---
title: 'Therapeutic Antinomianism'
type: text
hasMedia: true
requiresPurchase: false
authors:
- 'Ben Dunson'
date: 2026-10-26
collection: 'Articles'
subcollection: '2026'
topics:
- 'Children and Youth'
- 'Gospel'
- 'Sanctification'
- 'Sin'
scriptures:
- 'Proverbs 3'
- 'Proverbs 22'
- 'Matthew 6'
- 'John 14'
- 'Romans 3'
- 'Romans 4'
- 'Romans 7'
- 'Romans 8'
- 'Romans 12'
- '1 Corinthians 15'
- '1 Corinthians 6'
- '1 Corinthians 9'
- '2 Corinthians 5'
- '2 Corinthians 7'
- 'Galatians 2'
- 'Ephesians 6'
- 'Philippians 3'
- 'Philippians 4'
- 'Philippians 2'
- '1 Timothy 1'
- 'Titus 2'
- 'Hebrews 12'
- 'James 1'
- 'James 2'
- '1 Peter 1'
- '1 Peter 3'
- '1 Peter 5'
- '1 John 2'
url: https://confessional.org/articles/2026/therapeutic-antinomianism
---

# Therapeutic Antinomianism

While modern therapy has infected the church and Christian parenting with a fear of enforcing obedience to God’s law, Christ empowers and commands believers to become conformed to Him, to their earthly and spiritual blessing.

A few years ago Abigail Shrier wrote a book entitled *Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up.* It is an exposé of the many ways in which modern therapy, under the guise of “empathetic caring,” has made children into psychological and emotional wrecks.

As my wife’s [review](https://archive.americanreformer.org/2024/03/raising-neurotic-wrecks/) of the book put it:

> Shrier outlines the problem: therapy and therapeutic concepts (“mental health”) are ubiquitous today and parents are quick to find therapeutic solutions for everything, including medicating kids with psychotropic drugs and stimulants to treat normal childhood behaviors. Any pain or disappointment is equated with trauma and, in our risk-averse society, must be avoided at all costs or treated as a problem to be solved with therapy and drugs.

Shrier doesn’t get into the implications of her research for the church, though my wife also rightly pointed out that “\[t\]his ideology is even common among Christian parents, who readily rely on therapy to address perceived behavioral issues (aka sin) or on medication for normal childhood characteristics like being wiggly or distracted.”

Therapeutic concepts are so prevalent in our society that it is often hard to understand how they impact our reasoning in different areas of life. Therapeutic thinking has certainly infected the church. In fact, it is one of the chief supports of a heresy that plagues the church today, as it has in every age: the heresy of antinomianism, that is, of being against (anti) God’s law (nomos) as the necessary rule of life for the Christian.

Antinomianism rarely takes the form of an overt and explicit rejection of God’s moral law. Normally, it is far more subtle. A particularly subtle (and thus far more dangerous) form today goes like this: No one, not even a born-again Christian, is capable of keeping God’s law perfectly. The law simply shows us our sin, and thus our need for the grace of forgiveness in Christ.

Everything in the two previous sentences is true except for the word “simply.” It is with this word that antinomianism slithers in unnoticed. It is not the case that God’s moral law *simply* shows regenerate believers their sin. The law does indeed do that (Rom. 3:19–20; 7:7), but the law is also the Christian’s necessary guide and rule for life. God, through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:7–9), will work obedience to his law in the life of every genuine Christian. No one can be justified (declared in the right with God) on the basis of obedience to the law (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:15–16; Phil. 3:8–9), but God’s Spirit brings all believers into submission to his law, which is simply submission to God himself, as a necessary outworking of God’s grace in their lives (1 Cor. 9:21; Titus 2:11–14; James 1:25; 2:8).

The therapeutic mindset (which is really warmed-over Freudian psychobabble) tells us that our chief problems in life come from outside of ourselves, that we are passive victims to any number of traumas we have experienced. We likely did not even recognize them as traumas at the time. What is more, therapy teaches us—the helpless victims that we are—to see all difficulties in life, from the smallest to the greatest, as insurmountable ordeals inflicted upon us. We’re told that the normal stresses of work, school, family, finances, and more, have wounded us beyond our ability to cope. Thus, we need therapy (or drugs), which, coincidentally, is quite convenient for those counselors and doctors whose livelihood depends on their patients remaining unwell. Instead of being taught to cast our cares on the Lord (1 Pet. 5:6­–7) and confront and overcome those things that create anxiety (Matt. 6:25­–34; Phil. 4:4–7), Christians are left defenseless. Modern therapeutic methods encourage and amplify extreme mental, emotional, and spiritual fragility, rather than help Christians overcome those states.

What is the connection between therapy and antinomianism in the church? The most prevalent form of antinomianism today is the belief that if Christians are straightforwardly taught that they must obey God, they will actually be pushed away from him. It is the notion that a firm insistence on obedience leads invariably to rebellion, or even to apostasy. This mentality mimics the therapeutic mindset: Christians are too fragile to be confronted with their sin; any attempt to do so will harm them and only cause alienation from the Lord. All we can do (we are told) is “give them grace.”

Mimicry may not even be the right word to describe the relationship between these mindsets. I suspect the therapeutic mentality is *driving* resurgent antinomianism. Out is the “fear of the Lord.” In is “reckless love” (a supposedly repentance-free salvation). Out is the fact that guilt and shame (1 Cor. 6:5; 15:34; Titus 2:8; 1 Pet. 3:16) are the inevitable results of sin, and are warning signs from God which should drive us to repentance (2 Cor. 7:8­–9). In is the notion that shame must be suppressed at all costs. The same brittle emotional fragility resulting from modern therapy is everywhere present in the church. Much of the discourse surrounding “winsomeness” over the last few years is surely a result of this fact. Is it a coincidence that in a culture in thrall to the therapeutic mindset, the supreme sin in the evangelical church is not being milquetoast enough?

There are two areas where I see the triumph of therapeutic antinomianism particularly evident in the church today.The first is in preaching. Therapeutic-antinomian preaching follows a predictable pattern. Take any imperative of Scripture, tell the congregation how they are unable to obey that imperative, and then urge them to trust that Christ has obeyed it for them. Then end the sermon. Every sermon will be the same, no matter the text. The influence of the therapeutic mindset is evident in the fear behind this approach: the assumption that insisting on whole-hearted obedience will drive Christians to legalism, despair, or both. In therapeutic thinking, nothing is worse than feeling bad.

This kind of preaching is plainly unbiblical. We’ve already seen how works cannot contribute to salvation, but “so also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17). Such “faith” is no faith at all. True faith, as Martin Luther wrote in his 1545 preface to Romans is “a living, busy, active, mighty thing… it is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly. It never asks whether good works are to be done; it has done them before the question can be asked, and is always doing them.”

Faithful preaching makes clear that justification is by faith in Christ alone, and then goes on to show how obedience to the commands of Scripture will be worked by the Holy Spirit in the life of every believer, and how believers must actively strive after this obedience, in reliance on the Spirit (John 14:15; Phil. 2:12–13; 1 John 2:3–6). Therapeutic preaching is terrified that pressing the commands of Scripture on the people of God will lead to their rebellion, not their sanctification—that the commands of Scripture will lead God’s children *away* from him. This cannot be the case: Jesus Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14). Are we wiser than God?

The second example of therapeutic antinomianism is found in Christian parenting literature, where it is nearly all-pervasive. Teaching our children that they must obey God’s commandments is called “law-centered” or “legalistic.” Some who argue this way tell us that God’s law cannot make our children good, or that it is powerless to change them. In this way of thinking the only thing we can do is teach our children that God saves them by his grace.

It is, of course, true that Christian parents should not merely tell their children to “be good.” We must teach them of the forgiveness that comes solely through the blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:17–19) and his perfect righteousness imputed to them by faith alone (Rom. 4:1–8). But Christian parents must also show their children that obedience to God and to one’s parents is necessary, good, God-honoring, and the path to spiritual and earthly blessing. This is the teaching on parenting we encounter throughout the Bible. Consider, for example, the words of a father to his son in Proverbs 3:1–8:

> My son, do not forget my teaching,
> but let your heart keep my commandments,
> 
> for length of days and years of life
> and peace they will add to you.
> 
> Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;
> bind them around your neck;
> write them on the tablet of your heart.
> 
> So you will find favor and good success
> in the sight of God and man.
> 
> Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
> and do not lean on your own understanding.
> 
> In all your ways acknowledge him,
> and he will make straight your paths.
> 
> Be not wise in your own eyes;
> fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
> 
> It will be healing to your flesh
> and refreshment to your bones.

When children obey God and their parents they “find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.” God’s law restrains even unbelievers from harming themselves and others (1 Tim. 1:9), but with covenant children we are promised far greater blessings. Parenting warped by the therapeutic mindset fears setting firm boundaries and enforcing consequences, assuming children will inevitably rebel. In this it fails to take God at his word: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6).

Our culture—through music, movies, novels, and more—relentlessly reinforces the lie that children will rebel against firm (though of course, loving) parenting. In fact, consistent discipline is the only truly loving thing a parent can do: “If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons” (Heb. 12:8). But thanks be to God that “he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness” (Heb. 12:10). Will Christian parents be more holy than God in denying our children what God gives us for our spiritual good? Or will we rather live by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7), trusting God’s [appointed](https://heritagebooks.org/products/parenting-by-gods-promises-how-to-raise-children-in-the-covenant-of-grace-beeke.html) [means](https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/every-fathers-calling) for our children’s spiritual and earthly good (Eph. 6:1–4)?

The ravages of modern therapy are everywhere present in our world. The church is no exception. The first step toward resistance is recognizing that there is a problem. Then, equipped with Scripture we can, by God’s grace, become less anxious, and more trustful of God. We can become less passive victims of trauma, and more joyful, repentant believers. In short, we can “think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Rom. 12:3) and live with confident, resilient faith and hope in our gracious and merciful Lord.