A lifestyle guided by doctrinal error.
Antinomianism is a theological doctrine that holds that Christians are freed by grace from the necessity of obeying the moral law. The term comes from the Greek words “anti” (against) and “nomos” (law). Here are key points about Antinomianism:
Grace Over Law: Proponents argue that since salvation is by faith and grace alone, believers are not bound by the Old Testament law or moral codes but should instead live according to the Spirit.
Historical Context: This belief surged during the Protestant Reformation, often as a backlash to what was seen as overly legalistic interpretations of Christianity. Notable figures like Martin Luther and John Calvin had to address and refute extreme forms of it.
Criticism: Critics argue that Antinomianism leads to moral laxity or ethical relativism, suggesting that without a moral framework, behaviors could become disordered or even sinful. This view posits that while salvation might not depend on works, Christian life should still reflect moral integrity.
Variations: There are variations in how Antinomianism is interpreted. Some might see it as an extreme where any kind of moral law is rejected, while others might argue for a nuanced view where the law is internalized through the spirit rather than externally imposed.
Antinomianism challenges traditional views on law and morality within Christianity, sparking debate on the nature of grace, freedom, and moral responsibility. Its influence can be seen in various theological discussions about the role of law in Christian life.
Modern examples of how Antinomianism might lead to perceived moral laxity or ethical relativism can be observed in various contexts:
Pop Culture and Celebrity Influence:
Celebrities or public figures who claim a religious or spiritual identity while engaging in actions that contradict traditional moral or ethical codes could be seen as practicing a form of Antinomianism. They might argue that their faith or spiritual journey allows them to transcend conventional moral boundaries, leading fans or followers to adopt similar views.
Digital Culture:
In online communities, especially those centered around spirituality or personal development, you might find individuals advocating for a life free from traditional moral constraints, citing spiritual awakening or personal enlightenment as justification. This could manifest in behaviors like polyamory, radical self-expression, or various forms of lifestyle choices that challenge societal norms without regard for traditional ethical considerations.
Therapeutic Culture:
The emphasis on self-fulfillment and personal authenticity in modern therapy can sometimes be interpreted in an antinomian way. If individuals believe that their personal truth or happiness trumps all other considerations, this might lead to ethical relativism where one’s moral code is dictated solely by personal feeling or desire rather than societal norms or objective ethics.
Religious Communities:
Within some religious groups, there can be an interpretation of faith that emphasizes personal freedom over communal responsibility or traditional morality, leading to practices that might be controversial or seen as morally lax by broader society. This could include reinterpretations of religious texts to justify certain behaviors or lifestyles that were historically condemned.
These examples illustrate how the concept of Antinomianism when interpreted or applied in modern contexts, might contribute to a culture where traditional ethical and moral standards are questioned or set aside in favor of personal or group-defined morality. However, it’s important to note that not all who might be labeled as antinomian would agree with this characterization, often viewing their stance as a form of spiritual or ethical evolution.
The departure from traditional Christian doctrine.
Tullian Tchividjian, a pastor known for his teachings on grace, has been associated with a form of Antinomianism through his emphasis on the radical nature of God’s grace over the necessity of moral law in the Christian life. His perspective challenges traditional views by asserting that Christians are so completely free in Christ that their behavior cannot affect their standing before God.
This interpretation suggests that since believers are justified solely by faith, the moral law serves more as a guide for understanding sin rather than as a binding code to follow. This view has stirred controversy because it seems to diminish the role of the law in sanctification—the process of becoming more like Christ.
Critics argue that such teachings could lead to a lax view of personal morality, where sin might be acknowledged but not actively combated, under the presumption that grace covers all. This contrasts with more traditional Christian teachings which maintain that while salvation is by grace through faith, the moral law still instructs and guides believers in how they ought to live out their faith, promoting a life of holiness and moral integrity as a response to grace.
Tullian Tchividjian’s emphasis on the liberating power of grace without equal stress on personal accountability to moral law might have contributed to his moral failings by creating a psychological space where he felt his actions could be divorced from the consequences of sin. His antinomian leanings could have fostered an environment where the boundaries of traditional morality seemed less applicable to his personal conduct, under the guise that grace would ultimately cover his transgressions. This perspective might have diminished the internal checks against engaging in inappropriate relationships, leading to a scenario where his actions were justified or rationalized in his mind as being outside the reach of traditional Christian moral scrutiny.
Wikipedia: William Graham Tullian Tchividjian
Tullian Tchividjian is a pastor and author of more than a half dozen books about Christianity and current issues, including One Way Love and It is Finished (David C. Cook, 2013 and 2015). He is a grandson of Christian evangelist Billy Graham.
Prior to 2015, Tchividjian blogged for some time for The Gospel Coalition, contributed to a variety of secular and Christian publications, and appeared on a variety of major televisions news programs.
Tchividjian founded an Evangelical Presbyterian Church congregation. In 2009 he was invited to merge churches and become the second senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (after the church’s late founder and longterm leader, D. James Kennedy). In 2015, Tchividjian resigned from Coral Ridge after admitting to an extramarital affair.
In 2019, Tullian Tchividjian planted a new church in Jupiter, Florida, called “The Sanctuary”.
On June 21, 2015, Tchividjian resigned as senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church after admitting to an extramarital affair. On August 11, the South Florida Presbytery of the PCA ruled him “unfit for Christian ministry” and deposed him from his call as teaching elder.
On September 2, 2015 it was announced that Tchvidjian was hired to a non-leadership, non-pastoral staff position, as Director of Ministry Development at Willow Creek Church (PCA) in Winter Springs, Florida. Tchvidjian was fired from the position at Willow Creek on March 16, 2016, following the disclosure of a second extramarital affair, one predating his earlier admitted affair, one that had also occurred during his previous position in pastoral leadership at Coral Ridge.
In 2019, Tullian Tchividjian announced formation of The Sanctuary, an independent church, meeting in Jupiter, Florida.
Klett, Leah Marieann (March 21, 2016). “Tullian Tchividjian Was Advised by Coral Ridge Elders to Be ‘Mindful’ in Revealing Undisclosed Affair To Wife Because of Children“.
GospelHerald.com. Retrieved December 7, 2016. [Quote:] According to a recent report published by The Christian Post, Tchividjian… confessed to having an affair with a married woman two years ago after he was confronted by two Coral Ridge elders. / At the time, he was not advised to step down as lead pastor, but instead was advised not to immediately inform his wife about the matter – she only learned about this last week, a ‘highly placed source’ told the news outlet. ‘To make matters worse, the two elders never informed the rest of the session about this situation.’
Christianity Today – August 22, 2015: Tullian Tchividjian Files for Divorce –
Billy Graham’s grandson lost his ministerial credentials earlier this month.
Tullian Tchividjian, Billy Graham’s grandson, filed for divorce on Thursday in Broward County, Florida.
Tchividjian resigned as senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale earlier this summer after admitting an extramarital affair. He has since lost his ministerial credentials.
There was little public information available about the divorce filing. Under Florida law, one party must establish that the marriage is “irretrievably broken” in order for the union to be dissolved. Tullian and his wife, Kim, married in 1994 and have three children.
On August 11, the South Florida Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) deposed Tchividjian, ruling him unfit for Christian ministry.
Tchividjian must display an “eminently exemplary, humble and edifying life and testimony” for an extended period of time before he can return to ministry, according PCA’s Book of Church Order.
In the spring of 2009, the church named the then-36-year-old as its senior pastor. At the time, Tchividjian led a young church plant which later merged with Coral Ridge.
Founded by famed preacher D. James Kennedy, Coral Ridge had once drawn as many as 7,000 worshipers. But it had been in decline following Kennedy’s death in 2006.
Church elders hoped that Tchividjian’s youth, vision, and name could revive the fortunes of the aging congregation.
Instead they got chaos.
Within six months, a group of church members led by Kennedy’s daughter, Jennifer, called for Tchividjian’s ouster. Those dissidents were banned by the church. At issue were a change in worship style and Tchividjian’s rejection of culture war politics.
The church eventually reconfirmed him as pastor, despite the conflict.
Christianity Today – March 21, 2016: Tullian Tchividjian Confesses Second Affair Concealed by Two Coral Ridge Elders.
This weekend, Tullian Tchividjian’s past two churches confirmed rumors that the Florida pastor had another affair prior to the one that prompted his resignation last summer.
But the pastor who gave Billy Graham’s grandson a second chance says he doesn’t regret it.
Last Wednesday, CT reported how Tchividjian was fired following fresh “disclosures.”
“Repentance is progressive and often painful,” both Willow Creek Presbyterian Church and Tchividjian separately told CT. “It involves disclosing and dealing with the darkest places of our hearts and lives.”
“I remain committed to that painful and progressive process,” Tchividjian told CT.
On Monday afternoon, he publicly apologized for the pain he has caused his family.
When Tchividjian stepped down in June 2015 as lead pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, he explained that he “developed an inappropriate relationship” with a “friend” after learning that his wife was having her own affair. His wife disputed his account, writing that his statement “reflected my husband’s opinions but not my own,” but did not offer details.
On March 13, Tchividjian confessed to a prior extramarital affair from 2014, Coral Ridge confirmed to CT. Later in 2014, one of Tchividjian’s friends informed two of Coral Ridge’s then elders of the affair (one elder left the church prior to this month’s revelations).
Palm Beach Post – July 30, 2019: After sex scandal, Billy Graham’s grandson is starting a church in Palm Beach Gardens.
Preacher Tullian Tchividjian told his congregation on a recent Sunday that he sees himself in a story from the Gospel of John.
In the passage, Nathanael questions whether anything good can come out of Nazareth, the hometown of Jesus Christ that may have had an immoral reputation in biblical times. Likening it to asking if light can come out of darkness, Tchividjian said he knows from personal experience that the answer is yes.
“I am standing here today because in my darkest moments, God never stopped holding onto me,” Tchividjian said. A few cries of “Amen” answered him from the congregation of roughly 60-80 people at the Hilton Garden Inn, which is serving as a spot for worship before they can find a permanent home in the area.
Tchividjian, the 47-year-old grandson of famed pastor Billy Graham and a Christian celebrity in his own right, is leading a church for the first time since his June 2015 resignation as senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in northern Fort Lauderdale.
Tchividjian was forced to resign because he violated a morality contract by having an extramarital affair, according to a filing in his divorce case. But the woman who said she was involved in the affair and an advocacy organization led by his brother call it pastoral abuse and sexual misconduct.
Tchividjian, who said there was no element of sex abuse or emotional manipulation, was also defrocked by the South Florida Presbytery. Now the new Jupiter resident is among those starting The Sanctuary, an unaffiliated church that’s meeting each Sunday at the Hilton Garden Inn Palm Beach Gardens ahead of a planned formal launch next month.
First Things: Tullian Tchividjian’s Upside Down Christianity.
Four years after a sex scandal prompted him to depart from Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Tullian Tchividjian, grandson to Billy Graham, has again assumed the pulpit. Now, he is preaching an alternative approach to the faith that he calls “Upside Down Christianity.”
Since I last wrote about him in 2015, Tchividjian’s life has taken many turns. He attempted to resurrect his Liberate Network parachurch ministry and found employment at Willow Creek Presbyterian Church in Winter Springs, Florida. Both endeavors fizzled in early 2016 after revelations that he had had another extramarital affair—before the one that ended his time at Coral Ridge.
In 2019 Tchividjian launched a new non-denominational church, The Sanctuary, which meets in the Hilton Garden Inn Palm Beach Gardens.
The Sanctuary aims to reflect what Tchividjian has been calling “Upside Down Christianity,” the title of a recent sermon series, in which the theology of most churches is turned on its head. As the “Mission” page on the church’s website puts it:
The Sanctuary is a judgment-free zone where people can come as they are, not as they should be. A place to find love and laughter and hope and healing and acceptance and forgiveness and mercy and help. Sadly, churches tend to be the scariest places, rather than the safest places, for fallen people to fall down and for broken people to break down. The Sanctuary strives to be different.
For all this talk of a “judgment-free zone,” Tchividjian doesn’t balk at judging other churches—and even traditional Christian teachings. Tchividjian’s sermons contain many warnings about the norms that prevail in most churches, which he says have turned away from authentic Christianity and toward false religion. By favoring legalism over grace, he argues, they have driven people away.
The Roys Report, October 12, 2022: Disgraced Pastor Tullian Tchividjian to Headline Christian Men’s Conference.
Former megachurch pastor, Tullian Tchividjian, who has admitted to sexual misconduct with multiple women, is set to headline a men’s conference this Friday in the Dallas, Texas, area.
The “Man Up” conference, featuring Tchividjian, who’s Billy Graham’s grandson, is hosted by Casey Stone. Stone leads Stone Ministries and serves as senior pastor at Generation Faith Center, a small church in Quinlan, Texas, near where the conference will be held.
The event promises to encourage men “in the Word of God and leave a better you.”
Lori Harding, a former pastor who worked closely with Tchividjian at Coral Ridge and recently told her story to TRR in a two-part podcast, claimed Tchividjian has never repented.
“He did not submit himself to discipline in the Presbytery, either one or either time,” stated Harding. “He has not publicly apologized or sought reconciliation. His M.O. has not changed.”
Similarly, Andy Rowell, a ministry leadership professor at Bethel Seminary, stated via email: “Tchividjian has a history of rationalizing sin by pointing to grace, but being a follower of Jesus means allegiance to his teaching. Grace should result in obedience.”
Following years of ministry with Tchividjian, Harding said she understands that “the Billy Graham connection” and that Tchividjian’s charisma brings a certain celebrity aura. “He’s the bad boy of reformed theology, which is appealing to men,” she said.
But Harding added that to see Tchividjian, whom she considers an abuser, headline a Christian men’s conference is “a sad commentary on evangelical America.”
“Accountability is severely lacking,” she said. “Until the systems and structures that allow abuse are addressed, we will continue to see a complete lack of accountability within evangelicalism.”
The Christian Post, October 4, 2024: Tullian Tchividjian says his ‘favorite cuss word’ is ‘actually a prayer’
Pastor Tullian Tchividjian, a grandson of the famed evangelist the Rev. Billy Graham, recently told his congregation that his “favorite cuss word” is “actually a prayer.”
Tchividjian, who lost his church and wife in 2015 to an adultery scandal and launched a new church four years later, recently told his congregation that “goddamnit,” which is often used to express anger and perplexity, and which many Christians find offensive, is “a prayer.”
He made the statement last month during a sermon titled “Watch Your Mouth” at The Sanctuary in Jupiter, Florida, which he started in 2019 with his second wife, Stacie.
“Let me give an apologetic for the word goddamnit, which is my favorite cuss word. […] Hands down my favorite cuss word. And that may be alarming to your ears, but here’s why: I think it is the most theologically accurate cuss word on planet Earth,” Tchividjian said at about the 16-minute point in the 42-minute sermon about the commandment not to take the Lord’s name in vain (Exodus 20:7).
“It’s actually a prayer. Something bad happens, something that you don’t like, something that needs to be corrected, you say, ‘goddamnit.’ In other words, what you’re saying is, ‘God, you are the only one that is capable of cleaning up this mess, damn it, get rid of it. That’s technically what it means,” Tchividjian insisted. “I’ve had a lot of people over the years call me out for using that, and I make a very compelling case that it’s actually a very theologically driven prayer if it’s used properly.”
Pastor Gabe’s Old Blog – August 19, 2019: Why Tullian Tchividjian is Permanently Disqualified.
This morning, I listened to a sermon from Tullian Tchividjian. It wasn’t a sermon he preached yesteryear. It was a sermon he preached yesterday. And he wasn’t preaching as a guest speaker in someone else’s church. He was preaching in his own church that he has planted in Florida.
Tullian Tchividjian—who is the grandson of famed preacher Billy Graham; who followed the honorable D. James Kennedy as the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church; who made a shipwreck of his ministry when he committed adultery with a member of his congregation; who was revealed to have had another affair; who threw his wife under the bus by making it look like she was the cause of their marriage problems; who was defrocked, then received another pastorate, and broke trust with that church; who has divorced, remarried, and returned to Florida to start his own church—is back.
Truth be told, Tullian was never gone. I can’t remember a time in the last 4 years since his scandals were first exposed that I wasn’t seeing his name. He never truly resigned from anything. He’s always been preaching even if he wasn’t pastoring. Now he has founded a church called The Sanctuary, “meeting each Sunday at the Hilton Garden Inn Palm Beach Gardens ahead of a planned formal launch next month,” according to a weekend article in the Palm Beach Post.
The first 7 minutes of yesterday’s sermon contains moments of irony (if not outright hypocrisy). For example, he refered to God’s grace as a “scandal.” He’s not the only preacher I’ve heard use this word, and I’ve never been comfortable with it, but it’s especially strange coming from Tullian. He also called himself a good person in the eyes of others, except, he joked, when he is “flying down Alternate A1A.” Really? Breaking the speed limit is what might make us question his goodness? He also said that he has been mentoring and training young preachers. Yikes!
Within his sermon introduction, he referred to himself as the pastor of those who were in attendance. So this regular Sunday-morning gathering isn’t some Bible study group meeting at a hotel and we’re mistakenly calling it a church. It is a church plant. People are attending, and Tullian is their pastor. Shame on them, and shame on him. Tullian has disqualified himself from ever being a pastor again.
Now, do I believe the Lord when He says in Isaiah 43:25, “I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins”? Or when Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us”? Or when 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”? Yes, I believe all of this and more!
If I didn’t believe God is faithful to cleanse us of our sins, I’d be in big trouble, for I also have sinned greatly before God, and I, too, am in need of a Savior. God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). God has forgiven me of my sins. I know that He will forgive you of yours. It’s what I’m devoted to preaching—“that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Timothy 1:15).
Would God forgive Tullian Tchividjian for the sins he has committed? Absolutely! He can be restored to Christ’s body and partake in the fellowship of communion at the Lord’s table. But does that mean Tullian can resume the office of a pastor again? No, it does not.
The first qualification of a pastor is this: “An overseer must be above reproach” (1 Timothy 3:2, Titus 1:6-7). Every other qualification that follows explains what that means: a pastor must be faithful to his wife, he must be sober minded, self-controlled, managing his household well, and so on. In other words, the people who know him must be able to recognize his good character as an example of God’s grace and Christian maturity.
“The idea is present blamelessness,” John MacArthur teaches regarding the qualifications of pastors. “It doesn’t mean he had to be perfect before he was a Christian; no one could do that. Everyone, before they came to Christ, lived in sin, and more sin, and only sin. So, the point here is, that present tense, this man must have a life without blame. That is the overarching requirement.” He goes on to say, “The reason blamelessness is called for at the pastoral level is because we are the example which you are all to follow.”
That said, Tullian Tchividjian is a bad example for anyone, let alone as a pastor. Even unbelievers know that cheating on your wife and blaming her for it makes you a really awful person. Tullian did this as a pastor! He knew better. Think about it: Can he ever be trusted with that office again? Yes, he can be forgiven his sins and know the grace of God, in the sense that he still has an entrance in the kingdom of heaven. But for the remainder of his life, he will never fulfill the requirement that a pastor must be “above reproach.”
In a recent interview, Phil Johnson, director of Grace to You, pointed out that adultery disqualifies a man from ministry “permanently.” Said Johnson, “That kind of sin leaves a reproach that cannot be blotted out. And the first requirement for a pastor is that he must be above reproach. So while he can be forgiven of that sin… what he cannot do again is stand up and lead that church.”
Reverend Gregory Perry – November 11, 2015: The Spreading Plague of Antinomianism: A Critique of Tullian Tchividjian’s One Way Love.
When warning about the antinomianism that is prevailing in the evangelical, and even Reformed, church, Pastor Mathew said it this way, “A 9.8 earthquake struck the Reformed church, yet no one noticed.” Not only did Pastor Mathew recognize it, but he even spoke prophetically about it many years ago. At its core, antinomianism (literally “against-the-lawism”) is a theology that makes allowance for Christians to sin.
What I want to accomplish tonight is to use a critique of Tullian Tchividjian’s One Way Love(published Oct. 2013) to give us particular insight into the kind of antinomianism that is spreading like a deadly plague throughout evangelicalism.
His book Jesus + Nothing = Everything was awarded “Book of the Year” in 2012 by Christianity Today. He founded Liberate, which is an organization basically designed to fight against “legalism,” which we will see means any requirement of a Christian to repent or obey.
Essentially, one-way love means that God loves us without expecting anything in return— no repentance, no obedience. Especially vile to proponents of one-way love is the notion that there are blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience (though this notion is all through the Bible). Also odious to the one-way love position is the idea that what a Christian does can in any way affect his/her relationship with God.
Tullian is especially fond of pointing out that God’s unconditional love for us has “no strings attached”: “No matter how many times we’ve blown it, no matter how many years we’ve been unsuccessfully trying to get better, God attaches no strings to His love. None. His love for us does not depend on our loveliness. It goes one way. As far as our sin may extend, the grace of our Father extends further”
Five Serious Problems with One Way Love
In critiquing this book, I must say that it is very hard to know where to start and where to finish. There are a lot of issues I can take up with this book, but for the purpose of being focused, I will especially spotlight five serious problems with One Way Love. I do my best not to take what he is saying out of context. I do not leave off qualifiers or balancing statements to make him sound bad. In fact, Tullian somewhat glories in not balancing or qualifying his radical statements on grace.
1) No Requirement to Change
Tullian says it this way: “One-way love has the unique power to inspire generosity, kindness, loyalty, and more love, precisely because it removes any and all requirement to change or produce.” To remove all requirement to change is to say there is no need for repentance.
He criticizes the way we tend to view God: “We view God as a glorified bookkeeper, tallying our failures and successes on His cosmic ledger. We conclude that in order for God to love us, we have to change, grow, and be good”. In other words, there is no need for us as Christians to change, grow, or be good. God is not keeping tabs.
2) Abuse of the Scriptures
Tullian’s second big problem in One Way Love is a hermeneutical one. He simply does not rightly divide the Word of truth. Tullian consistently misuses and abuses the Scriptures. Though he claims to be Reformed, he seems much more dispensational in his almost complete disregard for the Old Testament.
In fact, Tullian makes no serious attempt to find out what the whole Scripture has to say about whatever he is talking about. And in a postmodern age that exalts the hermeneutic of deconstructionism, it is far too easy to do this. You can get the Bible to support whatever idea you want. You can just pick and choose whatever verses you want, regardless of the context, to support your idea. And this is exactly what Tullian does throughout One Way Love.
One of Tullian’s main theses is that our behavior and actions in no way affect our relationship with God. In asserting this, Tullian simply ignores the hundreds of Scriptures that deny this proposition. He in no way addresses the passages that deal with God’s blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience among His covenant people (see Deut. 28 and Lev. 26). He disregards such statements as the psalmist makes in Psalm 66:18: “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” He pays no attention to statements such as the prophet Azariah’s in 2 Chronicles 15:7: “The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.” He ignores Paul’s teaching that a man reaps what he sows (Gal. 6:7-8).
3) A Call to Christian Holiness Is Legalism
Another major problem is Tullian’s flawed definition of legalism. Instead of viewing legalism as trusting in the keeping of the law for salvation, he essentially equates legalism with any call for a Christian to be holy.
He speaks of his own previous experience as an “absurdly uptight” legalist after his conversion (79). He tells how he would frown at his wife for planting flowers on the Sabbath, while sitting on his couch watching sports on TV. He looks back with embarrassment at the times he insisted on having hour-long prayer sessions each night.
Since Tullian cannot use the Bible to support his idea that Christians do not need to follow any rules, he turns to Netflix as the exemplar. [2] Netflix, he claims, has no official vacation policy. They let their employees take as much time off as they want, whenever they want, as long as the job is getting done. The implication is that the church should imitate such a pattern.
In all of this, Tullian completely ignores the biblical call to holiness. A minister who repeats the following sample of verses is in danger of being dubbed a legalist by Tullian:
Lev. 19:2: “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.”
2 Tim. 8-9: “But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life.”
Heb. 12:14: “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
1 John 3:9: “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.”
4) Antinomianism Is a Myth
A somewhat inexplicable flaw of Tullian’s is his denial that antinomianism actually exists. He quotes Judy Koch as joking that “bigfoot called my unicorn an antinomian.” The implication is that there is no such thing as antinomianism in the real world. Antinomianism is mere mythology.
Since antinomianism is just a myth, there is no need of “balancing” grace by warning against using grace to justify your sin.
Tullian ignores the consistent biblical warning against antinomianism. Yes, Christ warned against and rebuked the legalistic Pharisees, but he also pronounced judgment on those who profess his name, but are “workers of lawlessness” (see Matt. 7:21-23). The apostle Paul warned against both legalists and antinomians. Second Peter, Jude, and James were especially written as polemicals against antinomianism.
5) Unbiblical Applications
Perhaps the biggest danger in all of this is in its application, especially for parents. There is an inevitable connection between doctrine and life. Bad doctrine will eventually lead to a bad life, or a bad life inevitably results in bad doctrine. This is why Paul calls Timothy to “watch your life and doctrine closely” (1 Tim. 4:16).
The Bible speaks of the blessing and necessity of receiving a word of rebuke. Psalm 141:5 says, “Let a righteous man strike me–it is a kindness; let him rebuke me –it is oil on my head” (see also Prov. 3:11; Luke 17:3; 2 Tim. 3:16; 4:2; Rev. 3:19).
Apparently God will not only refuse to punish us when we sin, but He just blesses us all the more. This is a total denial of biblical parenting. Tullian is encouraging parents to deliberately teach their children that their sins have no consequences. We are to give the impression that when we sin God will just give you a hug and say, “It’s alright,” and make room for you to sin more. This is absolute blasphemy.
Increasingly, people who want to sin and still be a Christian will find a haven in synagogues of Satan that promote an unholy God that makes allowance for sin and a form of salvation that does not require repentance or obedience.
But these havens are not safe havens—to follow doctrines of demons that lead to a demon-controlled life will surely lead to the same lake of fire to which the demons and their followers are going.
The stakes are high, the temptation to fold and compromise is great. We need to pray and resolve, by the power of the Spirit, as individuals and as a church, to stand our ground. Pray that we will remain a pillar and foundation of God’s truth for generations to come. Pray that we may ever be what God calls us to be: a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light (1 Pet. 2:9).
In conclusion, the misinterpretation of biblical teachings, particularly the concepts of grace and law, can lead believers down perilous paths where spiritual freedom is mistaken for moral license. The case of Tullian Tchividjian serves as a stark reminder of how an overemphasis on grace without a balanced understanding of the transformative power of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of moral law can result in personal and communal devastation.
When scripture is cherry-picked or interpreted through the lens of personal desire rather than in its full context, it can deceive even the most devout. This selective reading or misapplication of biblical principles can foster environments ripe for ethical relativism, where actions are justified not by their alignment with divine truth but by individual interpretation or comfort. As Christians, the challenge lies in embracing grace fully while recognizing that true freedom in Christ is not an escape from ethical responsibility but rather the empowerment to live a life that reflects God’s holiness. This balance is crucial to avoid the pitfalls of misguided choices that can lead not only to personal downfall but also to the disillusionment of those who look to Christian leaders for guidance.
Bad doctrine leads to sinful life indeed, as exemplified by this man.