ANTINOMIANISM (Greek, anti, "against," and nomas, "law"), the doc trine or opinion that Christians are freed from obligation to keep the law of God. It is generally regarded, by advocates of the doctrine of justification by faith, as a monstrous abuse and perversion of that doctrine, upon which it usually professes to be based. The term was first used at the time of the Reformation, when it was applied by Luther to the opinions advo cated by Johann Agricola. Agricola had adopted the principles of the Reforma tion; but in 1527 he found fault with Melanchthon for recommending the use of the law, and particularly of the ten commandments, in order to produce con viction and repentance, which he deemed inconsistent with the Gospel. Ten years after, he maintained in a disputation at Wittenberg that, as men are justified simply by the Gospel, the law is in no way necessary for justification or for sanctification. The Antinomian contro versy of this time, in which Luther took a very active part, terminated in 1540, in a retractation by Agricola; but views more extreme than his were afterward advocated by some of the English sec taries of the period of the Common wealth; and without being formally pro fessed by a distinct sect, antinomianism has been from time to time reproduced with various modifications. It ought,
however, to be borne in mind that the term has no reference to the conduct, but only to the opinions, of men; so that men who practically disregard and vio late the known law of God are not, there fore, antinomians; and it is certain enough that men really holding opinions more or less antinomian have in many cases been men of moral life. Antino mianism usually originates in mistaken notions of Christian liberty, or in con fusion of views as to the relation between the moral law and the Jewish law of ceremonial ordinances.