Quote:
Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah
Both of your corollaries are based on the verse "let each be fully persuaded". Shouldn't there be other corollaries based on "obey your leaders"?
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I only had one corollary, it is based on the combination of the two truths.
It's only rebellion if you focus on that one verse to the exclusion of the other. Both verses taken together can only mean that conscience trumps leadership. Obeying leaders plainly cannot be an absolute requirement.
Conscience includes God's direct leading. For example, if I feel God is leading me to move to another city and my elder says I shouldn't, I still have to follow my leading if it doesn't change and he should honor that. Outside of strong feelings of leading otherwise, we should follow leaders.
Of course, some might say, well, that gives people an "out" to claiming "leading" they don't really have. But if you are going to mistrust the integrity and inner registrations of others the church can't work in the first place. Plus it is contrary to Jeremiah 31:34/Hebrew 8:11:
"No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD.
Conscience actually trumps everything, because in order to know if anything is right, including obeying leaders, your conscience must tell you. There is no registration of right and wrong without conscience.
So when you say, obey your conscience except when it contradicts your leaders, you are really saying, obey your conscience except when your conscience tells you not to obey your conscience. Which is absurd.