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MacArthur
John Fullerton MacArthur, Jr. (born June 19, 1939)
is an American pastor and author known for his internationally syndicated radio program Grace to You. He
has been the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church
in Los Angeles, California since February 9, 1969[1] and
also currently is the president of The Masters College in
Newhall, California and The Masters Seminary in Los
Angeles, California.
2 Theological views
2.1 Creationism
MacArthur advocates young-earth creationism in his
book, The Battle For the Beginning (2001), and in his
sermons.[16] Speaking about evolutionism, he writes that
Christians ought to expose such lies for what they are
and oppose them vigorously. He argues that 'the battle
for the beginning is ultimately a battle between two mutually exclusive faiths - faith in Scripture versus faith in
anti-theistic hypotheses. It is not really a battle between
science and the Bible.'[17]
Biography
The son of Jack MacArthur and fth cousin of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur,[8] John MacArthur attended
Bob Jones University before transferring to Los Angeles
Pacic College (now Azusa Pacic 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.[9]
2.2 Dispensationalism
MacArthur describes himself as a leaky
dispensationalist.[18] While he holds to a premillennial
and pre-tribulational rapture of the church and fulllment of all the covenant promises made to the Jews
at the end of the tribulation, he rejects some of the
classic dispensational ideas, such as the Law having no
application to the church.
2.3 Soteriology
2.4
Christology
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
THEOLOGICAL VIEWS
2.5 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.[23] 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
churches? Yes. But nothing coming from that movement
has been the reason they were saved. Evangelicalism
has thrown its arms open and has welcomed the Trojan
horse of the charismatic movement into the city of God.
Its troops have taken over and placed an idol in the city
of God.[24]
He broadly calls modern visions, revelations, voices
from heaven...dreams, speaking in tongues, prophecies,
out-of-body experiences, trip to heaven, anointings, miracles all false, all lies, all deceptions attributed falsely
to the Holy Spirit. And that The Charismatic movement
has stolen the Holy Spirit and created a golden calf, and
theyre dancing around the golden calf as if it were the
Holy Spirit.[25][26] He has made a list of Gifts of the
Spirit, mostly from 1 Cor. 12-14, but holds that once
the New Testament was nished, those sign gifts ceased
to have a function, and ended with the conclusion of the
Apostolic Age, around 100 AD.[27]
In a subsequent teaching, What has happened after the
'Strange Fire' Conference (2013), MacArthur allowed
that within the Charismatic movement there were those
who believed in the authority of Scripture, honored the
Lord, and pursued Godly living, and that the movement
retained enough gospel truth so that souls could be saved
within it. However, he saw its interdenominational presence as being a testimony to the absence of any theology. He further criticized the modern Charismatic
movement, stating that in 1967 a bunch of Jesus freak
2.8
3
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.... "[36]
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.[37][38][39][40]
2.7
Psychology
4
Twelve Ordinary Men: How the Master Shaped His
Disciples for Greatness, and What He Wants to Do
with You by John F. MacArthur (May 8, 2006)
[3] The Top 25 Most Inuential Preachers. Christianity Today. 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-02-01.
Retrieved 2015-08-24.
One Perfect Life: The Complete Story of the Lord Jesus by John F. MacArthur (Mar 4, 2013)
[13] Diploma
[15] 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
REFERENCES
References
5 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)
6 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
7.1
Text
7.2
Images
File:John_F._MacArthur_Jr..JPG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/John_F._MacArthur_Jr..JPG License: CC0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: IslandsEnd
7.3
Content license