An increasing number of professing Christians will acknowledge that the Bible is opposed to some practice, but then claim that God has evolved regarding the issue and the Spirit is speaking something different to the church today. Apart from the epistemological problems that such a claim entails, isn’t it interesting that the Spirit is always being more permissive today (just like our culture)? That’s quite strange, because when God has given new revelation in the past, it was not in the direction of moral permissiveness, but in the direction of moral stringency.

For example, in the OT God permitted divorce, but in the NT, Jesus called God’s people back to God’s ideal of lifelong marriage. The OT only prohibited the physical act of adultery, but in the NT Jesus expanded the concept of adultery to include one’s thought life. If the direction of moral change was always from being more permissive to being less permissive, why think God is moving in the opposite direction today (and why think God has changed His mind at all)?

Also, why is it that the Spirit only seems to be changing His mind on issues that our culture doesn’t agree with Him on? Why isn’t the Spirit rethinking love, forgiveness, and tolerance? When the only thing the Spirit changes His mind on are the things the culture has changed its mind on too, chances are you are not hearing from the Spirit at all.