They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, as their own conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them. (Romans 2:15 NRSV)
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds. (Hebrews 10:16 NRSV)
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
Evangelicals will tell you that God has written his law on the heart of every person. This means we all know what the law of God says. However, based on the verses above, it is questionable whether God has written his law on the heart of every person — past, present, and future. Did Adam and Eve have the law of God written on their hearts? Or do these verses only apply to New Testament or New Covenant Christians? This is problematic because Jeremiah 31:31-34 says that ALL of us are God’s children. If he is our God and we are his people by default, there’s no need for us to be saved.
How is the term “law of God” defined? Ask a hundred Christians to define “law of God” and you will get a plethora of answers, many of which contradict the others. The Bible says God has written his law on our hearts. Which law? All 613 laws? Just the Ten Commandments? Just the Nine Commandments? Just the commandments of Paul? Just the commandments of Jesus in the gospels? How can we possibly know what, if anything, is written on our hearts? That is, after we figure out exactly what the heart is and where it is located. Personally, I think that heart and mind are synonymous. I readily admit that there’s a debate to be had on this issue, especially when you throw conscience into the discussion.
For Christians who say it is the Ten Commandments that are written on our hearts, I ask, which version of the Ten Commandments? Is the command to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy written on our hearts? If yes, why is it that MOST Christians do not keep the Sabbath?
I could go on and on with questions about the claim that the law of God is written on our hearts. The next time an Evangelical apologist tells you that the law of God is written on your heart, ask some of the questions I asked above. I suspect that most Evangelicals who make this claim haven’t thought about it. They regurgitate what they heard from church pulpits or read in apologetics books.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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The law written on our hearts condemns slavery and accepts gay people as having legitimate existence.
Yep. It’s amazing God’s version of the law neglected these things. 🤣
Bruce wrote: “I suspect that most Evangelicals who make this claim haven’t thought about it”. You know it Bruce. So much of their rules and regs simply don’t survive being subjected to thinking. The thought process is the enemy of superstition.
This piece was enjoyable for another reason. It reminded me of a series of online debates between me and my friend John Myste. John often mocked my religious beliefs and I enjoyed his gentle jibes.
Sadly, I cannot refer you to those posts, my original site having since been pretty much destroyed by hacking from a group we tracked to Moscow.
I did save one segment from John that was printed in October, 2011.
I had argued that somewhere toward the last part of the Old Testament (maybe Isaiah?) I thought I detected a change in emphasis from spiritual law coming from external authority to a moral sensibility being placed on our hearts. In that way, religious folk and skeptical non-believers could at least join in one imperfect direction:
looking within to determine, as best we can, what is right.
This is how John ended his entertaining response:
“…I think you really believe that God has visited my heart. You could be right. Perhaps God is influencing me. Perhaps the exorcism is not yet complete.”