John F. MacArthur

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John F. MacArthur, Jr.
John F. MacArthur
Born	June 19, 1939 (1939-06-19) (age 70) Los Angeles, California USA
Nationality	American
Occupation	Minister, Writer, Broadcaster

John Fullerton MacArthur, Jr. (born June 19, 1939 in Los Angeles, California) is a United States evangelical writer and minister, noted for his radio program entitled Grace to You and as the editor of the Gold Medallion Book Award winning MacArthur Study Bible.^[1] MacArthur is a fifth-generation pastor, a popular author and conference speaker, and has served as the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California since 1969, and as the President of The Master's College (and the related Master's Seminary) in Santa Clarita, California.

[edit] Biography

The son of Jack MacArthur (an accomplished preacher in his own right), John MacArthur was an athlete and attended Bob Jones University before transferring to Los Angeles Pacific College (now Azusa Pacific University). He later obtained his Masters of Divinity from Biola University's Talbot Theological Seminary, in La Mirada, California. He graduated with honors. From 1964 to 1966, he served as an associate pastor at Calvary Bible Church, in Burbank, California and, from 1966 to 1969, as a faculty representative for Talbot Theological Seminary. Then, in 1969, he became the third pastor in the then-short history of the nondenominational Grace Community Church of Sun Valley, California.

In 1985, MacArthur became the president of The Master's College (formerly Los Angeles Baptist College), an accredited, four-year, liberal arts Christian college; and, in 1986, he founded The Master's Seminary. His daily radio program, Grace to You, is broadcast throughout much of the world. He is the author of over 150 books, notably his, MacArthur Commentary Series, and the MacArthur Study Bible (ISBN 0-8499-1222-9). He works alongside Phil Johnson who edits his preaching messages into book form.

MacArthur received a doctorate from Talbot Theological Seminary and an honorary doctorate from Grace Graduate School.^[2]

[edit] Theological views

MacArthur is a conservative Baptist. He is a proponent of expository preaching^[3], is a Calvinist, and dispensationalist^[4] (believes that Jews will be saved at the end of the tribulation and that all the covenant promises made to them will be fulfilled). He rejects some of the classic dispensational ideas (such as the Law having no application to the church)—hence his self-description as a "leaky dispensationalist."^[5] He is a pre-trib premillenialist (believes that the rapture will take place before the tribulation) like all dispensationalists. (He jokingly says that if the tribulation takes place before the Rapture, he'll go straight to anti-Christ headquarters, preach the gospel, and get killed. ).

MacArthur is a major part of the Lordship Salvation movement that argues against "Free Grace theology". His book The Gospel According to Jesus (ISBN 0-310-39491-0) caused controversy in the evangelical church by arguing for "Lordship salvation," which teaches that "you must receive Jesus Christ for who He is, both Lord and Savior, to be truly saved (II Peter 2:20)." This is evidenced on page 150 in his book Kingdom Living Here and Now (0-802-44564-0), in which MacArthur states: “Eternal security is a great spiritual truth, but it should never be presented merely as a matter of being once saved, always saved--with no regard for what you believe or do. The writer of Hebrews 12:14 states frankly that only those who continue living holy lives will enter the Lord's presence."

MacArthur is a cessationist. In his book Charismatic Chaos, he argued that Charismatic and Pentecostal theology and practice regarding the "gifts of the Spirit" (healing, miracles, glossolalia, etc.) are not for these times.

MacArthur's writings similarly are critical of other modern Christian movements such as those who run "seeker-friendly" church services such as Robert Schuller, Bill Hybels, and Rick Warren. He is also an advocate of Biblical Counseling (also known as Nouthetic Counseling), which stresses the Bible as a tool for counseling and rejects psychological theories and techniques that are contrary to the Bible in spiritual issues.^[6]

MacArthur has also been a proponent of Christians abstaining from alcohol, though he does not think it is necessarily sinful.^[7] (See Christianity and alcohol.)

MacArthur has stated that the "theology of Islam is false," and that Allah is the "wrong god."^[8]

In 1983, MacArthur first published his belief in the doctrine of "incarnational sonship." In 1989, after some criticism, he defended his views in a plenary session of the annual convention of the Independent Fundamental Churches of America. Subsequently, MacArthur has written that he has reversed this position and no longer regards Christ's sonship as a role he assumed in his incarnation.^[9]

This article's Criticism or Controversy section(s) may mean the article does not present a neutral point of view of the subject. It may be better to integrate the material in such sections into the article as a whole.

MacArthur has been a figure in several controversies, the most notable of which was the first time an employee of an evangelical church had ever been sued for malpractice. ^[10]

In December 1989, the Bible Broadcasting Network terminated MacArthur's "Grace to You" program. In explaining that step, BBN president Lowell Davey referred to MacArthur's teachings on the blood of Christ, "Lordship Salvation" and "Hyper-Calvinism." He called these teachings "confusing." In a letter dated January 15, 1990, Davey cited a, "....drift by Dr. MacArthur to a theological position that we could not adhere to," and said that MacArthur's sermon series on the theology of election "....convinced us that the direction of 'Grace to You' was toward Hyper-Calvinism...." MacArthur preaches "Salvation" by election of God's sovereignty; he accepts Arthur Pink's view of the sovereignty of God in salvation.^[11] However, the term "Hyper-Calvinism" is used by some to denote 5-point Calvinism or even any strong defense of Calvinism, rather than the historical "Hyper-Calvinism" position that only the elect may be offered the gospel. This position does not seem to reflect the truth of MacArthur's position in his sermons, which may just as well be called a "weak" or "inconsistent" Calvinism owing to advocacy of Dispensationalism (see below).

The "Lordship salvation" controversy concerns MacArthur's view that submitting to the lordship of Jesus is a necessary part of receiving him as savior. MacArthur's views raised controversy within American Evangelicalism and were challenged in print by Charles Ryrie and Zane C. Hodges, who argued that MacArthur was teaching a form of works-based salvation.

The controversy concerning the efficacy of the blood stems from MacArthur's statement that it is not the literal liquid blood of Christ that saves, but his sacrificial death on the cross, a view that he espoused in an article titled, "Not His Bleeding, but His Dying," published in the May 1976 issue of the Grace to You family paper that is distributed to his church.

Dispensationalism has been a frequent source of controversy; critics claim that MacArthur's deviation from Reformed eschatology has led to an inconsistent Calvinism or self-contradiction suggesting two people groups of God, two roads to salvation, and the so-called, "Great parenthesis."

[edit] Publications

[edit] References

1. ^ "1998 Gold Medallion Book Awards Winners". http://www.ecpa.org/christianbookawards/gm1998.php. Retrieved on 2008-03-06. 
2. ^ "John F. MacArthur - The Master's Seminary". http://www.tms.edu/facprofile.asp?profid=7. 
3. ^ http://www.biblebb.com/files/MAC/80-257.htm
4. ^ http://www.biblebb.com/files/macqa/70-16-9.htm
5. ^ http://www.biblebb.com/files/macqa/70-16-9.htm
6. ^ http://www.biblebb.com/files/macqa/1301-F-10.htm
7. ^ http://www.gty.org/Resources/Transcripts/1938
8. ^ http://www.youtube.com/JohnMacArthurGTY
9. ^ http://www.gty.org/Resources/Articles/593
10. ^ (http://www.churchlawtoday.com/private/library/pcl/p04e.htm)
11. ^ (http://www.biblebb.com/files/MAC/sg60-2.htm)

[edit] External links

• John MacArthur.org – 40th anniversary legacy site presented by Grace Community Church
• GTY.org resources page – All of MacArthur's sermons (audio and text) now available free for download.
• Radio Archive
• Grace to You Podcast Archive
• Grace Community Church
• The Master's College
• The Master's Seminary
• Bible Bulletin Board – Contains many of MacArthur's sermon texts and articles.