The bitter root out of which grows tolerance of sin and hatred of truth has a name.

I get a lot of hate mail, as I’m sure does everyone who writes about Biblical Christianity and truth and stands up and speaks out against the corruption of American culture.  It goes with the territory, and we accept it as one of the challenges inherent to this type of ministry.  But what I notice more and more, are vile and malicious condemnations from people who also call themselves Christians or make it clear that they think of themselves as such.  These are the folks who despise any mention of sin or God’s imminent judgment of it, which is to come. 

This heresy is nothing new.  It’s been around from the beginning, again proving the truth of Solomon’s words, “there is nothing new under the sun.”  Evangelist, Charles Spurgeon warned of it’s rapid growth in the 19th century, and the fallacy is called antinomianism. 

Antinomianism--a heresy largely unknown and unidentified by the average American--is the false doctrine that belief in Christ alone, apart from adherence to moral law, is all that is required for salvation.  And while it is true in a narrow context, it usually leads the heretic to jettison moral law entirely.  What makes this even more insidious today, however, is that what is called belief in our nation of dolts, is often interpreted as nothing more than mental assent to the idea of Jesus, the historic fact that Jesus lived and walked the earth or holding onto some warm and fuzzy thoughts and feelings about Jesus. 

At the root of every heresy is a Satanic lie.  The great lie in this case, is that belief means something less than complete and total devotion, dedication and surrender of ourselves and everything we are to Christ--not as payment for salvation, but in gratitude for it--His life lived through us.  The trouble with antinomianism, is that it keeps people from coming to Christ the Savior in brokenness and shame, begging forgiveness and pleading for restoration.  After all, someone who cannot see himself or herself as a hopeless sinner, has no need of a savior. 

Genuine Christianity is further eroded by what I call, the gospel of love, which is the false belief that God loves everyone “unconditionally,” regardless of their behavior and without limit or restriction.  This counterfeit gospel omits the fact that God is holy, righteous and just.  It is not the gospel of Jesus Christ, it’s the secular gospel of post-modern America.  These three things combined, antinomianism, a loose definition of belief, and the bogus gospel of love, provide the means by which the reprobate comes to think that he is more righteous than the redeemed.   

These are the church members who would gleefully join with Christ in condemning the Pharisees and Scribes, even though they would be the first among us to call for His crucifixion today.  Why?  For the unpardonable and unforgivable act of simply identifying sin as wickedness, evil or depravity.  Our post-modern culture has zero tolerance for this kind of thing, as does the antinomian. 

Many pastors charitably refer to these as “nominal Christians, and mainline churches are full of them.  In reality, these proud, pathetic characters are as far from God as the Amazonian pagan who has never heard the name of Christ.  That is why they embrace same-sex marriage, the ordination of homosexuals and other grievous sexual sins.  They never develop the mind of Christ because they have not been transformed from death to life.

It’s frequently heard in Christian circles, “hate the sin but love the sinner.”  Although this isn’t scriptural, there is some truth in it.  The trouble is that those who preach this message, generally, do neither.  They don’t hate sin, they tolerate it or openly accept it.  And they don’t love the sinner, because they refuse to tell him what he needs to know to have eternal life.  Those who do not hate sin will stand by silently and watch the sinner die, and that’s not love at all.

Paul tells us to “abhor what is evil, and cling to what is good” (Rom. 12:9).  Spurgeon wrote, “We do well when we are angry with sin.  He who is not angry at transgression becomes a partaker in it.  Sin is a loathsome and hateful thing and no renewed heart can patiently endure it.” 

Therefore, the next time you condemn a Christian for speaking the truth, do not claim to be a brother or sister in Christ if you are really an antinomian.  Just admit it.  And do not attack the righteous unless you are certain that you are on solid biblical ground, and not simply shooting the messenger because you don’t like that the message of truth conflicts with your heretical secular gospel.