Question 9
The Correct Answer Is: TRUE
Romans 14:23: "But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin."
When going to scripture, it is usually pretty straightforward to find out what God wants us to do, and what God doesn't want us to do. But there may be sometimes where God is silent on something, or perhaps we're not spiritually mature enough to know that something is right. What are we to do then? We're not to violate our conscience by doing it, but rather we're to study more on the issue, so we can say one way or another whether something is right to do. That's because if we do not do something in faith (knowing it to be right), then we are violating our conscience, and God says that is sin. It's not that our conscience is what determines sin, but in avoiding something that we're unsure of to be right, what we're doing is allowing God's word to be the determiner of sin. In one of the examples given in Romans 14, the esteeming of some days over others is given. To those who might come out of certain religions, celebrating holidays was banned, and so they might not be sure if they can do so in a good conscience. Those who know that God allows us to celebrate holidays as long as we don't bind those days on ourselves or others as something to be done for salvation, must not force those who don't have such knowledge to violate their conscience, for whether or not we celebrate holidays does nothing in terms of our salvation. As such, people have the liberty to make a choice as to what they want to do, and both of those choices are acceptable to God. But if we are unsure about holidays, we shouldn't celebrate them. We should study more in order to learn God's truth on the matter. What if we never overcome our conscience on matters in which God gives us liberty? Then we aren't to violate our conscience, for such would be sin.