John 16:2

The third point is that a conscience can function only according to what it knows, and in relation to God, only according to what it knows about God and about His way. If a person is ignorant of the moral standards of God, the conscience cannot function at that level. It is simply beyond that person's grasp. This allows a person to do evil things—evil in relation to how God defines it—and to do it in a perfectly clear conscience. Proof of this is John 16:2, which says, "They shall put you out of the synagogues [out of the church, out of the fellowship within a church]; yes the time comes that whosoever kills you [is that evil?] will think that he does God service."

According to the last phrase of that verse, a person can kill somebody and think that he is doing an act of worship. It is interesting that a conscience can be so educated as to allow a person to do something that is terribly evil and think that he is actually worshipping God in doing it.

Are there not religions, are there not lands, are there not people in the world who feel that they are able to, let us say, earn themselves points, or to feel good about putting others to death? I am thinking of those who are part of the Islamic faith. In putting down the infidel (as they look at it), they think they do God service, and believe this act earns them a higher place in paradise.

What is really perverse is that Jesus uttered this in the light of people who were well aware of Christianity—that they put them out of the synagogue. "Synagogue" is associated with Judaism, and He is speaking to Christian people, and so here He is talking about people who have knowledge of the way, who think they are doing God service.

Did this happen in the Inquisition? Did not people who claimed to be Christian put to death other people who were claiming to be Christian, and think they did God service? The conscience had been twisted to such a position, to such a level, that allowed them to do that. We need to think about this because we are moving toward a time in which this is going to be repeated once again, and in far greater intensity.

John 16:1-2

This is a sobering verse. In an extreme case it did happen. Jesus' prophecy came true. It clearly shows that it is entirely possible to do an evil thing, like kill, and feel good about it. It can feel so good that the evil is considered to actually be an act of worship to God. Now how about that kind of a conscience?

These people that Jesus was concerned about were Christian people. I think it is clear from the context that He was talking about the persecutions that were going to come from others who were also familiar with the Word of God—most of the Jews who would be familiar with the Old Testament. This just reinforces the apostle Paul and what he did. His education was incomplete, and so he was able to persecute and perhaps even be responsible for the death of some Christians. Certainly he persecuted them to the extent that they were thrown into prison. He persecuted the true church, and he felt justified, he felt good, in what he did.

We can come up into history and think about things that took place during the Inquisition. There again we are faced with a historical situation in which people who were at least supposed to be familiar with the Word of God—in this case not just the Old Testament but also the New Testament—and yet they put to death many people who were really true Christians. They did what they did thinking that they were doing God a service, that they were actually doing an act of worship of God.

We can date that up even further to the present. We have people on earth who feel it is their duty to kill people of other religions because their god requires that of them, and they think they are earning themselves rewards. I am thinking of those who are a part of the Islamic faith, and putting together others who are not Islamic. The mind—the conscience—under the influence of human nature is very adaptable, so we have to be careful of it.