On Antinomianism

The Missal by John Waterhouse

Katherine Parr:

Only speaking of the Gospel makes not men good Christians, but good talkers, except [when] their facts and works agree with the same: so then their speech is good because their hearts are good. And even as much talk of the word of God, without practicing the same in our living, is evil and detestible in the sight of God, so it is a lamentable thing to hear how there are many in the world that do not well digest the reading of scripture, and do commend and praise ignorance, and say that much knowledge of God's word is the original of all dissension, schisms, and contention, and makes men haughty, proud, and presumptuous by reading of the same.

This manner of saying is no less than a plain blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. For the Spirit of God is the author of his word, and so the Holy Ghost is made the author of evil, which is a most great blasphemy and (as the scripture saith) "a sin that shall not be forgiven in this world, neither in the other to come" [Matt. 12:32]. It were all our parts and duties to procure and seek all the ways and means possible, to have more knowledge of God's word set forth abroad in the world, and not allow ignorance, and discommend knowledge of God's word, stopping the mouths of the unlearned with subtle and crafty persuasions of philosophy and sophistry, whereof comes no fruit, but a great perturbation of mind to the simple and ignorant, not knowing which way to turn them. For how is it not extreme wickedness to charge the holy, sanctified word of God with the offenses of man? To allege the scriptures to be perilous learning, because certain readers thereof fall into heresies?

(The Lamentation of a Sinner, chapter 10)

No doubt Katherine Parr had the Catholics of her day in mind as she wrote the above words, but they still stand relevant today. Sins have a nasty habit of recurring through the years: In the Middle Ages, the Roman church discouraged laymen from reading the Bible, asserting that only the allegedly well-trained clergy was capable of reading it correctly; today, Evangelicalism is infiltrated with the belief that "doctrine divides."