The problem with saying: God told me!
 |
| Holy Spirit painting (Photo credit: hickory hardscrabble) |
The word antinomian comes from the Greek words anti (against) and nomos (law). Antinomianism is the opposite of legalism. Where the legalist distorts the concept of law, the antinomian is opposed to all law. There are several forms of antinomianism today. Some people simply believe they are free from God’s law altogether because they have been saved by Christ. A more common form of antinomianism is “situation ethics.”
A kind of antinomianism that is found all too often in evangelical circles is sometimes called “gnostic spiritualism.” In the early centuries of the church, one of the worst heresies was gnosticism. Gnosis is the Greek word for knowledge. The gnostics believed they had access to special knowledge and insight into God’s will that went beyond what “ordinary” Christians had. This special knowledge was not found in the Bible, which was a public book available to everyone. As a result, the gnostics believed that they were entitled to break many biblical laws in the interest of their “higher way.”
We don’t have card-carrying gnostics today, but the gnostic spirit is epidemic in the church. How many times have you heard someone say, “The Spirit led me to do this or that”? The Spirit does indeed lead our lives, but in the New Testament, the primary meaning of the “leading of the Spirit” is to holiness, not to this or that job or spouse.
Unfortunately, if we put a cloak of spirituality around what we are doing, we can get away with murder. People claim the leading of the Spirit whenever they do not want their behavior to be challenged or condemned by others. How much rebellion, adultery, and divorce has been excused by saying, “Well, usually it is wrong, but in my case, the Spirit led me.…” No, the Spirit never leads away from the standards of biblical law.
The best way to get real guidance from God is to study the Bible and live by it. Psalm 15 describes the position of the person who will receive guidance from God. Take a couple of minutes and write out these five verses, and work on memorizing them.
