Conscience

You didn’t sin by leaving the IFB or by staying as long as the works of God were displayed in you.

Rob

 

No one said life would be easy.
Sometimes we find ourselves in difficult situations where any decision we make seems to violate our conscience.
If you’re still bothered by the situation I’d suggest that there is still something to do.

I can’t tell you what you should do ... but I could make a suggestion.

Often leaders in the church desire to find out why people leave their church, arrange a meeting with your previous church’s elders.

Rob

 

A couple of questions:

Did you leave that place with a bad relationship? (ie, is there someone who offended you that you need to forgive or did you offend someone there that you need to ask forgivness from?)

Are you sure you aren't feeling a false sense of guilt or worrying that they might be right after all, because they are supposed to be more mature in their faith than you are? (my IFB parents were very good at instilling the idea that it was rebellion to disagree with them and certain pastors in certain churches I've attended had the same idea. Rebellion is of the devil you know.)

When I packed my bags, late one evening, and moved out of my parents home after a particularly abusive day (and I was well grown), I felt guilty. It didn't matter that they had completely controlled and mentally abused me for as long as I could remember. It didn't matter that they had begun to try to control and abuse my fiance(now my husband of 23 wonderful years). It didn't matter that my father had used his position in our small town to keep me unemployed and financially dependent, while allowing my mother to tell me how worthless I was going to be and how my fiance only "felt sorry for me or he wouldn't still be dating me". It didn't matter that the final straw was my mother calling around hither and yon accusing my fiance of being a drug dealer.

It didn't matter that they had done all this and more to my brother and his family.

None of that mattered. I still felt guilty. Maybe if I had honored them more. Maybe I really was rebellious. I knew what the scriptures said about rebellion "1Sa 15:23 For rebellionis as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." I didn't want to be guilty of that! If only I'd......

It wasn't until a few days later, after having recieved the wise counsel of several more mature family and church members and spending some time in tearful prayer, that I was riding in car with my fiance and felt the huge weight of all that false guilt just lift away and when it was gone, the peace that flowed was amazing.

Don't confuse false guilt with sin. Its not the same thing at all. Every time your conscience pricks you doesn't mean you have sinned. Sometimes the devil likes to whisper "but what if" in your ear to make you doubt, to cause you to fear and what he hopes will happen is that you'll hate feeling that way so badly that you'll leave God altogether. Don't let Satan win.

Even if there was sin, it is covered under the blood just like all our other sins are. Past, present, future our sins are done with. Hold on to that, and let go of the false guilt.

 

In what way did you violate your conscience by leaving the IFB?

 

I am not trying to be smart but this is like asking which is heavier a pound of rocks or a pound of feathers. If you believe that you sin because you are not doing something but you still sin if you do that very thing, and you cannot separate the two without sinning then just confess both and move on. :thumbsup:

 

What is he talking about?

How can anybody give you helpful advice if they don't know what you are talking about?

 

Where is the sin? Since when is it sin to move to another church?