Biblical Conviction vs. Personal Conviction and other sundry controversies...

Recently I posted my thoughts on Halloween and gave a brief overview of our family's journey to the decision not to participate in any of the traditional Halloween festivities or the newer 'churchy' alternatives. This sparked a lively discussion which I have thoroughly enjoyed! I love a good debate and I think debating an issue is good exercise for your 'spiritual muscles'.

One of the comments to that post posed some interesting questions that bring up several key points I would like to address. Since the commenter was anonymous, I am taking the liberty of posting his or her question here. There is so much to discuss in this one comment that I decided to write a second post and give you my thoughts on these subjects. (to read the comments and the answers that led up to this question, click here)

Anonymous said...
There is a difference between personal and biblical convictions. The verses that Lady Why used do not speak directly or indirectly to Halloween. Many of those verses aren't even in context. I am not trying to act superior, but the verses you used have to be taken in context. You can't just use them to make your case. Unbelievers take verses out of context to suit their argument. You're doing the same thing.I do agree that you shouldn't celebrate Halloween if you believe that God doesn't want that for you. Everything we do, if we're believers, should be seen through the prism of Scripture. Lady Why says that you homeschool out of conviction, but, let's say, hypothetically, that something happens, e.g., you both get very ill and can't homeschool, if you sent your kids to school (because the law states that kids are to be schooled), would you be sinning? If it's a biblically-based conviction, then you would be sinning, but if it's a personal conviction or preference, then that's a different matter. I doubt seriously that God will discipline you if you don't homeschool. I think that you're mixing the two--personal conviction and biblical. These are extraneous issues. I'm curious. Do you share the Gospel with the outside world? How often? Or, do you only associate with fellow believers who homeschool and think like you do? I am not asking these questions to be a brat, but these are legitimate questions. Everything can't be sin, guys.Thanks.

Great questions! I appreciate you asking them so I can clarify our position. First of all, you mentioned taking verses out of context to promote my own viewpoints. I think as Christians we must consider the 'whole' of Scripture and I wholeheartedly agree that Scripture is misinterpreted everyday to promote agendas. However, we don't believe that only the things that are specifically commanded with a "thou shalt not" in Scripture are sin. There is no Scripture that states "Thou shalt not have an abortion" but I don't think there is any Christian out there that will say abortion is not sin. The 'whole' of Scripture would show us that it is. In our case relating to Halloween, we began with the premise that witches, jack-o-lanterns, ghosts and such are evil. If you do not believe those sorts of things are inherently evil then Scriptures such as 1 Thess. 5:21-22 would not seem to be in context with an anti-Halloween argument. And, you very well may not have the same presumption as we have. But, I would argue that even if you are fine with all the 'trappings' of Halloween and find it all quite innocent, there are so very many people (Christian and non-Christian alike) that waffle back and forth about whether Halloween is good or bad, then participating in it could give the 'appearance of evil'. So, for that reason alone, even if I thought it was fine, I would not want to participate in something that lends itself to an evil appearance.

Now onto the question of biblical conviction vs. personal conviction. I really don't think I made myself clear in my original post but I believe this is a PERSONAL conviction that is BASED in Scripture. I do not believe it is a sin to participate in Halloween UNLESS you are convicted not to do so. Many, many, many of our friends and family are not convicted against participation in Halloween and we love them just the same and believe that they are 'right with God', if you will. The body of Christ is a diverse body with room for all sorts of disputable differences. Another example would be alcohol. We are convicted not to drink and we don't. This is a personal conviction. We have friends that do. We don't believe they are in sin. But, we will not join them in drinking alcohol just because we believe it is permissable for them to do so. They, in deference to us, don't drink when we are together. I appreciate that so much! If I do something that I know another friend has a personal conviction against, I don't do it in their presence. Not because they demand it but because I love them. Such is the case with Halloween. Will I go 'trick or treating' with my friends and family that enjoy Halloween? No. Do I love and accept them anyway? Yes. Please remember that both Mr. P and I grew up in homes that went 'all out' for Halloween! (and we don't believe our parents were in sin for celebrating Halloween, by the way) We loved it and it was a difficult decision when we decided to leave that fun family tradition behind. I get the impression that you think we're hiding in the basement of our home praying against the forces of darkness that may descend upon our front porch in cowboy costumes and princess dresses. ~wink~ Let me assure you that we are not "freaked out" by Halloween and we are not looking to find a 'devil behind every doorway'... in other words, trying to find sin in every person, place or thing of this world.

On the homeschooling question, again this for us is a PERSONAL conviction and I do not for one minute think that those that are not likewise convicted are in sin. For us, our PERSONAL conviction that is BASED in Scripture is to educate our children at home. The Lord has blessed us with the desire and ability to do that. Should He, in His providence, bring about circumstances which no longer allowed us to homeschool, I trust that He would see my children safely through their education in whatever schooling situation they found themselves. I happen to think - and this is biased, I admit! - that homeschooling is superior to any other form of education and I love every minute of it! (For a bit of background, I attended public schools, graduated from public schools and I have two college degrees - one of which is a Masters in Elementary Education, just in case you might think I have no knowledge of the 'other side'.) I wouldn't trade these years of homeschooling for all the tea in China! It is a tremendous blessing to my family and our children! While I am so thankful to be able to homeschool and see it as ideal, there are many who are unable to homeschool for various reasons. I think the Lord can work in those situations just as He is working in ours. If the Lord gave us the heart to do it, the conviction to do it and the means to do it... and then we did not do it, yes, I believe that would be sin for us.

As for sharing the gospel... Do we share the gospel with the outside world? Absolutely! How often? Hmmm, I've never counted so I can't answer that accurately. Let me say that I take sharing the gospel with a lost and dying world very seriously. My husband has more opportunity to do that in the "traditional" sense. But, I have found that the Lord puts people in my path all the time and gives me TONS of opportunities to share! The ironic thing is that homeschooling - which many people think is isolating - has actually given us the most opportunity to share the gospel! We get asked all the time while we are out and about during school hours if we are 'out of school' for the day which opens a door for discussions... some long and involved and some just a short chat. But, either way, I share the Lord and what He's done in our lives with perfect strangers regularly! We have befriended cashiers at our grocery store, drug store and our local fruit and vegetable stand by having many of these conversations and that has even led me to be able to invite one girl to church with us and for me to offer some advice to another girl about some marital problems she was having by sharing Scripture with her. We also do a lot of dog rescue (or we did before the baby was born!) and I have had four recent opportunities to share the gospel with some of the other volunteers with our rescue group... one girl had a co-worker suddenly die, one with a girl who has an abusive live-in boyfriend, one with a woman left by her husband and one with a mom struggling with a wayward teenage daughter. Those are just the most recent that come to mind quickly. Also, if you've read my blog before you know that the majority of my family and Mr. P's family are unbelievers living in various stages of rebellion against the Lord. I have a cousin that actually dabbles in the occult. We share the gospel with them every chance we get. It is our 'set apart' lifestyle that gets the most attention with them and they know we are 'different'. We use the times they question us on the 'whys' of our differences to give a reason for our hope.

One more thing before I close, our larger than average family also opens doors for sharing more than we ever expected. I wish I had a nickel for every time someone has asked us, "Don't you know what causes that?" We used to be quite annoyed by that question but we now love it and we use it as an opportunity to share the gospel and what the Lord is doing in our lives! It really does amaze me at the wide variety and number of opportunities the Lord gives our family to share the gospel! It is our privilege and our delight!!

I will add, in answer to your last question, that our closest friends... those we spend the most time with... those we share our burdens with, pray with, and seek counsel from are fellow like minded believers. Bad company corrupts good character and while we are in the world we are not of the world. We seek to allow iron to sharpen iron and we cherish our friendships with those that are like minded! We don't subscribe to the philosophy that you must look like the world to reach the world. In fact, from my above examples you can see that it is our 'set apartness' that has given us the most opportunity to reach the world. We are to be set apart and we take that command of Scripture seriously.

I hope that helps to answer some of your questions about our family and our beliefs! As always, I love questions and appreciate the opportunity to share! Thank you for taking the time to write!