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In Reply to: A different interpretation of that verse posted by Reader (reposted) on September 28, 2002 at 21:52:52:
Well, that was an interesting take and I see what you're saying, but may I point out that my issue was that we MUST trust our hearts/gut instincts/warning bells.
Let's examine that verse, Jer.17:9. It says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" You gotta remember that this chapter is talking about the desperately wicked people in Jeremiah's day. Read the opening verse of this chapter. Jer.17:1 says, "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their HEART." These are the desperately wicked hearts.
These 'desperately wicked' hearts are the idolatrous Israelites of Jeremiah's day. This was not a blanket statement for all men all times. We are NOT all desperately wicked. That's the part of Berg's doctrine I was trying to debunk. It's not scriptural. We're sinners in that we "miss the mark" (no one is perfect) but we are NOT all "desperately wicked." Wicked is bad enough. Someone foaming at the mouth they're so desperate to be wicked is pretty far gone.
Think about it! God gave us all consciences to know the difference between good and evil. In Romans 2:14-15 talk about people who don't even believe in God having "the law of God written in their hearts". Get that? And it goes on to say, "their conscience also bearing witness, and their thought the mean while accusing or else excusing one another." Sounds like a very good, healthy conscience at work.
So even an unbeliever with a God-given conscience can and should and does know when something is rotten in Denmark. So yes, we SHOULD listen to our hearts, our gut instinct, our God-given consciences, we should listen to the warning bells going off in our mind. God gave us minds and we should use them and "listen to our hearts."
