“One can follow one’s conscience, and in doing so honestly think in one’s heart of hearts one is acting well, and yet be acting wrongly,” as in the case of the “erroneous conscience” of the slaveholder.28 Such thinking demonstrates the seared conscience the Bible talks about in 1 Timothy 4:1–2, a conscience rendered insensitive by abandoning scriptural teaching for too long. Both individuals and societies can abandon biblical principles. When society does, then it plays a significant role in searing the consciences of individuals within it with unscriptural teachings and false values.
