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John F. MacArthur
John F. MacArthur
John F. MacArthur
MacArthur
accredited, four-year, liberal arts Christian college;[12]
and, in 1986, he founded The Masters Seminary.
MacArthur also received an honorary doctorate from
Talbot Theological Seminary[13] and an honorary doctorate from Grace Graduate School.[14]
2.2 Eschatology
MacArthur is a premillenialist and pre-tribulationist in regards to the timing of the Rapture and other End time occurrences, and stated, I'm committed to the fact that Jesus will come to set up a literal earthly kingdom and that
He will come seven years before the kingdom, He will
come prior to the tribulation. [19] However, MacArthur
has tried to distance himself from others within the line of
thought, such as minister Tim LaHaye and novelist Jerry
B. Jenkins of fame for the Left Behind series. MacArthur
remarked during a sermon, "...somebody out there is
going to say, Oh boy, hes in to the Left Behind series. NoI'm not in to Rapture-ction and I'm not in
to wacky charts. You don't see me up here with a big
chart and a stick. And I'm not in to newspaper exegesis where...everything that happens in the news fullls some obscure Old Testament prophecy...I reject the
THEOLOGICAL VIEWS
wacky world of newspaper exegesis and cartoon eschatol- position in his sermons. The controversy concerning the
ogy and crazy interpretation like the locusts of Revelation ecacy of the Christs blood stems from MacArthurs
9 being helicopters...[20]
statement that it is not the literal liquid blood of Christ
that saves, but his sacricial 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
2.3 Law and Covenant
of the Grace to You family paper that is distributed to
MacArthur describes himself as a leaky his church. MacArthur himself, though, later claried
dispensationalist.[21] While he holds to a premillennial what was stated of him in the article, noting his posiand pre-tribulational rapture of the church and fulll- tion concerning Christs blood and death in atonement,
ment of all the covenant promises made to the Jews mentioning that the ecacy of Christs blood is not some
at the end of the tribulation, he rejects some of the particular physical property of the blood itself, but the
classic dispensational ideas, such as the Law having no fact that He shed blood in dying, and his armation that
application to the church. MacArthur stated, I'm not Christs blood in death was necessary to satisfy Gods holy
in to all that is traditionally known as dispensationalism, requirement for atonement.[25]
seven dispensations, two kingdoms, two New Covenants,
two ways of salvation, discontinuity between the Old
2.5 Christology
Testament and the New.[22]
2.4
Soteriology
In 1983, MacArthur rst 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. In an article on MacArthurs web
site Grace to You entitled Reexamining the Eternal Sonship of Christ, he retraces his views from 1983 onward,
concluding, I want to state publicly that I have abandoned the doctrine of 'incarnational sonship.' Careful
study and reection have brought me to understand that
Scripture does indeed present the relationship between
God the Father and Christ the Son as an eternal FatherSon relationship. I no longer regard Christs sonship as a
role He assumed in His incarnation.[26]
2.6 Cessationism
MacArthur is a cessationist, and is one of the most prominent voices in the church against the continuationist beliefs of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movement.
He has written three books in support of his position:
The Charismatics (1978), Charismatic Chaos (1993), and
Strange Fire: The Danger of Oending the Holy Spirit
with Counterfeit Worship (2013). In October 2013,
MacArthur hosted a conference called Strange Fire at
his church, to mark the launch of his book of the same
name. The event featured a number of speakers who argued for a cessationist theology and strongly critiqued
the Charismatic Movement.[27] In his opening remarks,
MacArthur stated, Watching the behavior of some Hindus who belong to the Kundalini cult. Their body movements are almost identical to that of people in the charismatic movement, the extreme behavior of pagans. This is
the work of Satan, it is the work of darkness, and not to be
attributed to the Holy Spirit. And that, The Charismatic
movement as such has made no contribution to biblical
clarity, interpretation, or sound doctrine..It detracts and
confuses. It has only produced distortion, confusion,
and error. Have people truly been saved in Charismatic
2.7
Complementarianism
3
one of the best short, popular works on the subject.[34]
Three books have been written in response to the Strange
Fire book and conference, arguing for the continuationist
position: Authentic Fire: A Response to John MacArthurs
Strange Fire by Michael Brown; Holy Fire: A Balanced,
Biblical Look at the Holy Spirits Work in Our Lives by
R.T. Kendall and The Essential Guide to the Power of
the Holy Spirit: Gods Miraculous Gifts At Work Today
by Dr. Randy Clark. Addressing the Strange Fire
conference, continuationist Calvinist Baptist John Piper
concurs that there are many abuses in the charismatic
church, however he adds that we really need to keep in
mind that every charismatic abuse has its mirror image in
non-charismatic abuses...In some of these cases, the noncharismatic church is more guilty than the charismatic,
such as, the absence of emotion, which is probably more
deadly than the excesses.[35]
2.7 Complementarianism
MacArthur takes a complementarian biblical view on
gender roles as opposed to the feminist view and considers that the Bible does not allow women to teach men
or exercise authority in churches. He therefore believes
that the roles of elder and pastor are restricted to men
only.[36][37][38]
2.8 Psychology
He is also an advocate of Nouthetic Counseling, which
stresses the Bible as a sucient tool for counseling people with mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety.
MacArthur does not reject all forms of psychological theories and techniques, though he considers some psychology and psychiatry as contrary to the Bible.[39]
MacArthur has argued that True psychology (i.e. the
study of the soul) can be done only by Christians, since
only Christians have the resources for understanding and
transforming the soul. The secular discipline of psychology is based on godless assumptions and evolutionary
foundations and is capable of dealing with people only
supercially and only on the temporal level... Psychology is no more a science than the atheistic evolutionary
theory upon which it is based. Like theistic evolution,
Christian psychology is an attempt to harmonize two inherently contradictory systems of thought. Modern psychology and the Bible cannot be blended without serious
compromise to or utter abandonment of the principle of
Scriptures suciency.... "[40]
His stance has caused several controversies, the most notable of which was the rst time an employee of an evangelical church had ever been sued for malpractice. The
case failed to come to trial because a judge ruled the case
as having insucient evidence.[41][42][43][44]
2.9
REFERENCES
His writings disapprove of other modern Christian movements and ministers such as those who run seekerfriendly church services such as Robert Schuller, Bill
Hybels, and Rick Warren.[45]
He has criticized popular Word of Faith pastor Joel Osteen, whom he has spoken of as a quasi-pantheist.[46] He
disagrees with Billy Graham, who in an interview with
Robert Schuller in the hour of prayer program stated that
Salvation is open to all people whether they believe in Jesus or not.[47]
4 References
3
Selected publications
One Perfect Life: The Complete Story of the Lord Jesus by John F. MacArthur (Mar 4, 2013)
The Charismatics: A Doctrinal Perspective Hardback [11] Whats the history of Grace to You?". Retrieved 2009(1978)
09-22.
[35] Piper, John. Piper Addresses Strange Fire and Charismatic Chaos. Desiring God. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
[16] http://www.bing.com/search?q=When+was+the+
MacArthur+New+Testament+Commentary+Series+
completed%3F&go=%E3%82%AF%E3%82%A8%
E3%83%AA%E9%80%81%E4%BF%A1&qs=bs&
form=QBRE |john Macarthur - YouTube
[46] The Bible and Joel Osteen - Produced by Truth Ministries & Ben Ditzel.
[47] Rev.John MacArthur on Billy Graham Catholicism.
[48] John F. MacArthur - The Scandal of the Catholic Priesthood.
[49] MacArthur, John. A Timely Critique of the Catholic
Church. Grace to You. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
[50] Antichrist-John MacArthur.
[51] MacArthur, John. Blog RSS The Pope and the Spirit of
Antichrist. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
[52] MacArthur, John. Exposing the Heresies of the Catholic
Church.
[53] Kanaal van JohnMacArthurGTY. YouTube. 2008-0828. Retrieved 2011-09-19.
Further reading
Jones, Karen (NovDec 2009). John MacArthur:
Unleashing Gods TruthOne Verse at a Time.
Bible Study Magazine 2 (1): 1014.
John MacArthur: Servant of the Word and Flock,
Iain H. Murray
John Macarthur: Mainstreaming Paganism in the
Church (Critical review)
External links
John MacArthur.org 40th anniversary legacy site
presented by Grace Community Church
GTY.org resources page all of MacArthurs sermons (audio and text) available for download
EXTERNAL LINKS
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