Servant of the Word and Flock
Zz 7. John and Patricia with family, 1988: (left to right) Kelly (née Gallagher) and Matthew, Marcy, Melinda (kneeling below), and Mark.
Across the Pacific
Qe there came a similar development. A first international office of Grace to You was established in Mumbai (Bombay), India, in 1981, and during that decade the ministry at Grace Church was to go on air in a widening circle of nations from Australia and South Africa, to the Philippines and the United Kingdom.
John MacArthur 1s not by temperament a traveller. As already mentioned, he was in Brazil in 1978. He made a first visit to Britain (Scotland) in 1979, but it was not until 1988, when he was forty-nine, that he toured a series of countries across the Pacific. It was prompted by news coming back through the tape and radio ministry. In a Grace to You letter (February 1986)
MacArthur reported:
Phil Johnson, Managing Director of Word of Grace, recently returned from a three-week trip to Asia, and he told me he learned of Christians who listen to Word of Grace tapes in several places we didn't even realize we were penetrating—in the remote provinces of the Philippines, in the slums of India, and even in an out-of-the-way place like North Borneo. It's exciting and awesome to think that messages I preach from our church pulpit are being heard by people in parts of the world I will never be able to visit. At the same time, it is a powerful reminder of the weight of responsibility that God has placed on all of us who know the truth. If the message is biblical, it has no geographic or cultural bounds.
As the value of MacArthur making a visit to some of these far-off places became clear to him, and to the elders at Grace, a tour was planned for August and half of September 1988.
Patricia and all the family were to go with him, so that in addition to preaching there would be some days for vacation.
Not normally a journal keeper, John's sense of the potential importance of these weeks prompted him to keep a record of the whole period they were away.
For the first time the family stood on southern-hemisphere soil when their plane landed in Auckland, New Zealand, on Tuesday, August 2, 1988. It was the start of many new experiences.
Driving on the left-hand side of winding roads, through green meadows, in sight of some of the land's seventy million sheep, and with Maori music and feasts in the evenings—these were things unknown in California. The first weekend was filled with engagements at Totara Springs and Auckland. Some five hundred to six hundred people assembled at the former for a conference where MacArthur spoke twice. The response of hearers pointed to the great need of the country: serious exposition of Scripture was uncommon and charismatic influence prevalent.
The next week took them to South Island, first to Shotover
River Gorge, where they 'put on life jackets and got on a jet boat for the best thrills ever'! Then to Queenstown, before a five-hour trip to Milford Sound. John notes:
Across the Pacific
Only fifteen on the beautiful Volvo bus—breathtaking, magnificent scenery—nothing to match its grandeur. Cloudy, drizzly weather made for thousands of waterfalls... Milford Sound was beyond description—massive rock mountains rising straight out of the water to thousands of feet in height. The wonder of God's glorious mind and creative power was clear. The most spectacular scenery we have ever seen.
After a further conference at Christchurch, the MacArthurs flew to Australia, passing through Sydney ('brilliant weath lovely city') to Adelaide. Sunday, August 14, was a full day
Adelaide, concluding with a service at the Town Hall attend by one thousand people at 7 pm. At that meeting Grace to You in Australia had a plentiful supply of books and literature that was speedily taken up. The preacher noted: Amazed to see that so many had heard me preach on tape, or read books, particularly, The Charismatics. Australian churches are either liberal and dead or weak and charismatic, with few small exceptions. No strong leaders seem to be setting a national standard for strong doctrine, confrontational teaching and preaching. No one seems to be taking up the issues and confronting error—to become a clarifying voice and lead people to recognize the truth and hold the line for it. Charismatics and non-charismatics co-exist with seemingly no problems at present due to the weak, non-confrontive style of preaching. Mostly devotional, not doctrinal or even expository.
Two days later he was in Melbourne, and straight into a pastors' luncheon with 150 men; later a meeting with five hundr in Camberwell Town Hall. The interest in Grace to You literature was especially heartening. MacArthur noted in his journal: My prayer is not unrealistic—not to reach large numbers, rather to have the teaching available for those who hunger and desire solid meat, and will be used to start a new movement of spiritual depth, strong commitment and doctrinal distinctness. Committed people tend to gravitate to our material.
Similar services followed in Sydney and Brisbane—capitals of New South Wales and Queensland respectively. At Parramatta, NSW, such numbers came to a meeting in the church hall of St
John's, that the venue had to be changed to the cathedral itself.
The response to the work of Grace to You—with its office in Sydney—was especially noteworthy. By August 21, John had spoken twenty-five times in eighteen days, interspersed with a few days of vacation. As they flew north to Singapore on that date, his final reflection on a first visit to the Antipodes was, 'Great need for biblical, powerful preachers and strong spiritual leaders." Of course, he had seen little of a vast land but few discerning Australian Christians would have differed in their assessment.!
With the flight to Singapore they left the winter of the southern hemisphere behind them, and their winter clothes were sent home. Singapore, 'an island nation, seventy-five per cent Chinese, at the tip of the Malay peninsula', constituted an impressive introduction to the Far East: 'Bustling and beautiful, clean and uncluttered, amid tree-lined parkways, with the most 'In his journal, MacArthur agreed with the words of A. W. Pink: 'The great need of Australia today is for God-sent and God-anointed men, who will not shun to declare the whole counsel of God; men in whom the Word of Christ dwells richly; men on whom rests the ex of God, so that they are delivered from the fear of man. Iain H. Murray, The Life of 'Arthur W. Pink (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1981), p. 42. An enlarged edition of the Pink biography was published by the Trust in 2004.
Across the Pacific
efficient subway in the world', there was much to fascinate them. Among those to welcome them on arrival was twenty-eight year old Alex Lee, the enthusiastic local organizer of Grace to You tape and book ministry. That lives were being touched by that ministry was evident at a meeting of over a thousand mostly young people, of whom MacArthur noted: Great interest, eagerness to buy books, tapes, especially Lordship book—sold out! Spoke on Matthew, Gospel According to Jesus. Rich dialogue after. I was amazed to have such a response half way around the world—with people I didn't know—but who knew me.
Equally good discussion arose out of Question and Answer session at a visit to Singapore Bible College: Same questions as at home. The church is always needing clarification on the issues of qualifications and disqualifications for membership; women in leadership; sin and reformation; how to handle unbiblical elders; how to change the church tradition to conform to Scripture.
Experiences less familiar than those at home included a tencourse Chinese banquet, with a first taste of octopus, and a first visit to a crocodile farm. Among his overall impressions of the Christian scene were the 'strong evangelical association, good people in leadership, and much activity'.
On Thursday, August 25, the family left their pleasant rooms on the 24th floor of the Westin Plaza, unaware of quite how different their situation would be before the day was over. Singapore was not typical of the East.
A flight to Bangkok was uneventful, but there was a hint of future problems when they sought to transfer to their ongoing flight for Delhi: "They had erased our reservations off the computer and informed me we had no seats. After an hourand-a-half hassling, we got on—scattered in smoking section; eventually we swapped seats to be together.' Their first night in India consisted of five hours sleep at the Imperial Hotel. The building was shared with rats and cockroaches; and, with no hot water, it had long since ceased to warrant its proud name. The next morning saw them out of doors, on a two hundred km bus ride to Agra and the Taj Mahal; but any respite was countered by the mental discomfort over much they had to witness: Incredible to see Delhi—a sea of destitute poor, teeming people, animals, and cars. I had the feeling I was seeing human society at its lowest social level. The poverty is consummate, everywhere—outside a beautiful government building, or a politician's estate, the poor live on the street with their shacks of straw, mud, cow dung, brick, plastic, or canvas, huddled in tiny places only their gaunt little bodies could fit.
When they arrived back at the Imperial at 10 pm that night it was with 'chaotic impressions of this strange and tragic land... Vast wasteland reeking with the feel of demonic presence.'
There came home to John, as never before, a sense of the 'despair, deprivation, and pain' that must belong to hell itself.
A tour within Delhi arranged for the Saturday was only half taken. A meeting with Christian leaders at the YMCA that evening underscored the reason for their being in the country. Some fifty men gathered in a room so hot that the many fans almost drowned the human voice. Even so, there was good listening, and some evidence that the work of Grace to You India was reaching people. The extent of the need in evangelical churches, however, was stunning. Doctrinal interest was minimal: "The need seems to them so desperate that they don't care what the theology is.' As a result neither the dangers of liberalism on one hand, or of 'easy-believism' on the other, were recognized. Nor was there any warning of ecumenism from evangelicals. 'I estimate', the visitor reflected, our tapes will either turn the tide of this softness or make me unpopular because those who accept the teaching will pose problems to the 'establishment'. At the end of his life, A. W. Tozer said he had preached himself off every Bible Conference platform in America—that may happen to me in India.
The next morning, Sunday, MacArthur preached at the Apostles' Methodist Church, and the message was summarized by the pastor in Hindi. In the evening he preached to 250 at the Delhi Bible Fellowship. In contrast with his brief presence, books could be permanent, and he believed that too strongly to leave their circulation to others: 'I am Pane The Gospel
According to Jesus with all the leaders I meet.'
The first day of their second week in India, August 29, took them by air to Calcutta. On what followed their escape from the chaos of the airport, he wrote: Boarded a hot steamy bus for ride to Baptist Mission Society guest house right in the heart of the city. The streets were small, crowded, shacks, shantys, and broken sidewalks were home to thousands. Many rivers and ponds appeared along the road, filled with busy people, swimming, bathing, washing clothes, with water buffaloes, cows, and smells nothing short of sickening embedded in all of us.
Their accommodation proved to have few assets apart from its 125 years of history. A blackboard at the guest house designated their names and room assignments—for them a tiny room with two small beds, and for the five young people more of a barrack-type room with six beds. Conscious of the need to avoid gastro-intestinal infection, they had some apprehension on seeing their lunch prepared on the floor, but at least the floor was stone and not cow dung. The only sight-seeing they were to do was to take place that Monday afternoon. Two of the most frequently visited tourist spots were within walking distance from the Mission House, and, with misgivings, they scrambled along sidewalks, between dogs, people, and filthy oozing drains to these locations. Naked children, pleading for money, were on all sides: Patricia, with her tender heart for the little ones, found it especially difficult to give them nothing. They sensed her sympathy and so clung to her in clumps. We resisted giving them anything on account of urgent advice given to us on how to act in urban centres.
Their first stop was at Mother Teresa's convent where they spent some time with the aged lady whose care for the sick and dying had made her famous. They were impressed with her success in recruiting helpers, with the abundance of medical supplies, but sad at the vacuum where gospel truth was needed. Conversation with Mother Teresa revealed a very vague understanding of Christianity. 'All my people die beautiful deaths', she assured them. 'I love and respect all religions, but I love my Jesus.' But in a city where Hindus believe Jesus was the seventh incarnation of Shiva, and Krishna the eighth, the 'Jesus' was not presented as the only Lord, Saviour, and Mediator. Nor had
Across the Pacific IOI
Roman Catholic teaching helped Mother Teresa in that regard. 'May you enter the heart of Jesus through Mary', she wrote in the Bible of one visitor.
If this convent visit was disturbing, still more so was their second stop that afternoon. 'Crushed between the dilapidated buildings of the crowded city, and down an obscure alley next to Mother Teresa's home', they found the temple of Kali, the wife of Shiva, a member of the Hindu trinity of gods (Brama, Vishnu, and Shiva). This appeared to be the religious focal point of Calcutta, and the place where animal sacrifice was carried on every afternoon at 3 pm. Amid noise and incense, demon worship was busily in progress, including the disgusting worship of a male phallus: Staring Satan's worship cold in the face was a chilling experience—my inside felt icy though I was dripping with the sweat of heat and sickness. To think that Mother
Teresa was there and helping people physically but not confronting Satan's hellish domain was sad. It all looks so hopeless and so dishonouring to Christ. I felt I had really seen the kind of idolatry the Old Testament speaks of and there was a form of Christianity tolerating it. Truly these are a people in bondage to fear all their lives.
MacArthur's feelings in the temple of Kali were akin to those of the psalmist when he wrote, 'Indignation has taken hold of me, because of the wicked who forsake your law' (Psa.
Despite the precautions they had sought to take at meals, by the first evening Matt was very sick, with severe cramps, rigours, vomiting, etc. John got through a meeting with some church leaders at the Baptist Church next door, only to succumb to the same symptoms later that night. The next day was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. With their rooms now like an infirmary it was to be unforgettable. Engagements at Serampore had to be cancelled, and John did not move from his bed except for necessities. Patricia had stomach pain but 'was a gracious nurse and tended to me'. Never in his life did he feel so uncomfortable; the heat was stifling and an open window only added to the oppression as crow-like birds in trees outside filled the air with loud and ugly noise.
Sometimes I thought the sense of isolation from my life at home would never end. This went on all day and night—no one went anywhere except to get medicine. I am sure that when William Carey came to Calcutta it was a much nicer place—quieter, cleaner, and not devastated by fourteen million people.
The Tuesday night was only their second in Calcutta; it seemed they had been there a great deal longer. Of it he wrote: Another sleepless night filled with intermittent prayer that the family would be well and me for the busy schedule in the Philippines. I prayed for the church, the elders, people, many I knew had needs, for the students, for the radio/tape work, for my partners in ministry, feeling badly I couldnt give Patricia a better day, When the morning came—Wednesday, August 31—they were able to get to the airport, 'quietly and somewhat bent over, longing for cool, clean air'. When, at last, they boarded a Thai flight for Bangkok, a cold orange juice 'tasted like it came from heaven'. A night in Bangkok aided the recovery of the invalids who were not yet able to take anything more than soup and drinks. John's journal note read: 'I threw my shoes away—they were covered with such filth and odour that they were not recoverable!' The next day, Thursday, September 1, took them across Cambodia, Vietnam, and the China Sea to Manila, where there was time to relax by the coast before first meetings on the Saturday.
Of all the places visited thus far, Christian work in Manila had known the most of John MacArthur's ministry. For some years his preaching had been heard over FEBC radio, and personal contacts with Grace Church had prompted the start of two
Manila churches where he preached. He was struck by the unity among Christians of different denominations and the youthfulness of so many of his hearers. Everywhere the people were 'open, warm, happy, and responsive'. The fact that the preacher shared the same family name with the Philippines' World War
II liberator, Douglas MacArthur, added to the exuberance of the welcome he received. At an unplanned book-signing event, the crowd of 5,000 became so crushing that an assistant could only stop it by taking away his pen.
There was only time for five crowded days in the Philippines; it was enough to impress upon the family the character of numbers of the believers. "The church', John observed, 'is made up of the common, humble people', and he saw the grace of God in them. aie
After Manila, one of the most eagerly anticipated visits of the whole tour still lay ahead as their plane descended to the spectacular airport of Hong Kong, 'with all the islands, blue ocean, mountains, and high buildings'. Before them was a first week in China. The first three days were spent in Hong Kong itself, largely in meetings with individuals, all concerned by differing means for the spread of the gospel across mainland China. One pastor, who had spent twenty years in prison, gave first-hand news of the house churches in Wuhan. Another leader, Jonathan
Chao, was organizing literature work, and the two men did an interview which was broadcast. Chao's hope was to have Grace to You material translated into Mandarin for radio ministry into the mainland.
On the Friday they all crossed by the Boeing Jetfoil to the mainland, each carrying Bibles and study books. The first stop was Macau where, at the evangelical church of Pastor Lam, they were heartened by the serious, aggressive evangelism in progress. On a huge map of the city every neighbourhood was identified, with notes on the taking of the gospel to them. But the time MacArthur prized most in Macau was to stand at the grave of Robert Morrison (1782-1834), first Protestant missionary to China: Since no missionaries were allowed, he came as an employee of the East India Company. For over twenty years, in solitude (the graves of his wife and son, who died before him, are next to his), he hid alone in an upper room and worked on a Chinese language dictionary and the translation of the Scripture. It was a very moving experience to stand beside his grave. I felt very deeply the sacrifice, and meditated on his dedication. The millions of Chinese Christians in the underground church today reflect the fruit of his labour.
A river, and some four or five check points, separated Macau from 'Red' China.? The visitors went across and, with their * At that time Hong Kong was still a colony of Britain, and Macau of Portugal.
Across the Pactfic 105 books, passed guards without incident. After walking through a busy market, they proceeded to a cemetery where evangelicals were given a chapel building for use only on Sundays. Otherwise it was kept locked and unused. At this building they were shown a window, deliberately left broken, through which books could be put. Here they left MacArthur's The Church the Body of Christ and other books in Mandarin and Cantonese. Numbers of titles had previously been received by believers in that location by the same means; such 'dropping points' for books being a common means for the distribution of Christian literature.
Leaving the city behind, they were taken by their guide along side roads into the countryside, where they were all surprised by the beauty, 'the greenest hills and fields we had seen since New Zealand': We walked through obscure, out-of-the-way villages, visiting the homes—completely unexpected and unannounced—and always, no matter how poor, they offered us hot tea! Very gracious—as are the Asians in general. They laughed with us, as Esther interpreted, and showed us humble homes, asked us to sit down—to see the kitchen and their board beds with mosquito nets.
We came to a town of 250,000 and met the pastor of that Three Self Church. He is a believer, but his church is totally controlled by the government. It 1s their way to show the world that they have religious freedom, but the pastors of these churches are old. The authorities want the church to appear to die a natural death when this old generation is gone. The house church movement on the other hand is illegal, but is vital and growing. Jonathan Chao estimates fifty million Christians.
They were back in Hong Kong for meetings on Saturday and Sunday. On the Saturday he spoke, through an interpreter, to about one hundred pastors on twenty marks of a ministry of integrity, followed by another valuable Question and Answer session. The final engagement was a service the next morning at Kowloon Baptist Church.
Only one leg of the tour now remained, and it began as they reached Seoul late in the evening of September 11. The airport was full of welcoming flowers and banners, intended, however, not for them but for athletes who were arriving from all over the world for the Olympics, which were about to be held. The MacArthurs' coming to Korea, however, was not unrelated to the Olympics. For the next three days John was to speak every morning (with simultaneous translation) to the five hundred to six hundred delegates of the World Congress of Sports. 'I love to talk to athletes', he noted, 'especially those serious about ministry for Christ.' After the second day, he wrote in his journal, "It was important to be clear, simple, direct, and speak slowly. I tried.'
They saw the Olympic stadium and village, where they met the USA basketball team and chaplains. Other hours in a full week were taken up with visits to orphanages, two pastors' conferences, an army base, churches and the Seoul Theological Seminary.
Somehow there was time to form an impression of Seoul— 'clean, modern, efficient, and a city of beauty'. But it was the believers he met who made the deepest impression on him: The Korean Christians are amazing—prayerful, daily quiet time, love to sing, joyful, not materialistic, and happy. God has really blessed them. They are humble and respectful. So many of the unsaved are in Asia that these Asians are the vital resource to be trained to reach their continent. We need to be on radio in Seoul.
At the same time there were some features that gave him concern. The world's so-called 'largest church' in Seoul left him entirely unimpressed: "The services are wild and noisy—mixing
Christianity with pagan worship; major emphasis on prosperity and healing.' Another common danger was more subtle and less often recognized. It was a near worship of education, giving a too high priority to degrees for the Christian ministry—'The pursuit of doctorates is a major issue—credentials are very important—much too important.' Coupled with this was the high status given to pastors, a factor that could prompt students, looking for the pastoral office, to start more new churches than was necessary. An eagerness for overseas degrees was also leaving too many Korean believers open to the influence of foreign academic institutions which held to Scripture in a much looser way than did the builders of the church in Korea. An example of this was to be seen in the guest house where the MacArthurs stayed (the Asian Center for Theological Study), and where a professor from Fuller Theological Seminary took a seminar on 'the integration of psychology and theology'.
As MacArthur and his family took the overnight flight Home on September 16, there was still much to write in the conclusion of his journal. Two-and-a-half hours out from Los Angeles the final sentences read: Much to pray about as the dawn comes up through the windows of this 747. Didn't sleep on the eleven hours flight—too much thought about all we have experienced. I pray that all the experiences of this wonderful trip will enrich our lives and ministry and greatly impact the effect of our service to the Lord. wie
Two comments are needed to round off this chapter. How did MacArthur get time to prepare messages for so many engagements in the crowded weeks since the beginning of August?
The answer is that he took with him about twelve sermons on themes fundamental to the needs of churches, which he had no hesitation 1n repeating. Most used of all was a sermon on the sufficiency and authority of Scripture from Psalm 19, on which a humorous note 1n Patricia's handwriting has survived.
It seems to have been scribbled in a service at some point in the tour and, passed to another member of the family: Marcy says—if Dad gets sick anywhere along the way there are seven of us that could preach Psalm 19 for him! If you are not sick yet—you will be by the time church is over with all the hacking and sneezing and coughing over your shoulder. Get the SYRUP out!
But the preacher was not diverted from giving that subject first place, with other sermons on such themes as the right knowledge of God, and true versus temporary conversion. Deep impressions were made by these sermons in many places.
The journal shows that the preacher went on this tour as a learner as well as a teacher. In all the churches he found things to be admired—in 'tragic' India he noted, 'Many people sacrifice for the Lord here.' In the Philippines he saw how Americans could gain from the example of 'the humble servant hearts' of believers. In Korea he said of the Christians, 'We could learn so much from them.'
Across the Pacific 109g
This first visit to the southern hemisphere and the Far East bore lasting fruit, an indication of the Lord's blessing upon it. Although most of these places would not be visited by MacArthur again, he would never forget the impression they had made on him. His sense of debt to others was deepened, and in the years ahead there would be unwavering commitment to an increasingly worldwide ministry. The room in the home of Vern Lummus, where the first recording was preserved in 1969, had led to the opening of a door to help millions. ae * oie ah
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Controversy
T: Gospel According to Jesus was a MacArthur title published shortly before his tour across the Pacific in 1988. As will have been noticed, it was the book he gave to a number of pastors during those weeks away. In some ways this was to be the most important book of his life, bringing together issues that had become increasingly urgent to him through the years.
Eight years passed between John's first mentioning of this projected title to Phil Johnson at Moody Press and its final publication. It was not that it had been put on one side. In the
Preface, John affirmed, "This book has consumed my thoughts
and much of my time for nearly four years.' It had also provided a subject for much discussion among his staff at Grace. Lance
Quinn, who became Associate Pastor in 1986, recalled some of it when speaking with MacArthur many years later: A small group of your close associates began to think with you about the implications of evangelicalism's weak gospel presentations, so many of these presentations being reinforced through books with equally weak theology, and which were so greatly disturbing to you (and to us) at the time. We began earnestly to discuss, reflect, research, and 2 HEE then ultimately see the release, in 1988 by Zondervan, of one of your most significant books, The Gospel According to Jesus.
That this book was published by Zondervan, and not by Moody (as Phil Johnson had promised MacArthur), requires comment. Moody had issued a contract for the title in 1982, as already mentioned, but while the book was still being written, a problem arose. Moody's leading author at the time was Charles C. Ryrie of Dallas Theological Seminary, and he was also one of the leading proponents of the position being refuted in The Gospel According to Jesus. When Moody learned that the book would quote from Ryrie and critique his teaching, they asked John if the book could be toned down so as to reflect no disagreement with Ryrie. When John assured them that this was impossible, rather than risk the danger the book threatened, Moody preferred to withdraw from their contract with the author.
There was another reason why The Gospel According to Jesus was seen as a doubtful venture. It had become customary among publishers to believe that titles majoring on doctrine would never find a large market or command attention. MacArthur recalls, "Several publishers warned me that the book was "too doctrinal" to sell.' Yet a best-seller was exactly what The Gospel According to Jesus became. In the words of Phil Johnson, it was 'an instant worldwide blockbuster'.
In the Preface MacArthur wrote,
My prayer is that this book will provoke discussion, arouse prayer and self-examination, and lead ultimately to a resolution of these issues within conservative evangelicalism.
Controversy
Given that his case questioned the presentation of the gospel supported by 'almost every Bible College or Seminary', he knew the controversy that Moody Press had feared was unavoidable and immediate. John H. Gerstner called the effect of its publication 'an ecclesiastical earthquake'. This was inevitable, for the case for gospel preaching, which MacArthur presented, challenged a great deal of contemporary teaching. His Preface paid tribute to many with whom he disagreed—'many are my friends'-—but insisted on the serious nature of the difference: Other controversies have generated more heat and spawned more print, such as questions on prophecy, modes of baptism, styles of worship, and so on, but these are truly peripheral to the real issue. The gospel is not. It is the issue.
MacArthur's case was that current teaching had subtly changed the thrust of the gospel. Instead of exhorting sinners to repent, evangelicalism in our society asks the unsaved to 'accept Christ'. That makes sinners sovereign and puts Christ at their disposal . . . This modified gospel depicts conversion as a 'decision for Christ' rather than a life-transforming change of heart involving genuine faith, repentance, surrender, and rebirth unto newness of life.'
Against this, MacArthur argued that more than faith is involved in a true conversion. Saving faith is never without a new birth, making the individual 'a new creation' and indwelt by the Spirit of God who has brought this about. To explain how 'converts' continued to lead worldly lives, the popular teaching held that a person could be a Christian without personal holiness; he might accept Jesus as Saviour but not yet 'as Lord'.
1 The Gospel According to the Apostles, p. 74.
For MacArthur, this was alien to the Scripture: Any "salvation" that does not alter a lifestyle of sin and transform the heart of the sinner is not a genuine salvation."
His critics dubbed this teaching as 'lordship salvation, claiming that it was error to treat moral change as necessary to conversion for that would be to introduce 'works', whereas the sinner's justification is by faith in Christ alone. Typical of that view were the words of one critic, quoted by MacArthur: 'Of course Jesus taught a lordship message', one old-line dispensationalist brother wrote me. "He was preaching to a people under law. Under grace we must be careful to preach a grace message."
In the extensive controversy on this subject the issue was often confused. As MacArthur observed, an age used to soundbites and little theology was poorly placed to understand what was at the heart of this issue. Some, who were ignoring that conversion entails more than a changed legal standing before God in justification, thought he was jeopardising the truth of justification by faith alone. They failed to teach that grace secures a decisive break with sin, demonstrated by repentance and new obedience. "True saving faith is a repentant faith in Jesus Christ, and that produces good works.'
What is more, when an individual is savingly convicted of sin, he or she desires more than forgiveness; such a person wants salvation from sinfulness; he is ready to pray, 'Save me from myself!"
Salvation is for people who hate their sin. It is for individuals who understand that they have lived in rebellion against
> The Gospel According to Jesus, p. 79.
The Gospel According to the Apostles, p. 35. a holy God. It is for those who want to turn around, to live for God's glory.
To bring individuals to that awareness, preachers should follow Christ's example in dealing with the rich young ruler: 'Evangelism must take the sinner and measure him against the perfect law of God so that he can see his deficiency.* 'Don't be afraid to teach your children what God's law demands . . .
The law's moral standards give us the necessary foundation for understanding what sin is."
Conversion has a human side and a divine side. On the human side the promises of the gospel supply the warrant for immediate repentance and trust in Christ; yet this will not happen where there 1s no conviction of sin. It was at this point that Dispensationalism missed the significance of the law of God in the Ten Commandments. It supposed that 'law' means self-effort, and salvation by works. But such was never the purpose of the law.
The law, in its revelation of the character of God, and of man's obligation to love Him 'with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind' (Luke
10:27), brings home the seriousness of human sin. The law demands repentance, but when Christ demanded repentance, he was not calling sinners to self-reform. In fact, authentic repentance
* Thid., p. 84.
5 Successful Christian Parenting, p. 55. One reason many evangelicals are afraid of teaching the Ten Commandments is their concern lest the fourth commandment should be regarded as obligatory. In the Question and Answer session at the 1997 Shepherds' Conference, MacArthur indicated that was no good reason to be silent on the law. He believes that while the ceremonial aspects of the law, instituted at Sinai, are no longer for Christians, it is right that 'Sunday is set aside for celebrating the finished work of the Saviour', and good that believers attend public worship both morning and evening. begins with the sinner's recognition that one is hopelessly in bondage to sin and powerless to change. Jesus' classic example of repentance was a tax gatherer who came to understand his hopeless position . . . This publican's conversion demonstrates how repentance is far more than a simple adjustment of one's opinions about Christ.. . While there is no question that repentance involves a change of mind, it certainly does not end there. It is a wholesale change in direction, a change in purpose, a change in attitude, and a change of affections. All of this can only be the result of God's gracious regenerating work and is therefore evidence of true salvation.®
Modern evangelism had gone wrong in confusing the relationship between the human and the divine in conversion. Man is responsible to repent and believe; both are essential parts of evangelistic preaching; yet both are gifts of grace and will not be found until there is a change in human nature at its deepest level. The saving sight of Christ (which is faith) depends on 'God's initiative and power . . . Spiritual sight is a gift from God that makes one willing and able to believe . . . The result of spiritual sight is a surrendered, worshipping heart."
MacArthur was charged with displacing 'grace' by introducing the moral element into conversion. On the contrary, he replied, it was the teaching he was opposing that reduces the place of grace. It makes the human 'decisiom the controlling event, and leaves salvation in the sinner's own hands. But the grace that saves 1s greater than his critics were recognizing: * Address on "The Glory of True Repentance', in Assured by God, ed. Burk Parsons (Phillipsburgh, NJ: P&R, 2006), posisle2: Aibids pp. 73-5. No doubt it was on account of such statements that MacArthur was accused of being a hyper-Calvinist. His book, The Love of God (Dallas: Word, 1996), shows how mistaken that charge is. He says, with Calvin, 'the Father loves the human race' (p. 85)
Controversy P17
True grace is more than just a giant freebie, opening the door to heaven in the sweet by and by, but leaving us to wallow in sin in the bitter here and now. Grace is God presently at work in our lives. By grace 'we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them' (Eph. 2:10) . . . That ongoing work of grace in the Christian's life is as much a certainty as justification, glorification, or any other aspect of God's redeeming work.®
MacArthur had been brought to see the issue which Warfield had referred to in his review of Chafer quoted earlier—the truth rediscovered at the Protestant Reformation, that 'knows no determining power in the religious life but the grace of God', had become mixed with error 'from the laboratory of John Wesley'. Rather more accurately in the American scene, MacArthur traced the error that Chafer, and much of Fundamentalism accepted, to Charles G. Finney, who taught that man does not have a fallen nature: He concluded that people are sinners by choice, not by nature. He believed the purpose of evangelism should therefore be to convince people to choose differently—or as many would say today, 'make a decision for Christ.'
'He taught that salvation required no sovereign regeneration by God, but only the act of the human will.' This led, as MacArthur goes on to say, to the whole apparatus of 'altar calls' and to the 'easy-believisnY' which it inevitably promoted.'
The Gospel According to the Apostles, pp. 32-3. ° Ashamed of the Gospel, p. 158. See also the extended Appendix, 'Charles Finney and American Evangelical Pragmatism', pp. 227-35. The pervasiveness of this teaching in Fundamentalism is scarcely open to question. George W. Dollar wrote that 'Most Fundamentalists . .. would have refused to adopt any statement of the Five Points [of Calvinism].' History of Fundamentalism, p. 270.
10 Hard to Believe, pp. 83-4.
MacArthur's follow-up title to The Gospel According to Jesus was The Gospel According to the Apostles, from which I have already quoted. Written five years after the first book, it added substantially to the biblical argument. In his Preface MacArthur regretted that the overwhelming majority of criticisms have nothing whatever to do with biblical matters. Some reviewers have complained that the lordship issue is too divisive, the message too hard, or my position too dogmatic. Others have argued semantics or taken exception to my terminology. Some have feigned indignation, claiming The Gospel According to Jesus is an unfair personal attack on them, their friends, or their organization.
Zane Hodges, Professor of New Testament at Dallas and a leading critic, believed that MacArthur had fallen into 'the error of the Puritans'. Hodges charged the Puritans with corrupting the Reformers' doctrine of justification by faith, and called the Puritan teaching on faith and assurance 'a tragic blemish on the history of the Christian church'.'' While MacArthur's position was in no way dependent on the Puritans, it is true that his reading of church history had confirmed his convictions.
He wrote:
'' Zane Hodges, Absolutely Free! (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989), p. 32. This same accusation was introduced to British evangelicals by R. T. Kendall, who takes the same Antinomian position as Hodges, and is quoted by MacArthur as writing: "The person who is saved—who confesses that Jesus is Lord and believes in his heart that God raised Him from the dead—vill Jo to heaven when he dies no matter what work (or lack of work) may accompany such faith. In other words, no matter what sin (or absence of Christian obedience) may accompany such faith.' Once Saved, Always Saved (Chicago: Moody, 1983), pp. 52-3 (italics in original). Kendall argues that Paul's warning in Ephesians 5:3-6 does not concern exclusion from heaven. Further on this, see my David Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The Fight of Faith (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1990), pp. 721-6.
Controversy 11g
The preponderance of Bible-believing Christians over the centuries have held these to be basic tenets of orthodoxy. They are the standard precepts of doctrine affirmed, for example, by all the great Reformed and Calvinist creeds, He documents that assertion in an appendix to The Gospel
According to the Apostles, and also answers the argument, loved by some critics of the Puritans, that they represented a departure from Calvin. A quotation from Calvin epitomises exactly where MacArthur (and the Puritans) stand. The Reformer wrote: We must take care not to separate what the Lord perpetually conjoins. What then? Let men be taught that it 1s impossible they can be regarded as righteous by the merit of Christ, without being renewed by His Spirit unto a holy life . . . God receives none into His favour who are not also made righteous.'* wie
The lordship controversy had not died down before another was to follow. It related to a subject MacArthur had first faced while preaching through 1 Corinthians in 1976. California was in many ways the starting point for the Charismatic movement; and, by the mid-seventies, its main ideas had gained wide acceptance and popularity across the nation. Disturbed by this development, in his preaching on that Epistle MacArthur included a series on the Charismatic Movement; published in 1978 as The Charismatics: A Doctrinal Perspective.
12 The Gospel According to the Apostles, p. 25. i3 Tbid., p. 161.
While his treatment of the subject anchored his own church, it had a limited hearing in the wider evangelical scene as the movement continued to spread and gain acceptance. By 1979, it is said, nineteen per cent of all Americans identified themselves as charismatic or Pentecostal.'*
In 1992 MacArthur published a revised and fuller treatment of his earlier book under the title Charismatic Chaos. In the Preface he wrote, 'I sincerely thank God for the many charismatics who sincerely love the Lord and want to obey Him.'
But he did not regard that sentiment as justification for saying nothing on the issues. For a time he seemed to be largely alone in his conviction that the new teaching was threatening evangelicalism through a back door. His case was that the enthusiasm for revelatory prophecies, and for apostles today, ignored the uniqueness and sufficiency of Scripture. To the argument that the movement was divinely authenticated by the renewal of miraculous gifts, he replied that Scripture, and not alleged experiences, is the test. He pointed out how many contemporary 'prophecies' had been proved false by the test provided in Scripture (Deut. 18:21-22). Yet this was brushed aside by the promoters of the Charismatic movement. Feeling and phenomena were being made the focus of attention, not Scripture and doctrine. While its central message—'the baptism of the Spirit—claimed Scripture for its support, charismatic belief was guilty of reconstructing biblical teaching on conversion when it argued that 'salvation does not really give us everything we need for spiritual victory. We are still lacking; we need something more.'
Richard Quebedeaux, The New Charismatics (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983), p. 84.
In challenging this thinking, MacArthur is careful to show that the issue is ot for or against more experience of God. It is about how that experience is to be gained: Lifeless, dry orthodoxy is the inevitable result of isolating objective truth from vibrant experience. But the answer to dead orthodoxy 1s not to build a theology on experience. Genuine experience must grow out of sound doctrine. We are not to base what we believe on what we have experienced. The reverse is true. Our experiences will grow out of what we believe.
The Holy Spirit is working mightily in the church today, but not in the way most charismatics think. The Holy
Spirit's role is to empower us as we preach, teach, write, talk, witness, think, serve, and live. He does lead us into God's truth and direct us into God's will for our lives. But He does it through God's Word, never apart from It . . . to use phrases such as "God spoke to me', or "This was not my idea; the Lord gave it me', or "These aren't my words, but the message I received from the Lord', confuses the issue of the Spirit's direction in believers' lives today."°
MacArthur's case is that, instead of leading to true revival, the Charismatic movement takes Christians in the wrong direction: No genuine revival or orthodox movement has ever been led by people whose authority is based in any way on private revelations from God .. . A longing for something new and esoteric has replaced historic Christianity's settled confidence in the Word of God—and that is an invitation to Satan's counterfeit.'°
Some who in 1992 thought the word 'counterfeit' too strong, revised their judgment after the so-called "Toronto Blessing?' at 15 Charismatic Chaos (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), p. 65.
16 Tbid., pp. 58, 73. the Airport Vineyard Church in that city in 1994. Once again the advocates of this phenomenon claimed that the 'extraordinary events' were proof that the work was of God. In what was meant to be a favourable report, an article in Charisma declared: 'Ona typical evening, dozens of people can be found lying or rolling on the floor or laughing uncontrollably." William De Arteaga sought to silence any criticism of these happenings with his book, Quenching the Spirit. Together with other Toronto supporters, he appealed to the awakening in the time of Jonathan
Edwards to justify what was happening at the Airport Vineyard.
But MacArthur was able to show that an authentic appeal to Edwards proves the very opposite, for no one was stronger in refusing to allow the mystical and the emotional to displace the test of Scripture. wie
The controversies considered in this chapter warrant observations.
North-American Indians, when travelling by river, were said to be able to detect the approach of dangerous rapids well before they came into sight. It is the business of Christian leaders to see dangers before others see them. This has been a very necessary feature of MacArthur's ministry at a time when the toleration of errors has almost become regarded as a virtue.
He saw that the main issue in the Lordship controversy was vitally related to the health of the churches.
The teaching that sought no recognition of Christ's lordship in conversion had grown out of thinking which gave no place to the law of God. But instead of law being contrary to grace, it is, Paul affirmed, by the gospel that 'we establish the law' (Rom.
3:31). Christ died 'that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us' (Rom. 8:4). In other words, salvation's purpose is to restore man to the likeness of the God whose image 1s revealed in the holiness of the law. Certainly it is true that 'free from the law' means deliverance from its condemnation through Christ. The law cannot be the basis of justification for believers, for Christ has fulfilled its demands and penalties in their place.
But the moral perfection which the law displays remains a rule for their lives. Exemption from the law, in that sense, would be no blessing at all.
MacArthur grasped this truth when few others were speaking to it: "Those in Christ are no longer under the ultimate penalty of the law, but are far from free of its requirement of righteousness."!7
He saw how it was this wrong teaching on conversion, combined with the setting aside of the law, that had brought on superficial Christian living and worldliness in the churches.
'A gospel of grace cannot be preached to someone who has not heard that God requires obedience and punishes disobedience.
For lack of this teaching, a casual light-heartedness, with little attention to the seriousness of sin, had become commonplace among evangelicals. Such conditions were not new to church history, but the old term for the phenomenon had long been forgotten. MacArthur revived the right word: 'No-lordship theology is classic Antinomianism [anti-nomos = anti-law].
There is no way around that faci 3 " New Testament Commentary, Matthew 1-7, p. 272. See also pp. 253-9.
18 The Gospel According to the Apostles, p. 96.
The problem is that most people do not think of God as someone to be feared. They don't realize that He hates the proud and punishes evildoers. They presume on His grace. They fear what people think more than they care what God thinks.!"
MacArthur was no less going against a popular trend when he spoke against the teaching behind the Charismatic movement.
Most evangelicals took the view that, whatever the differences, this was no subject for controversy. And many thought it would take time to judge whether the movement was beneficial or otherwise.
MacArthur, on the contrary, believed that the teaching of Scripture was enough to give a sound judgment on the subject.
He also knew that the distinctives of charismatic belief were not new to the twentieth century. They have appeared at a number of times in the course of church history, always bringing shortterm excitement and ultimate confusion. Charismatic thinking was advancing because contemporary evangelicalism was indifferent to the history of the church: Old certainties are often met with automatic suspicion just because they have been affirmed by generation after generation of evangelicals. These days it is fashionable to question everything."°
The nub of MacArthur's warning was that charismatic thinking was teaching people to look to the extraordinary and the sensational instead of to the Word of God. By the contemporary claim of supposed revelatory gifts, the finality of God speaking
MacArthur, The Vanishing Conscience (Nashville: Nelson, 1995). p: °° The Truth War, p. 144. in Scripture was being undermined. In many circles 'experience' was being placed above truth, emotion above thought, and the consequence was little careful regard for the teaching of the New Testament. In addition to Charismatic Chaos, several of MacArthur's most important titles major on this danger."! whe
What these controversies confirmed to MacArthur was that the beliefs many evangelicals accepted or avoided were determined too largely by influences other than Scripture. To be passionate about truth was ceasing to be a mark of Christian character. A. W. Tozer had noted this ethos before his death in 1963: The fashion now is to tolerate anything lest we get the reputation of being intolerant. The tender-minded saints cannot bear to see Agag slain, so they choose rather to sacrifice the health of the Church for years to come by sparing error and evil; and this they do in the name of Christian love."
MacArthur was grieved at the number of preachers who adopted a 'code of silence' when 'contentious issues' were raised. Their comment was, "We are committed to keeping peace among brethren and unity in the body of Christ.' 'I was astonished', he wrote, 'to realize how many Christians think the Charismatic movement lacks biblical support, but are reluctant to say so aloud.'
Particularly the titles, Reckless Faith and The Truth War. 2-7. L. Snyder, In Pursuit of God: The Life of A. W. Tozer (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1991), p. 128.
Take an uncompromising stance on almost any doctrinal or biblical issue, and a chorus of voices will call you obstinate, unkind, heartless, contentious, or unloving, no matter how irenically you frame your argument."°
At the same time, if there has to be controversy, he insists it be without 'abusive, spiteful, or venomous behaviour towards others'."* "Controversy frankly is distasteful to me. Those who know me personally will affirm that I do not enjoy any kind of dispute."° There is also, he warns, the permanent need for humility: We do indeed need to exercise caution in making judgments about the gravity of someone else's error. We must never judge superficially. We need to remember that we are indeed prone to misjudgments and errors of our own. 'We all stumble in many things' (James 3:2).
But whether or not to 'contend earnestly for the faith' is simply not an option. A faithful pastor has to warn and guide.
He has to be negative as well as positive. He cannot leave the field to others. Some have disparaged MacArthur's writings as 'books for untrained laymen', as though Christians at the pew level are not of first importance. His comment on that kind of observation is relevant: Doctrine is not the exclusive domain of seminary professors. All true Christians must be concerned with understanding sound doctrine . . . Doctrine forms the belief system that controls and compels behaviour.'
'It is exceedingly difficult in these times', wrote Spurgeon, 'to
3 Reckless Faith, p. 46. * Reckless Faith, p. 107. * Ashamed of the Gospel, p. xx. * The Gospel According to the Apostles, p. 22. preserve one's fidelity towards God and one's fraternity among men. Should not the former be preferred to the latter if both cannot be maintained? We think so."'" To which quotation John
MacArthur adds another from the same preacher: What have you and I to do with maintaining our influence and position at the expense of truth? It is never right to do a little wrong to obtain the greatest possible good . . . Your duty is to do the right: consequences are with God."*
27 C. H. Spurgeon, The Sword and the Trowel (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1887), p. 196.
28 Grace to You letter, February 1995.