(RNS) — John MacArthur, megachurch pastor, tradition warrior, creator and longtime voice of the “Grace to You” radio program, has died.
He was 86.
“John MacArthur went to heaven at 6:17pm California time,” Phil Johnson, government director of Grace to You,” instructed RNS in a textual content message.
Throughout a Sunday (July 13) service at Grace Group Church in Solar Valley, California, Tom Patton, one of many congregation’s longtime pastors, introduced MacArthur had been hospitalized and was close to dying.
“That you must know that this week, Pastor John contracted pneumonia,” Patton instructed the congregation, in line with a livestream of the service posted on social media. “He was admitted into the hospital, and could also be within the presence of the Lord quickly.”
Patton then requested the congregation to hope for MacArthur, the church’s longtime senior pastor, his spouse, Patricia, and the couple’s 4 grownup kids and their households.
John MacArthur. (Photograph courtesy Grace to You)
On Sunday, Johnson instructed RNS that docs had carried out all they may for MacArthur and that he was on “the precipice of heaven.”
“He has suffered a lot in current weeks,” Johnson stated in a textual content message on Sunday night. “His thoughts remains to be sharp however his physique is spent.”
Identified for each his preaching and his penchant for controversy — particularly his feuds in recent times with public well being officers in Los Angeles throughout COVID-19 shutdowns, his critique of girls in ministry and his criticism of pastors who mentioned racism in church — MacArthur had been sick for a lot of the previous yr after having surgical procedure in 2024 to switch a coronary heart valve.
The son and grandson of preachers, MacArthur was born June 19, 1939, in Los Angeles, the place his father, John “Jack” MacArthur, was pastor at Manchester Baptist Church. His father turned a touring evangelist, and the household lived in Chicago and Philadelphia earlier than returning to Los Angeles, the place his father led the “Voice of Calvary” radio ministry.
After graduating from highschool, the place he performed soccer and baseball, MacArthur spent two years at Bob Jones College, a fundamentalist faculty in South Carolina, the place he received his first style of preaching throughout a scholar mission undertaking. Throughout a cross-country journey as a scholar, MacArthur was thrown from a automotive whereas touring in Alabama, which left him with painful abrasions and burns on his again. After that have, he felt a name to the ministry.
He then transferred to Los Angeles Pacific Faculty, the place he performed three sports activities, then attended Talbot Theological Seminary from 1961 to 1964. Whereas in seminary, MacArthur claimed the Cleveland Browns skilled soccer workforce referred to as him after star extensive receiver Paul Warfield was injured and requested him to signal as a backup.
“No,” he instructed them, in line with an account of his early years in ministry revealed by “Grace to You.” “I’m going to seminary.”
Nonetheless, critics of MacArthur have identified that he barely performed for his school’s soccer workforce and famous that Warfield was injured in a 1965 exhibition sport, in line with The New York Instances, after MacArthur had graduated from seminary.
MacArthur additionally claimed for years that he had pushed to Lorraine Lodge in Memphis with a gaggle of Black pastors on the night time Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and stood with them on the balcony the place the Civil Rights icon was killed inside an hour of the taking pictures — a declare a few of these pastors have stated was unfaithful.
In 1969, he was referred to as to pastor Grace Group Church as successor to the Rev. Richard Elvee, who had died the earlier yr. MacArthur’s first sermon, entitled, “Methods to Play Church,” claimed that the majority church buildings within the nation had been lifeless spiritually. The concept few Christians — particularly these outdoors his nook of evangelicalism — had been actual Christians would grow to be an ongoing theme in MacArthur’s ministry.
“In all probability the vast majority of them don’t even know what it’s to be a Christian, they usually’re lifeless spiritually,” he stated in 1969.
MacArthur’s arrival led to a protracted interval of renewal and development at Grace Group, which turned recognized for energetic church members. In 1972, Moody Month-to-month, then a distinguished evangelical journal, described it as “The Church with 900 ministers.”
He would grow to be generally known as one of many nation’s foremost expository preachers, dedicated to preaching verse by verse by means of the Bible, quite than the extra topic-driven strategy taken by most megachurch pastors. MacArthur’s sermons had been additionally broadcast by “Grace to You,” the radio ministry he based the identical yr he arrived at Grace Group Church.
Pastor John MacArthur speaks at Grace Group Church, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2020, in Los Angeles. (Video display seize through Vimeo/Grace Group Church)
MacArthur additionally churned out greater than 100 books as an creator or editor however maybe was greatest recognized for the examine Bible he edited in addition to his Bible commentary revealed in 2005. In 1985, he turned president of the Los Angeles Baptist Theological Seminary, altering its title to The Grasp’s Faculty, later The Grasp’s College, now a nondenominational faculty. He additionally hosted the annual Shepherds Convention, a gathering for Calvinist-leaning evangelical pastors.
Not like many evangelical megachurch pastors, who adopted informal costume, rock-band pushed worship, and TED talk-style sermons, MacArthur was recognized for preaching lengthy sermons in a swimsuit and preferring hymns and extra conventional music.
Matthew Avery Sutton, a Washington State College professor who research evangelicals, stated MacArthur represented the confrontational aspect of the Non secular Proper, one which sees anybody who disagrees as a heretic and enemy of Christianity. MacArthur additionally believed having male leaders was a vital a part of Christian religion and resisted any makes an attempt to have ladies in management roles.
Sutton stated MacArthur confirmed the widespread affect of evangelicalism.
“This isn’t a man within the Bible belt,” he stated. “It is a pastor within the rich Los Angeles suburbs. He exhibits that the affect of the non secular proper is city and Western as a lot as it’s Southern and rural.”
Ed Stetzer, dean of Talbot College of Theology, stated MacArthur was “a towering determine” and that his passing marked the tip of an period.
“His theological impression is international, far past what most American observers would possibly suppose,” Stetzer stated. “As well as, he’s been a voice for the revived non secular proper on virtually each hot-button subject. MacArthur’s affect is widespread, with few evangelical pastors untouched by his instructing or affect — even those that didn’t totally align with all of his views.”
MacArthur was additionally an establishment builder, operating not only a megachurch but in addition a college with its personal seminary and a radio ministry.
“No person else was ever doing something that was ok for him,” Sutton stated. “He needed to create his personal establishments as a result of nobody else lived as much as his requirements.”
MacArthur’s insistence that church members reside as much as his expectations of true Christianity led at occasions to controversy, particularly in a case the place the church disciplined a church member who divorced her husband after discovering he had abused their kids. For years, church leaders sided with the husband, although he was convicted for abuse. The church has been repeatedly criticized for its strategy to church self-discipline — and earlier this yr was sued by a former member who stated church leaders shared confidential details about her throughout a public shaming.
MacArthur clashed with evangelical leaders he noticed as being too politically or theologically liberal. He was significantly crucial of Pentecostal and charismatic leaders, who he accused for many years of main tens of millions of Christians world wide astray. He claimed Martin Luther King Jr. was not a Christian. As soon as requested to provide his ideas on Beth Moore, the best-selling Bible instructor, MacArthur’s response was two phrases: “Go dwelling.”
He additionally accused pastors who spoke about racism or social justice of being woke and was significantly angered at a 2018 convention held in Memphis to commemorate the dying of MLK. That occasion drew evangelical leaders like John Piper, Matt Chandler and John Perkins — an creator, activist and preacher recognized for addressing problems with poverty and race. In response, MacArthur organized a “Assertion on Social Justice and the Gospel,” which argued that speaking about social justice and race had been distractions from preaching the gospel and had been dividing the church.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, in the summertime of 2020, MacArthur and different leaders at Grace Group Church determined to maintain in-person worship with no social distancing or masks — regardless of public well being orders on the contrary. Church leaders stated authorities officers had no authority over worship companies, a declare that landed the church in courtroom.
America Supreme Court docket would ultimately rule that California officers couldn’t bar church buildings from assembly in particular person. That led to Los Angeles County paying $400,000 to settle its authorized dispute with the church. After the settlement, MacArthur claimed pure immune responses had saved church members secure throughout the pandemic.
“God has a means of caring for us as we love one another and share our germs,” MacArthur instructed congregants. The church’s authorized battle over COVID shutdowns had been the topic of a 2023 documentary entitled “Important Church.”
On Sunday, the main focus was not on politics or any of MacArthur’s controversies. As a substitute, the church prayed for its pastor and his household as he confronted his closing hours.
“We ask for the best expression of your kindness to be bestowed upon our pastor now as he grows ever nearer to the completion of the mission that you simply had granted him earlier than the start of time,” Patton prayed.
“Our hearts are heavy, but rejoicing, as we share the information that our beloved pastor and instructor John MacArthur has entered into the presence of the Savior,” learn a Grace to You submit announcing MacArthur’s dying. “This night, his religion turned sight. He faithfully endured till his race was run.
