A Tribute To John MacArthur, A Lion Who Was My Friend

​​I want to offer condolences to the family and all of the followers of John MacArthur, the Southern California preacher, who died on Monday at the age of 86. He was someone I would venture to say was my friend.

John MacArthur was an amazing human being. He had millions and millions of followers in the Christian community.

In its obituary, Christianity Today wrote:

MacArthur said the most important mark of his ministry was that he explained the Bible with the Bible, not cluttering up sermons with personal stories, commentary on current events, or appeals to emotion, but teaching timeless truth. The longtime pastor of Grace Community Church said a good sermon should still be good 50 years after it is preached. “It isn’t time-stamped by any kind of cultural events or personal events,” MacArthur said. “It’s not about me. And it transcends not only time, but it transcends culture.”

He published the MacArthur Study Bible in 1997, with 20,000 notes on specific verses, as well as an index of important doctrines, introductions to each book of the Bible, and suggested Bible-reading plans. It sold 2 million copies in 22 years. His New Testament commentary—a series that Moody Publishers put out in 34 volumes over 31 years—also sold more than 1 million copies.

Of all the people I have known in this sphere — and I have known quite a few — MacArthur was absolutely staunch in his defense of the Bible. He never shied away from the messages of the New Testament, and that made him controversial. 

And that was a good thing. 

In the first interview I did with him, a lengthy interview, he spent 30 minutes of the interview talking to me about why I ought to convert to Christianity.

As a Jew, not only was that not insulting, it was absolutely useful.

Why?

Because he was saying what he believed, and I think that was a good thing. 

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The reason I considered him a friend is because he’s somebody who cared about my eternal life.

We could have disagreements on what would happen with regard to heaven or hell, or whether the New Testament was true or not, depending on whether you’re a Christian or a Jew. 

But I was never upset by the fact that he believed I ought to convert to Christianity, because, of course, many Christians believe that I ought to convert to Christianity. That is not an insult, because it shows they care about my spiritual welfare. 

We may disagree about how to attain that spiritual welfare, but it’s because he was able to say hard truths as he saw them to people like me that he was also able to say hard truths to everybody about Biblical values.

And that meant he was never shy about Biblical values, which is absolutely useful in a time when moral relativism runs rampant. 

Last year, he was on the show, and he said:

I would just say this in a general sense: Read the Bible. Just read the Bible. It has the ring of truth. It defends itself. It’s like a lion. You don’t defend it. You don’t defend a lion. You open the cage and let it out. That’ll be okay. And the Scripture is like that. … Even morally, there’s something in the heart of people that resonates with biblical morality. Obviously, their sinfulness fights it.

But the law of God is written in every human heart. That’s part of being created in the image of God. And you can fight that law. You can resist that law. You can violate that law. But that law is there. That is part of being created in God’s image. And I think if your heart is open to the truth, you go to the Word of God. And I’ve seen this now for all these years I’ve been in ministry. The ring of Biblical truth is so powerful to a person who honestly reads the Scripture.

I think that message is deeply necessary. In a time when so many have fallen into moral relativism, have fallen down a bunch of rabbit holes looking to fill the God-shaped hole in their heart.

I think that his work is going to be read for generations.

The nice thing about the Jewish view of the afterlife is that in Judaism, if you’re not Jewish and you fulfill seven basic rules, the Noachide laws, which include items such as no blasphemy, no adultery, and no murder, among other things, you have a spot in heaven.

So it doesn’t conflict at all with my faith to say that John MacArthur is with God right now. That is something he always longed for.

His uncompromising fealty to Biblical values as he saw them meant that he was also able to walk into political frays without fear.

Way back when, he shellacked a young San Francisco mayor named Gavin Newsom regarding same-sex marriage on CNN. Gavin Newsom was playing at being a pastor, saying loftily, “I’m a practicing Catholic. I got married in the church two-plus years. I don’t see what we’re doing in terms of advancing the bond of love and monogamy and extending that to families, families of same sex, in any way, shape or form takes away anything from the church or the sanctity of the union that my wife and I have.”

MacArthur replied. “I would just like to ask the mayor: As a practical, practicing Catholic, do you believe the Bible is the Word of God?”

“Yeah,” Newsom answered. “Look, pastor, I’m not going to get in a theological debate with you.”

“It’s not a theological debate,” MacArthur said. “That’s just a straight question. Do you believe the Bible is the authoritative word of God?”

“Yeah, I, I, with respect, I guess I do,” Newsom answered.

“The Bible says when God created man, he said, ‘One man, one woman, cleave together for life.’ That’s a family,” MacArthur said bluntly.

MacArthur had that kind of clarity.

(You could see Gavin Newsom smirking, blustering, “I’m a practicing Catholic and I’ve been married for two years,” to lead off that particular clip. He was at that point married to Kimberly Guilfoyle, whom he would later cheat on.)

When you have a moral grounding in Biblical values, which John MacArthur did, it gives you the courage to walk in like a lion.

That is something John MacArthur did his entire life.