Originally published in "The Lord's Coming Herald & Wesleyan Bible Prophecy Advocate," August 2009
Fruits Of Antinomianism
"I dread every approach to antinomianism; I have seen the fruit of it over the three Kingdoms. . . .The great hindrance to the inward work of God is Antinomianism, wherever it breaks in. I am glad you are aware of it." - - John Wesley
The greatest problem of our time is that most of us--unlike those whom Wesley was addressing in the above quotation!--are NOT aware of it! Few preachers that we know of today are saying squat about antinomianism in American culture and society, and yet we can plainly see the fruit of it at every turn.
Antinomianism means lawlessness. More specifically, in a religious sense, it describes those who subscribe to "election without obedience" theology. This means that large class of modern-day professed Christians who think that they have some eternally-secure "standing" in Christ, while at the same time their actual moral "state" or condition, is far from the life of Christian holiness.
Antinomians are most marked, outwardly, by their wholesale disregard of the Bible standards of holiness in dress, and by their general "conformity to the world" in nearly every other practical way, as well.
Because of her worldly compromisings, one may rightly include much of the modern professed Wesleyan Holiness movement in the classification of being Antinomians, too. Ideologically speaking, Godby, Watson, Morrison, Chapman, Flexon (to name only a few) of the past esteemed leaders of said Holiness Movement started her down the primrose path of antinomianism when they fell hard for emerging Scofield/Darbyism years ago. How sad!
How vain is all beneath the skies
How transient every earthly bliss!
How slender all the fondest ties
That bind us to a world like this!
The evening cloud, the morning dew,
The withering grass, the fading flower,
Of earthly hopes are emblems true--
The glory of a passing hour.
But though earth's fairest blossoms die,
And all beneath the skies is vain.
There is a brighter world on high.
Beyond the reach of care and pain.
Then let the hope of joys to come
Dispel our cares, and chase our fears:
If God be ours, we're trav'ling home,
Though passing through a vale of tears.
Related Article Links
The Gospel Of Antinomianism
How Dispensationalism Has Led The Modern Holiness Movement Into Liberalism