Is John Piper an antinomian? This is a serious question for antinomianism is considered by most Bible-believing Christians to be a heresy. It follows that an accusation of antinomianism cannot be lightly made. The purpose of this video is to provide the evidence on which the charge of antinomianism is level against John Piper’s ministry.
The starting point of the case against Piper must be the ‘Ask Pastor John’ (AJP) interview recorded in 2010, when he was asked the straightforward question, ‘Are Christians under the Ten Commandments?’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR6l87FiR_8
His response is unequivocal: ‘No! The Bible says we’re not under the law.’ Piper has relied on what many see as the proof-text for antinomianism, namely Romans 6.14—he quotes part of this verse out of context: ‘We’re not under the law!’
In The Law and the Gospel (1997), Ernest Reisinger, a Reformed Baptist pastor and author, comments: ‘one of the most misquoted, misunderstood, and misapplied verses in all the Bible is Roman 6.14. The second part of the verse is usually quoted out of context: “You are not under the law but under grace”. Quoting only that part of the verse while ignoring the first clause (“Sin shall not have dominion over you”) distorts the meaning of the passage altogether. To do so is to separate what God has joined together, and the sad result of this separation is a generation of lost, lawless, antinomian church members.’
In No Holiness, No Heaven! Antinomianism Today, a Banner of Truth book published in 1986, Richard Alderson writes: ‘All modern works of reference, both Christian and secular, agree in defining antinomianism as the view that the Moral Law, (the Ten Commandments) is not binding on Christians as a rule of life.’[1]
In An Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1998 edition, first published 1845), Robert Shaw, a Scottish Presbyterian theologian, describes antinomians as those ‘who say that believers are released from the obligation of the moral law’.[2]
According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, ‘The doctrine of antinomianism grew out of the Protestant controversies on the law and the gospel and was first attributed to Luther’s collaborator, Johann Agricola (1494-1566), who taught that Christians are freed by grace from the need to obey the Ten Commandments.’[3]
The term antinomianism was used for the first time by Martin Luther to describe Agricola’s position on the role of the Decalogue in the Church. Agricola believed that a Christian’s only motive for living a Christian life was love for Christ, asserting that Christians are freed by grace from the need to obey the Ten Commandments.
All the great Confessions of the Reformed Faith refer to the Ten Commandments as the Moral Law. Many modern works of reference, both Christian and secular, agree in defining Antinomianism as the belief that the Moral Law is not binding on Christians as a rule of life. An antinomian is one who does not accept the Moral Law, spiritually understood, as God’s blueprint for sanctified Christian living.
[1] Richard Alderson, No Holiness, No Heaven!—Antinomianism, Banner of Truth Trust, 1986, p19
[2] Robert Shaw, An Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith, p 245