I’ve spoken with some people before, who, in the course of expressing Biblical views–usually revolving around morals and ethics about sin (which they themselves are still indulging in)–they have said that I should stop expressing my opinions or simply just say that I am an “opinionated” person. Yet, later on you will find them expressing their own views and beliefs about similar subjects, from a contrary position. This is the Age of Relativism. Its become a new morality to be non-judgmental. Postmodernism is the idea that you can change the meaning of a word whenever you want, and affix your own meaning to it, thus changing the thought attached to that word completely. This is a popular maneuver in liberal Bible interpretation.

If you have faith in the Bible, then you will be labeled a “literalist” and a “fundamentalist” by people who would much rather have you stop expressing all of these “opinions” of yours. But lets level this out a little bit: at least in my case, all of my personal moral and religious “opinions” are based on Biblical “revelations”: they are not really “opinions” so much as they are faith-based interpretations and applications of “revelations” from the Holy Spirit as read in the Holy Bible.

In “Revival Forum ’89,” Leonard Ravenhill was asked, “What would you perceive, Brother Ravenhill, to be the greatest need in the church in America specifically today?”

He replied, “I won’t give you my opinion–I’ll give you a Bible opinion from Jeremiah 2:13: ‘My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.'”

When a liberal Christian says to a conservative evangelical, “Enough with all your opinions”…what he’s implying is that he acknowledges nothing you are saying is from God’s point of view. He utterly rejects the religious and moral value of what you are saying. He is also shutting you off, insulting you, and disrespecting you. Rather than searching the Scriptures about what you’re saying like the Bereans (Acts 17:11), this person will likely blow off what you are saying, because you probably said something that challenged him or her morally.

Let’s get this straight:

Your opinion is a view that you have formulated about a subject, without any point of reference to the Bible. If people argue with this–they are only arguing with you.

A Biblical doctrine is a view that is a teaching straight out of the Bible. If people argue with this, they are arguing with God, so long as you convey the thought correctly as coming from the Bible; and you have clearly separated your own uncertainties and distortions.