John MacArthur = T-REX!
Man John MacArthur really is a dinosaur… he said it himself:
“I’m going to seem anachronistic if not an outright dinosaur at this point. I believe the church has one function, and that is to guard the truth, to proclaim the truth and to live the truth. So you take the Word of God, you teach it, you proclaim it, you protect it, you defend it, and you live it, and that’s a church. The Word of God rightly divided, rightly understood.”
Where the HECK does he get this crap from? That’s what a church is? I don’t think the Word of God EVER gives that definition for the church. Proclaim the truth.. YES. Live the truth? YES. Guard the truth? Where in the bible does it ever say to GUARD the truth? As if the truth needed guarding? I think the truth can speak for itself. Defend it? Protect it? The truth is not so fragile that it needs us feeble minds to defend it protect it.
Not only that, but equating guarding, protecting, defending the truth with the church? And to claim that the church has ONE function? ONE function? Ridiculous. What happened to love? Clanging gong… Resounding cymbal… sound familiar? This guy sounds so SCARED, that his culture and way of life is melting away.
I can’t believe such a respected pastor, teacher, theologian, would make such unbiblical claims and not even attempt to back up his claims with the Word of God that he claims to want to “protect.”
What a loser.
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14 Comments, Comment or Ping
acts65
In I Timothy 6:20 and II Timothy 1:14, Paul instructs Timothy to “guard the treasure that has been entrusted” to him which I believe is referring to the gospel, the truth, word of God.
If you heard someone telling your unsaved friend a false gospel, don’t you feel it is important to tell your friend the truth?
If according to John MacArthur, our purpose is “to guard the truth, to proclaim the truth and to live the truth” and the word of God instructs us to love, then in living the truth, we are loving people and the church’s function of loving the world is still being fulfilled.
Dec 18th, 2007
justwatching
well i guess it COULD come down to a matter of semantics as maybe acts65 is arguing. but really i think what daniel might be saying is: is truth the primary heartbeat of the Bible/God (and thus the primary purpose of the Church)? or is love?
in other words is truth an instrument of love or love an instrument of truth?
and I would say truth is an instrument of love, because while God is both truth and love… I believe God’s ultimate purpose for sending his Son was to love us, not primarily to give us truth, though truth is inherent in loving us. If he wanted truth ultimately and primarily you would think he would have plenty of ways to make that happen other than sending his Son to die for us.
I guess one of the assumptions of my argument is that you can’t have love without truth, but you can have truth without love. Am I wrong there? I have to think about that one.
the other assumption is that God’s heartbeat is the purpose of the church.
Dec 18th, 2007
randplaty
Yes you point out another one of MacArthur’s exegetical errors… equating the gospel with “truth.” Two verses in 1st and 2nd Timothy which talk about the gospel are twisted so that MacArthur can say to pastors of other churches, “you’re not a pastor and you’re not even a Christian.”
The gospel is much more and bigger than MacArthur’s myopic version of the truth.
Dec 18th, 2007
kanfood
Yeah, John MacArthur sounds pretty ridiculous. What’s more ridiculous is that there are so many people that follow his teaching as though his words are the Word of God. While I think he has good intention, his interpretations are wrong on so many points.
Dec 19th, 2007
KingdomSheepDog
But don’t fall into the same trap of John MacArthur did. We also need to love JM regardless whatever harms he might have done the Church. The Church, the Gospel are ultimately bigger than JM and his crusade.
Dec 19th, 2007
tareshannon
If MacArthur is saying that the SOLE function of the church is for the truth to be guarded, protected, proclaimed lived blah blahed, then that not only makes him a dinosaur, it makes LG look really unprioritized and strayed. oh. wait.
Dec 21st, 2007
sc_q_jayce
Er… the context was about the Emergent Church, so I can see why he would emphasize truth, especially with the bankruptcy of EC movement - seriously, Brian McLaren is doing everything a disservice with his stuff.
I do agree he’s exaggerating too much, but you really should pay attention and check the context and not sound so stupefied by what everyone says.
Dec 22nd, 2007
DS87
I have never spoken with John MacArthur myself, so this is a fairly objective reaction to Daniel’s post. Here are some facts I do know: John MacArthur is a very well-respected pastor who takes a hard-nosed stance on what the Bible teaches. He refuses to “water down” the Word of God and that takes courage in a world where some people are afraid to use the word “sin” for fear of offending people. Regarding this post, I think that “living the truth” includes living a life of love and service to others…so it seems like that’s where “love” is included in MacArthur’s characterization of the church. The first word Wikipedia ( http://www.xanga.com/randplaty/632955387/john-macarthur–t-rex.html ) uses to describe MacArthur’s theology is “biblical,” so I don’t understand why a 28 year-old is challenging Biblical interpretation with someone who’s been a pastor for longer than he’s been alive. Re-read the tone of this post…rather offensive and disrespectful? I think so. While some people may disagree with John MacArthur’s views and some may even call him “out of date,” he tries to stick with the Bible on every issue, regardless of how “popular” that will make him. That’s NOT a bad thing: the Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God and has no expiration date.
Dec 23rd, 2007
eCsuPA
JM is ridiculous. Silly. He makes so many claims that are so wrong and unbiblical. From teaching a theology emphasizing works/knowledge, to claiming Jesus didn’t challenge any social institutions, to EVEN to using the Bible to support the war in Iraq, I wonder which Bible he’s reading. Saw jai.
Dec 26th, 2007
doublechris07
As a regular attendee at Grace Community Church while I was in college, I was very much blessed by John MacArthur’s ministry. I have grown deeper in God’s word and in my relationship with Him. Grace is very committed to studying and teaching the Scripture, and believes that God’s Word alone is the source of how we should live out our lives and better understand God’s character. I have respect for JM’s teaching, because through expository preaching he is relentlessly affirming Scripture’s authority - and not his own personal viewpoints - as the most critical thing anybody can learn. There may be questions about JM’s interpretation on certain topics; yes he is human like all of us. You may not agree with him on every point, but the fruits of his church speak a lot for itself. His church sends out missionaries to over 20 countries to preach the Gospel in the name of Jesus Christ. JM has served for over 35 years with the focus of having his church “guard the truth, proclaim the truth, and to live the truth”. I have also witnessed firsthand how my brothers in college fellowship have grown to love the Lord and each other all the more by God’s grace.
I don’t see anything unbiblical about JM’s statement. Guarding, living, and proclaiming the truth are all essential in a church. Yes, I do believe that the Bible teaches us to guard the truth. In Galatians 2:11-15, Paul sees Peter influenced by the circumcision group and its work-based teaching to a point that Peter led others astray. We see in verse 14 that Paul, in seeing that Peter was not “acting in line with the truth of the gospel”, acted upon this by exposing Peter’s hypocrisy to Peter himself as well as the entire Galatian church. Paul guarded God’s truth here with sound doctrine, declaring that “we who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ” (v. 15). God’s word is a double-edged sword and can stand the test of time by itself, but Christians need to guard the truth and be cautious of false teachers and false gospels (Galatians 1:6, 8, etc.) which Paul warns time and time again.
1 Peter 3:8 teaches us to live in harmony, to be sympathetic, and to love as brothers. I believe JM deserves to be respected as a brother in Christ. I don’t think calling anybody a loser, especially a pastor who loves the Lord and loves his church and has served faithfully is a good witness.
“There is one body, and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:4-6)
Dec 28th, 2007
kanfood
hehehehehe…
Dec 30th, 2007
Destruct0
dude, what the hell man? who do you think you are putting down a respected pastor like that? Even if John MacArthur is wrong, do you think you should put down and insult him like that? Now that’s acting unbiblical. What the hell ever happened to WWJD? What Would Jesus Do? Didn’t your parents or sunday school teachers ever teach you that stuff? I don’t think Jesus would ever call John MacArthur a ‘loser’ or ‘ridiculous’ or ‘unbiblical’. And another thing, you don’t even know everything about the bible so who are you to judge? You don’t know enough about the bible to judge anyone. At least he has an M.D and PhD in theology and seminar. And JM didn’t specifically call Doug Pagitt a ‘non-christian’. All JM said was that anyone who believes or tries alternative methods to get to heaven is acting LIKE a non-christian because that’s not what the bible tells us. REAL christians are those who believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and they accept him as their savior. THAT is the ONLY way to get to heaven, no matter how ‘good’ you are.
The bible is a complicated book of mysteries which can only be deciphered by God himself. okay, maybe you don’t agree with what JM or DP say. That’s why you need to PRAY and TALK to God about what you feel and how you disagree with JM and how you deal with it. Not randomly and aggressively maligning and slandering a well-known pastor. sheesh…
Jan 6th, 2008
cyrus
Hey, I’m your bro’s friend from davis.
Yes. A T-Rex you are correct.
Jul 26th, 2008
dean
ah if you all belive in dinosaurs isnt all this discussion a mute point?
Sep 26th, 2008
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