Argument 3: The Principle over Moral Standards
Development or Better Understanding of Standards
This is an updated version of the article published Nov 11, 2024, no different than its republished form on April 26, 2025. Keeping both published is to preserve restack links.
Now this is where our journey for knowledge can get a little sticky. Morality/ethics is a touchy subject because we live in a democracy with many different moral standards. Fortunately though, we are going to use knowledge that raises our perspective above the debate by showing how our conscience (suneidesis)1 works spiritually first then morally if necessary.
Development or Better Understanding of Moral Standards
Using the principle in the democracy of our conscience (suneidesis)2 enables us to take spiritual blindness into account. By doing so, the principle allows us, not forces us, to attribute offensive differences between the moral standards of our nation’s diverse groups to such blindness. Using the principle thereby allows democracies to enforce only the most agreed upon morals for there to be social order. This removes the need to judge each other, which is extremely prevalent as indicated by even the word morals being replaced with ethics by many groups. But since we are using knowledge from the Bible, though not religiously, we will use morals.
Right or wrong about others being blind to what we believe is true or better about our moral standard, we are still empowered by the principle to see everyone’s true value beyond all standards. That is when we see the value in making others more important in our suneidesis. We are not making other’s blindness or moral standards more important.
By seeing everyone’s value, the light in our suneidesis brightens and our morals develop or we understand their value better. Only then can we see the relation of religious beliefs to the principle and moral standards.
First Day of the Principle
When two of Jesus’s followers asked him if they should bring harm upon those who would not follow him, he answered no. This was a profound change for the people of Israel, for Moses taught that anyone not willing to obey their leaders should be punished. Jesus was not against the teachings of Moses; he was simply establishing democracy for the world through the principle. Israel the nation was birthed as a religious nation, a theocracy, restricting diverse moral standards. Democracy is not possible over time without the principle, for multiple moral standards alone divide a country.
Consider the US Civil War a spiritual war. Presently, we are experiencing what may be the final battle. Whichever side adopts the principle will ultimately win, unless both do and then the spiritual war ceases to exist. The side that adopts it will come out of their spiritual blindness and see clearly what needs to be done.
Both sides have always thought that the fight is due to different moral standards and that theirs is right. Slavery verses a natural order. No, it is about the principle. Without it, both sides are fighting the illusions of evil in their blindness, believing that Sodom and Gomorrah were real and that they must be destroyed in today’s world as Name destroyed them back when.
Sodom and Gomorrah are symbols of the spiritual warfare in our minds when we do not use the principle, choosing moral standards above all else. It works with the surface appearances we form in our mind that blind us over time. Why else does Revelation state that Jesus was crucified in a place spiritually called Sodom? He did not preach about moral standards in Jerusalem, so why would he do so in Sodom? He taught about the principle there, so being spiritually crucified there means the spiritual battle was lost due to rejection of the principle—by those alive then and will be lost if rejected by those alive now.
The Fulfillment of Times
Just as we do not have to believe in Jesus to learn the principle, we do not have to believe in his predictions as prophecies to understand their meaning. Consider the fulfillment of the times of the nations, a prediction he made about the time needed for nations to learn the principle. Israel will be the last nation to adopt it since it was founded as a theocracy and part of present day Israel still hangs onto it. All other nations are running out of time to adopt it and become mature democracies or lose the final battle of their spiritual warfare. May the United States be the first to achieve success.
Judgment in the National and World Suneidesis
After teaching about the fulfillment and the suffering that accompanies it, spiritually in the suneidesis preferably, Jesus explained how the nations of the world will be judged in their suneidesis. Nonbelievers can interpret this as Life’s way of restoring balance. Rather than using a moral standard, he uses the principle, saying that if we care about the least among us, we will be rewarded—if we love the enemies of our suneidesis, the democracy of our suneidesis and nation will be given new life. He said that how we treat the least among us is how we treat him. That is the nature of mature democracy.
The Principle over Moral Standards
Moral standards are important guidelines when the principle is the only absolute standard in the democracy of our suneidesis. That is what Jesus meant when he said that he did not come to do away with the law, the moral standard of Israel, but to fulfill it—so that it could be used as a guideline under the principle.
When using morals as our absolute standard, we use them to judge others without seeing beyond the moral appearances we form of them. We reward ourselves for keeping our own standard until it becomes an addiction that blinds us to the light in those we judge. The house of knowledge cannot be built on a moral standard.
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Suneidesis, pronounced soon-eye-day-sis, is a Greek word that joins our natural awareness with our sense of conscience. Click on the link for a detailed explanation. It is central to this teaching. Using this foreign word regularly in discussions helps us get accustomed to experiencing something new and positive working in our awareness itself. When the word conscience is used, it will refer to the aspect of suneidesis that involves right and wrong, but this aspect cannot be separated from our co-conscientious awareness of all things.
If I understand that my awareness of something as simple as a cup includes co-conscientiousness, I do not allow myself to get blinded by the cup alone but know it as part of all creation at the hands of the Creator or the universe, depending on one’s beliefs. Spiritual maturity does this naturally.
The repetition of suneidesis is meant to challenge you to consider this dimension in your awareness. Apologies, but it will only be a necessary annoyance until it becomes natural.