Becky and I have been talking about going out west sometime and visit friends in California and Arizona, and one thing Becky wanted to do was to hear John MacArthur preach at Grace Community Church. That plan got scrapped when MacArthur was called to his heavenly home, July 14, 2025, at age 86 (the same age my Dad was when he passed in 2019).
My first introduction to him was at Bible College. In '79, Professor David Nicholas gave the Charismatic movement as a term paper subject in Hermeneutics (Biblical Interpretation) class, but said that anyone who did that subject (I did) needed to get MacArthur's book "The Charismatics" (I did). At that same time, a series based on the book was published in Moody Monthly.
Even though I moved back to Southern California after that for a short period time, I didn't follow him much, but when I pastored a church in Nebraska, a friend mentioned his tape ministry. Then, when I moved to Nashville, TN a year later, I listened to him occasionally on radio.
In '90, I got a copy of "The Gospel According To Jesus" from a friend. I didn't start reading it till four years later, but that book impacted my life. So did "Ashamed of the Gospel," which focused on pragmatism in the church.
As you may know, MacArthur didn't shy away from controversy, but one underlying thing is he stood solidly on the authority of Scripture and on expository preaching, and these items had a connection to his stand on those disputes. Two of those debates have been alluded to above. I had a friend at church who said he had a problem with MacArthur, because of their differing stands on the Charismatic movement. The funny thing is when I gave a quote from the MacArthur Study Bible (which I referred to as the Big Mac - if you saw a copy, you could see why), that friend usually admitted he agreed with MacArthur on that point. The other was with "The Gospel According To Jesus," which basically said that if a person is born again, there will be changes in his life.
Two recent things that MacArthur did which I agree. One was how he handled COVID. Some of the church felt the Biblical command to assemble together (Hebrews 10:24-25) was more important than keeping California Governor Newsom's lockdown. The church was fined by the government, but MacArthur was ready to go to court about it, and asked the state to give proof the lockdown measures worked. The state dropped the case, agreeing to drop the fines, pay the court fees and to not file any subsequent charges. The other was his support of the Legacy Standard Bible, which was consistent in transliterating Yahweh instead of using "The Lord" or "God" in all caps.
After his death a couple of weeks ago, I've read some posts and a couple of videos about his death. All of which were mostly positive, pointing out his solid stand on the Bible and expository preaching though one of the videos brought out the differences between MacArthur and his friend/fellow minister John Piper in a way that was definitely unnecessarily overdramatic. The article from Daniel Silliman in Christianity did balance the positive with some questions on the issues mentioned above and his views on women in the church (particularly Beth Moore). I did find it interesting it seemed to overlook the COVID issue.
Like J. Vernon McGee, MacArthur is in heaven but will continue to minister on earth. Grace to You has stated they will continue airing MacArthur's sermons. I'm glad.
