I am truly grateful for the opportunity to give my John MacArthur collection to this young pastor and fellow SWBTS graduate, as well as current student. Approximately 15-20 individuals expressed an interest in receiving these books. But for some reason, this gentleman stood out to me. Perhaps in part because of his proximity to me, and his willingness to actually come and pick up the books, which reduced the workload of my “overworked” assistant.
I feel good having met him; and giving him these books as a very young pastor which was about the age I was as a young pastor in Arkansas when I became an avid MacArthur reader. For anyone who may be interested, I have ten basic reasons why I am donating all my John MacArthur material.
I have friends and acquaintances who trashed, gave away, and some even claimed that they literally burned their MacArthur writings. I was raised by a schoolteacher who would approve of me deciding to no longer read MacArthur, but highly disapprove of me destroying his writings. My mother valued books and the love of learning, and I acquired that bent from her. She would often give away books that she no longer wanted, but she would never destroy them. Therefore, neither will I.
I have listed the ten reasons for my donation of MacArthur’s books, not necessarily in order of importance. The last one will be the “straw that broke the camel’s back”:
- The substance and spirit of his comment to Beth Moore, “Go home,” was extremely problematic for me. Even understanding his hyper-complementarianism theology, I found his remark to be sexist and unscriptural.
- I simply do not believe his account of what he said he did the night Martin Luther King, Jr., died. I believe he has recounted that story to win brownie points with the Black church, but it has been troubling to me that John Perkins has never validated MacArthur’s account of what took place the night that Martin Luther King, Jr., was murdered.
- MacArthur attempted to distinguish himself as being Gospel-centered, in juxtaposition to the Civil Rights advocates, is also highly problematic for me.
- In John MacArthur’s commentary, 1 Corinthians 11, he mentioned there were no males present when the women prayed and prophesied, but there is absolutely nothing in the text that would corroborate his claims.
- In MacArthur’s book of Christmas sermons, he referred to Jesus’ feet as being “pink,” which seems to be an attempt to make Jesus a European born in a non-European country. I find that unacceptable.
- I found his objections and attitude toward charismatics and charismata problematic. Nevertheless, it was not until his Strange Fire conference where he attempted to paint charismatics on the lunatic fringe of Christianity, that I felt like he went over the edge.
- His commentary attempting to normalize and accommodate slavery because it has been a common practice in history, has also been a tough pill to swallow.
- I sat in a predominantly African-American preaching conference several years ago and listened to Dr. MacArthur preach on salvation in John 3. I do not recall his words verbatim, but he made some reference to boning them up in their soteriology and proceeded to make clear to the audience the doctrine of salvation from a Calvinist framework. The audience was strangely silent during most of his sermon, and I have since felt offended by his need to straighten out or correct our view of salvation. If memory serves me correctly, his message largely mirrored the “TULIP.” The vast majority of African American evangelicals strongly object to reform or Calvinist soteriology and theology.
- In one of his earlier writings, MacArthur referred to the Black church as a “caricature” of authentic Christianity.
- Although I had a practice of often reviewing his commentary before preaching New Testament text, it would be very difficult to continue to consult his writings once he declared his belief that MLK was not a Christian.
I harbor no anger, bitterness, or unforgiveness towards MacArthur. I have actually met him; and at his handlers’ request, took a picture with him. He was very engaging, friendly, cordial, and collegial toward me. Why then, do I no longer want to read his commentaries? I simply do not want to have to mentally jump over those ten hurdles, and particularly number ten, every time I want to review his commentary in preparation for preaching.
Finally, indeed I am sincerely grateful for the at least 40+ years of reading and appreciating Dr. John MacArthur. I have a brother-in-law who has been strongly discipled through books and digital means by John MacArthur for 40 years as well. My brother-in-law is a phenomenal believer, strong Christian man and has been an excellent husband to my sister. I do not believe without MacArthur’s discipling; he would be as strong as he is. For that, I will always be eternally grateful!
