26. John MacArthur 228 (continued)
xii JoHN MacArrHur: SERVANT OF THE WORD AND FLOCK
Truth Endures: Landmark Sermons by John MacArthur. This book was at the printers when my sketch arrived towards the end of 2008. Johnson and Taylor wrote, 'It came unexpectedly after corrected proofs had already been sent to the printer.' They 'stopped the presses' and included my sixty pages of 'biographical sketch'. While I appreciated this kindness and honour, I was conscious that I had left too much unsaid, and that led to the book now in the reader's hands. It includes most of that original piece with a good deal more. My hope is to pass on to others the encouragement that I have found myself in the record of John MacArthur's life and ministry.
This is still little more than a 'sketch': a full portrait must await a later date and come from another hand. It is not the time for a full biography while a person's life is still in progress. John's ambition is to minister the Word of God to the end of his life; in his phrase, 'to die with his boots on'. His father was spared to serve until he passed ninety years of age; whether our friend lives to that age or not, he believes it is a duty to keep 'growing' as long as life lasts: 'People sometimes point out to me that what I've said on one tape doesn't agree with what I said on a later tape. My response to them 1s that I am growing. I did not know everything then, and I do not know everything now.' So, as he said on another occasion, 'You'll never be able to evaluate the ministry of John MacArthur until all the evidence is in.'
While I have not written these pages in conjunction with John, the aid of a number of people in his congregation has been indispensable. Especial thanks are due to Rick Holland, Phil Johnson, and Don Green. Mr Johnson's knowledge of unpublished source material is unique; I could not have written without it, and it is my hope that he will himself one day
Foreword xiii
write on the ministry in which he has so largely shared. Staff members, Pat Rotisky and Catherine Curry, have been a great help to me, and numbers of others at Grace Community Church have encouraged us in various ways. The days which my wife and I have spent at the church, and at Grace to You, will ever be treasured memories. In a congregation where the blessing of God 1s known there will ever be affection between the people, and others find a ready welcome. So it has been for us at Sun
Valley.
I am indebted to John MacArthur for the liberty to quote him as extensively as I do; and to Mrs Patricia MacArthur for her valued measure of input and for allowing the use of family photographs. Banner staff have given their customary best support in the production of this title, and my friends, Ian S.
Barter and John R. de Witt, gave helpful comment on my draft.
Jean, as ever, has kept everything running happily in our home, while I only looked after the computer.
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Introduction
Wuat Is AN EVANGELICAL LEADER? rized by John MacArthur is an old edition of John
Foxe's Acts and Monuments of these latter and perilous days (1563), the book which first printed the story of William Tyndale, translator of the English Bible and martyred in 1536. Tyndale's enemy, Thomas More, complained of him that he was 'both nowhere and everywhere': 'nowhere' because few knew his actual location; 'everywhere' because his testimony was reaching all parts of the English-speaking nations. John MacArthur would never think of it, but the words suggest something of a parallel to me. Through hundreds of radio stations his voice is heard over a thousand times daily around the world; his books are to be found in thirty-five languages; yet the local scene where he spends the great part of his life is little known by most who read him or hear him broadcast.
He is also 'nowhere and everywhere'.
The element of personal obscurity is of no concern to MacArthur. He stands in that genuine evangelical tradition