@TX_Matt
Brother, I hope you don’t mind that I make this comparison, but your dilemma reminds me a little of Nebuchadnezzar, who asked his soothsayers to tell him what he dreamed.
From a human point of view you’re asking the impossible of us, you’re asking us to help to choose between two “inner” voices in your mind. Not only is this impossible for us to “test the spirits” without knowing the exact issue you’re struggling with, but you also need to consider the possibility that none of these voices belongs to God. God certainly works in mysterious ways, but so do our minds and our consciences.
From what you have written, it is clear that you’re concerned about something that is:
a) a biblical issue
b) is a moral issue
c) also is something that science has something to say about
You furthermore say that you’ve “intentionally studied it in depth”, and you imply that the result of your study is in line with the voice of “love, support, acceptance and scientific truth”. But for some reason there is a also a “voice” that denies the result of your study, who tells you that you’re mistaken. The way you contrast these voices makes the first sound very positive, and the other sounds highly reactionary and judgmental. This can of course be the case, but it’s also possible that you’ve subconsciously created two straw men here, and want us to help you decide the biblical issue based on what we think of these two straw men. If one of your voices is “loving” and the other invokes “fear and guilt”, then most of us would instinctively tell you to listen to the first one, right?
But you’ve elaborated a little, and you’ve made it clear that the issue really isn’t
that straight forward. Yes, you claim to have studied this issue in depth, and you describe one position as positive and the other as negative. But then you go on to make other posts where you call both positions “biblical ideals”, which suggests that your studies perhaps aren’t as conclusive as you think they are. After all, your doubt suggests that there is something fundamentally unresolved buried here. Perhaps you’ve even found parts of the bible that in your opinion conflicts with each other? Reading your posts I almost get that impression...
One thing is certain, God certainly don’t expect you to make any moral decision based solely on subjective voices in your mind; God definitively wants you to be intellectually convinced of his truth. (That said, when the voice of conscience and the Bible agree, then it is absolutely not far-fetched to conclude that Spirit of God has been influencing us.)
Instead of deciding which “voice” to listen to, I would therefore strongly suggest that your duty is to revisit this issue, to study it in more depth. Once we grasp the truth and the Bible illuminates our mind, our fear dissipates. (True, sometimes a Bible study reveals that we have been in the wrong, but seeing our own sin and incompleteness is necessary in order to make us feel the need of Christ as our Saviour.) In other words, look at the biblical evidence, read arguments for and against both viewpoints.
I’m not necessarily saying that this is the case here, but sometimes we examine only one side of the coin when studying a biblical issue. Other times we are ignorant, and by this I don’t mean
willfully ignorant... It’s rather that some biblical issues are quite complex, and sometimes seeing new evidence would make us change our opinion. This has happened to me on several occasions. I’ve thought that something was clear as daylight, but when I’ve been confronted with new evidence I’ve had to revise my position.
So, to sum this up, there is only one way to resolve this issue... If you have doubts, then you must study the Scripture and information that might shed light on the relevant passages. When your conscience and the Bible are in harmony, then you can rest.
