit or accuse what I do.
  • 1 Timothy 4:2 talks about how my conscience can be hardened.
  • 1 Corinthians 8 tells me about how my conscience can be weak and condemning.

In counseling I typically see three types of consciences:

#1-A biblically informed conscience. This is a person who has over the years informed their conscience with the bible. They have gone from a hard conscience not caring about God to living within God’s kind guidance. They are not typically bound in their conscience by legalism. For example they can drink a glass of wine, not get drunk and their conscience is free and clear and God-glorifying. Or they can dress like their culture, but not draw attention to themselves by either being very different in dress or by being immodest and seeking acceptance by showing off body parts: they, just like the Savior can blend, but not sin.

#2-A hardened conscience, influenced by sin. This is a person who does not really care about morality, God or others. Their god is their belly, as the bible calls it. They live for themselves. They are selfish, self-centered and pursue various forms of hedonism for self-gratification. They may give a courtesy nod to their conscience by saying that as long as I’m not hurting anyone then I’m okay. This is a conscience-acknowledging statement. Their conscience does not let them alone, at least not in the beginning. The logical end of this kind of living is God turning them over to their sin. You can find this downward spiral in Romans 1:18 through the end of the chapter. The beginning of the path downward is the person who tries to suppress their conscience. If they succeed, which they really cannot do, they will head into deeper sin while hardening (suppressing) their conscience along the way so they can live with their sin. They are usually miserable, though they go to great lengths to mask their misery.

#3-The weak conscience informed by tradition, culture or religion. This typically is a Christian or Christianized person and is the most common type of person that I counsel. They have lists, rules, regs, laws, preferences and more. They can be tightly wound and very opinionated regarding their preferences and do not necessarily struggle with imposing their “standards” on others. They can struggle with anger and it is not unusual for them to be participating in some kind of secret, habitual sin.

They also would be fear motivated because they live in a “comparison culture.” They regularly compare a person to their standard or they compare their own standard to someone else. This is how they approve or disapprove of one another. It’s complicated and twisted and can lead to odd standards and unnecessary separations. They have created a “doctrine” to support their practice called the “doctrine of separation.” They do not usually have close, deep and long-term relationships with people that are not like them.

This fear comes from poor teaching. I Corinthians 8 is an excellent case study for weak believers. Our brothers and sisters in 1 Corinthians 8 believed eating meat sacrificed to idols was a sin. They were wrong, but Paul’s main point was not for them but for those who knew better. He was teaching the biblically-informed conscience person how they should respond to weak believers, which was in love. It’s a great study.

As a biblical counselor it is not uncommon to spend a lot of time walking weak believers through their unnecessary conscience issues. It’s a big part of counseling and all of us who do soul work need to think deeply and reflectively about how to engage our friends at the level of their bound hearts.

If you would like more info or links on the conscience please contact me and let’s talk. If you are a bound-Christian and need help, let’s talk.

Response to my statement “the conscience is our highest level of morality.”

Also you may want to take some time to read through my articles on Legalism. Legalism is a conscience killer, which usually is tied to a poor understanding of the term worldliness.


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Mailbag: Why I Struggle with Secret Sin

Mailbag: Why I Struggle with Secret Sin

TheSecretLogoHere is a question from one of my blog readers regarding my post on the conscience. You can find my original post here: The Conscience: Friend or Foe? Here is his question:

How or why do you see the 3rd category of people struggling more often with “some kind of secret, habitual sin?” Wouldn’t the second category usually be controlled by such a sin? Perhaps even a biblically informed conscience could fall into the trap of sin. What is your reason for this correlation?

Now this is an insightful question! Somebody is thinking.

Truthfully all people can be struggling with some kind of secret, habitual sin. Whether your conscience is biblically informed, hardened or weak. Sin can find its home in anyone. So, in short, all three categories of people can be tripping over any type of sin issue. Sadly, I would be the poster child for this!

I used the label “secret and habitual” sin in the third category merely to give the reader an idea of what this person could look like. Perhaps I should unpack all three persons explaining how all three can be struggling similarly though their consciences are shaped differently.

As for number three, the weak conscience individual, what follows is part of the why and how they can be caught in habitual sin.

In short, they are legalists. They live by rules. They are self-righteous. All legalists are self-righteous, which means they think themselves to have a measure of righteousness because of their rule-keeping. I’m sure if most legalist were to take a “Christian Exam” they would check the box that says “there is none righteous, no not one.” (See Romans 3:10-12)

However, I’m not talking about how we take Christian exams, but how we functionally live at the level of the heart. Because, in truth, what I believe and how I really live do not always coincide.

Therefore, a Christian who is tempted to struggle with a measure of righteousness will be tempted not to tell the whole truth about who they are and what they practice. Basically, if I think I’m good or if I wanted others to think I’m good then I will be tempted to lie about who I really am. Because at the end of the day I’m not a righteous person, but if I want people to think well of me (Read: Hey, look at my righteousness!) I will be tempted to hide certain things that people may disapprove of.

I’ve seen the “hiding” work out in a couple of ways:

  1. Lying or hiding some of my practices because my sense of shame is colliding with my desire to be thought well of. Therefore, I choose to cover up.
  2. Limited sin categories is another common trait with legalists. A legalist can have big sin categories like drunkenness, adultery or murder. But humility, gossip, character, integrity and other such categories can be muted at the level of the conscience.

It is not unusual for a person who is somewhat impressed with himself not to be totally honest about the life he lives. And more than likely he doesn’t want those close to him to find out who he really is.

You can read more about legalism here: Investigating Legalism

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Mailbag: Scripture or Conscience: which do we obey?

Here is an excellent question from one of my blog readers. It was so good that I thought a post would be helpful. Here are his comments: Thanks for the article. Let me ask a couple questions though: 1) Is the conscience our highest level of moral authority or is Scripture? And if conscience is, where does Scripture say this? Thanks.

Here’s the link to the blog post my friend is referring to: The Conscience: Friend or Foe

To be honest with you I was hoping someone would ask question number one, because it is an important one and I’m not too sure that we all get the implications of what my friend is asking. I made a passing reference to what he is asking but did not elaborate, hence my gratitude for his question. Here is what I said: Most certainly the conscience is our guide, but sometimes it can get us lost because of the deceitfulness of sin. The conscience is our highest level of moral authority according to the teachings of Scripture.

I read one of those church signs a few years back that said, “Your conscience is always right.” When I read it I cringed. That is not a true statement. I would simply refer the church sign guy to 1 Cor. 8 to substantiate this. Your conscience can be wrong. The “non-meat eaters” in 1 Cor. 8 thought it was a sin to eat meat. Paul said it was not a sin to eat meat. Their conscience had been wrongly informed; therefore their conscience was wrong in this case.

They were legalist who had been given some bad information and the information reshaped their conscience and now they believe, from the level of the conscience, it is sin to eat meat. Paul was bringing a corrective.

There is no place in Scripture where it says our conscience is our “highest level of morality.” However the implication of Scripture is that the conscience is our highest level of morality as we see in 1 Cor. 8. Paul also deals with the conscience in Romans 14. In Romans he is interacting again with the wrongly informed meat-eaters. Here is what he says in verse 14: Romans 14:14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. (ESV) 

Paul is persuaded that nothing is unclean in itself. He has a proper view of worldliness. Worldliness is in the heart rather than the world. (See my posts on Investigating Legalism to get a better understanding of worldliness.) Paul got it. However, there were a group of people who did not believe as Paul did. They believed that eating meat was sin. They had an authority outside of Scripture, their conscience. Paul responded to this by saying that if a person thinks eating meat is unclean, then it is unclean. In short, if he thinks it is sin in his conscience, then it is sin.

So there you have it: Paul says it is NOT sin according to Scripture but the weak believer says it IS sin according to their conscience, so Paul agrees that it is sin for the weak believer to eat meat because their conscience says so. In this case the believer’s weak conscience trumps the Bible. The weak believer’s conscience is a higher level of morality than the Bible.

Is their conscience right? Of course not, but that is not the deal. The deal is that a person cannot (or should not) sin against their conscience because the real issue is a faith issue. The just live by faith and Paul continued on to say in verse 23 that if you cannot do what you do in faith then it is a sin. Or as Jay Adams would paraphrase, “When in doubt, don’t!”

Therefore if the weak believing meat eater cannot eat meat in faith (trusting God that it is okay) then it would be a sin for them to eat meat. It would also be a sin for a stronger, non-bound Christian, to force their biblically informed conscience on the weak believer, even though the non-bound Christian is right. In short, Paul is teaching us to let our conscience be our guide, but we must also make sure we are seeking to line our conscience up with Scripture.

Here are some examples of this in our culture:

Example One: a lady believes it is a sin to wear make-up. She moves to a new job in another part of the country that does not have such strict beliefs about make-up. She wants to be like everyone else, but she has been told all her life that make-up wearing is a sin. Therefore, if she put on make-up and her conscience condemned her then she would be sinning to wear make-up. It is sin to be condemned in the conscience. The conscience is our highest level of morality.

However, our conscience could be wrong. In such cases the more mature believer should come alongside the weak believer and help them to inform their conscience correctly (re-teach them) so she can wear make-up and not be condemned in her conscience. She can wear make-up and be in faith that she is not doing anything wrong.

Example Two: A person has been told that contemporary music is of the devil and it leads one to sin. Therefore it would be a sin for them to listen to contemporary music if their weak conscience is condemning them. Paul would ask the mature believer to serve the weak believer in love and patience while walking them through their unbiblical thinking so they can be released from a condemning, non-biblically informed conscience.

Example Three: Alcohol, Inter-racial dating/marriage, movie watching and a myriad of other issues that we have been shaped in our conscience to believe is sin. Unfortunately this wrong teaching can happen through poor teaching in some traditional religious strands.

This is an excellent question that needed to be asked. It is hugely important that we understand this as we seek to serve our friends.

BE WARNED: For those who know better there can be temptations. Usually there are at least two:

  1. Fear of man where we cave-in to the weak believer and do not try to lovingly, patiently and skillfully bring them out of their weakness. 
  2. Arrogance where we take our “knowledge” and treat them as ignorant while becoming impatient with them in their weakness. Basically saying, “get over it.”

I’ll answer question two tomorrow.

In This Series

  1. The Conscience: Friend of Foe
  2. Scripture or Conscience: Which Do We Obey?

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The Conscience: Friend or Foe

The Conscience: Friend or Foe

The conscience is that “inner voice” that is in all of us. It comes from the Latin and means “co-knowledge.” It is how God wired us. He gave us a “voice” to guide us, but when sin is thrown into the mix the conscience can fly sideways and easily send us adrift from what God desires for us. Most certainly the conscience is our guide, but sometimes it can get us lost because of the deceitfulness of sin. The conscience is our highest level of moral authority according to the teachings of Scripture.

John MacArthur has written a very good treatment on the conscience called The Vanishing Conscience. Also J. Budziszewski has written an excellent book called The Revenge of the Conscience. I’ve read both of these books and have found them very helpful in understanding how God has wired me internally and how my culture, religion and other influences can screw up my thinking and practice.

  • Romans 2:15 gives me hints about how the conscience can permit or accuse what I do.
  • 1 Timothy 4:2 talks about how my conscience can be hardened.
  • 1 Corinthians 8 tells me about how my conscience can be weak and condemning.

In counseling I typically see three types of consciences:

#1-A biblically informed conscience. This is a person who has over the years informed their conscience with the bible. They have gone from a hard conscience not caring about God to living within God’s kind guidance. They are not typically bound in their conscience by legalism. For example they can drink a glass of wine, not get drunk and their conscience is free and clear and God-glorifying. Or they can dress like their culture, but not draw attention to themselves by either being very different in dress or by being immodest and seeking acceptance by showing off body parts: they, just like the Savior can blend, but not sin.

#2-A hardened conscience, influenced by sin. This is a person who does not really care about morality, God or others. Their god is their belly, as the bible calls it. They live for themselves. They are selfish, self-centered and pursue various forms of hedonism for self-gratification. They may give a courtesy nod to their conscience by saying that as long as I’m not hurting anyone then I’m okay. This is a conscience-acknowledging statement. Their conscience does not let them alone, at least not in the beginning. The logical end of this kind of living is God turning them over to their sin. You can find this downward spiral in Romans 1:18 through the end of the chapter. The beginning of the path downward is the person who tries to suppress their conscience. If they succeed, which they really cannot do, they will head into deeper sin while hardening (suppressing) their conscience along the way so they can live with their sin. They are usually miserable, though they go to great lengths to mask their misery.

#3-The weak conscience informed by tradition, culture or religion. This typically is a Christian or Christianized person and is the most common type of person that I counsel. They have lists, rules, regs, laws, preferences and more. They can be tightly wound and very opinionated regarding their preferences and do not necessarily struggle with imposing their “standards” on others. They can struggle with anger and it is not unusual for them to be participating in some kind of secret, habitual sin.

They also would be fear motivated because they live in a “comparison culture.” They regularly compare a person to their standard or they compare their own standard to someone else. This is how they approve or disapprove of one another. It’s complicated and twisted and can lead to odd standards and unnecessary separations. They have created a “doctrine” to support their practice called the “doctrine of separation.” They do not usually have close, deep and long-term relationships with people that are not like them.

This fear comes from poor teaching. I Corinthians 8 is an excellent case study for weak believers. Our brothers and sisters in 1 Corinthians 8 believed eating meat sacrificed to idols was a sin. They were wrong, but Paul’s main point was not for them but for those who knew better. He was teaching the biblically-informed conscience person how they should respond to weak believers, which was in love. It’s a great study.

As a biblical counselor it is not uncommon to spend a lot of time walking weak believers through their unnecessary conscience issues. It’s a big part of counseling and all of us who do soul work need to think deeply and reflectively about how to engage our friends at the level of their bound hearts.

If you would like more info or links on the conscience please contact me and let’s talk. If you are a bound-Christian and need help, let’s talk.

Response to my statement “the conscience is our highest level of morality.”

Also you may want to take some time to read through my articles on Legalism. Legalism is a conscience killer, which usually is tied to a poor understanding of the term worldliness.

In This Series

  1. The Conscience: Friend of Foe
  2. Scripture or Conscience: Which Do We Obey?

Checkout some of our training videos on our YouTube Channel

Free Counseling Advice via Twitter
Free Counseling Advice via Weekly eBlast
Checkout Counseling Solution’s Membership Training Site

  • Share/Bookmark
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Re-categorizing My Problems

Christians are rapidly losing sight of sin as the root of all human woes. And many Christians are explicitly denying that their own sin can be the cause of their personal anguish. More and more are attempting to explain the human dilemma in wholly unbiblical terms: temperament, addiction, dysfunctional families, the child within, codependency, and a host of other irresponsible escape mechanisms promoted by secular psychology.

The potential impact of such a drift is frightening. Remove the reality of sin and you take away the possibility of repentance. Abolish the doctrine of human depravity and you void the divine plan of salvation. Erase the notion of personal guilt and you eliminate the need for a Savior.

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