Lawless Corruptions
In a March 19 column for The Spectator Roger Kimball identified the spiritual disorder of “liberals,” which is that they are antinomian or, in the language of the people, “lawless.” I think we should use the latter designation instead of the faulty political identifier so as to direct the applicable scriptural term to them.
There are two other words that have been so abused as to be practically unavailable to us.
First, I do not like to call myself a “Christian,” as was applied to followers of the Way first in Antioch by others—except among people to whom the term means the same as it does to me. In reality, I am the progeny of Gentile converts to Messianic Judaism, who believe the Law is the Word of God, which the Lord said “cannot be broken”—and that until “Christians” return to this understanding from their antinomian corruption of St. Paul (corrected in St. James’s Epistle), they will continue in apostasy toward their original paganism.
Second, “love,” the love of God and of Christ as exercised among believers, in common parlance means erotic desire, or affections of various intensities, or laxity in regard to sin, or some mixture of these. I suggest we return to the Pauline “charity” for real love and let the Gentiles use the word for how they feel about chocolate.
God’s name is most often used in vain in the market, the churches, the media, the forum, and the academy. We cannot replace this, for it is holy, but must seize and defend the high ground around it.
S. M. Hutchens is a senior editor and longtime writer for Touchstone.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
29.3—May/June 2016
Our Choice Is Obedience or Jesus as Anti-Christ by Anthony Esolen
27.3—May/June 2014
Religious Freedom & Why It Matters
Working in the Spirit of John Leland by Robert P. George
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
