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In this chapter, I am making no effort to rank these popularizers in order of importance. However, I will admit that Dr.
John MacArthur would be number one on my list.
MacArthur's schooling was at Bob Jones University, Los Angeles Pacific College and Talbot Theological Seminary. He is
senior pastor of the large Grace Community Church of Panorama City, California and is speaker on the popular "Grace to
You" broadcast. He has stirred controversy and gained fame by taking nontraditional positions on the blood of Christ,
lordship salvation and the eternal sonship of Christ. He appears to delight in purporting to know more than the historic
theologians on these questions. It is not my purpose to analyze these positions. I will leave that to others.
John MacArthur’s contribution to new evangelicalism is to cross all barriers and bridge all gaps in diverse fellowship. He
has spoken in Southern Baptist circles at such places as Memphis’ Bellevue Baptist Church with Dr. Adrian Rogers and in
the First Baptist Church of Atlanta with Dr. Charles Stanley, He was a Pastors' Conference speaker prior to the Southern
Baptist Convention in New Orleans, He serves on the Board of Moody Bible Institute and has been a frequent speaker at
Moody Founder's Week and Pastors' Conference. He has spoken for R.C. Sproul, Jerry Falwell and various General
Association of Regular Baptist Churches. He has been a featured speaker at Wheaton College, Cedarville College, Dallas
Theological Seminary, California Graduate School of Theology, Word of Life, Tennessee Temple University and the
National Fellowship of Conservative Baptists. I list these names to show that his speaking engagements range from
supposed fundamentalists to confessed new evangelicals,
MacArthur has stated, concerning himself and his Grace Community Church staff, that they consider themselves
evangelicals, not fundamentalists. In this light, it is rather strange that MacArthur is a member of the Independent
Fundamental Churches of America. Grace Community Church was host to the 1990 National Convention of this group.
The prospect of this invitation caused some stir among the more fundamental brethren of that fellowship. Consequently, at
the group's 1989 convention in Limerick, Pennsylvania, a question and answer session was held with Dr. MacArthur. The
panel members quizzed him about the blood of Christ, lordship salvation and Christ's eternal sonship. The group decided
that he was not heretical. Sad to say he was not quizzed about his new evangelical connections and engagements. I have
not studied MacArthur's writings enough to call him heretical, but a glance at his itineraries demonstrates that he is by all
means new evangelical.
I was a member of the Independent Fundamental Churches of America in 1963 and contended on the convention floor that
to eliminate criticism of ecumenism and new evangelicalism from the Voice magazine, the group's organ, would open the
door for independent men who had no conviction of separation to enter the group and hold ministerial credentials there. In
Dr. John MacArthur I offer you Exhibit A.
Order from:
"Here I Stand" Books
536 Greenside Drive
Painsville, Ohio 4407
John MacArthur would be number one on my list.
MacArthur's schooling was at Bob Jones University, Los Angeles Pacific College and Talbot Theological Seminary. He is
senior pastor of the large Grace Community Church of Panorama City, California and is speaker on the popular "Grace to
You" broadcast. He has stirred controversy and gained fame by taking nontraditional positions on the blood of Christ,
lordship salvation and the eternal sonship of Christ. He appears to delight in purporting to know more than the historic
theologians on these questions. It is not my purpose to analyze these positions. I will leave that to others.
John MacArthur’s contribution to new evangelicalism is to cross all barriers and bridge all gaps in diverse fellowship. He
has spoken in Southern Baptist circles at such places as Memphis’ Bellevue Baptist Church with Dr. Adrian Rogers and in
the First Baptist Church of Atlanta with Dr. Charles Stanley, He was a Pastors' Conference speaker prior to the Southern
Baptist Convention in New Orleans, He serves on the Board of Moody Bible Institute and has been a frequent speaker at
Moody Founder's Week and Pastors' Conference. He has spoken for R.C. Sproul, Jerry Falwell and various General
Association of Regular Baptist Churches. He has been a featured speaker at Wheaton College, Cedarville College, Dallas
Theological Seminary, California Graduate School of Theology, Word of Life, Tennessee Temple University and the
National Fellowship of Conservative Baptists. I list these names to show that his speaking engagements range from
supposed fundamentalists to confessed new evangelicals,
MacArthur has stated, concerning himself and his Grace Community Church staff, that they consider themselves
evangelicals, not fundamentalists. In this light, it is rather strange that MacArthur is a member of the Independent
Fundamental Churches of America. Grace Community Church was host to the 1990 National Convention of this group.
The prospect of this invitation caused some stir among the more fundamental brethren of that fellowship. Consequently, at
the group's 1989 convention in Limerick, Pennsylvania, a question and answer session was held with Dr. MacArthur. The
panel members quizzed him about the blood of Christ, lordship salvation and Christ's eternal sonship. The group decided
that he was not heretical. Sad to say he was not quizzed about his new evangelical connections and engagements. I have
not studied MacArthur's writings enough to call him heretical, but a glance at his itineraries demonstrates that he is by all
means new evangelical.
I was a member of the Independent Fundamental Churches of America in 1963 and contended on the convention floor that
to eliminate criticism of ecumenism and new evangelicalism from the Voice magazine, the group's organ, would open the
door for independent men who had no conviction of separation to enter the group and hold ministerial credentials there. In
Dr. John MacArthur I offer you Exhibit A.
Order from:
"Here I Stand" Books
536 Greenside Drive
Painsville, Ohio 4407
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| Dr. John MacArthur Taken from Chapter Nine of the book "New Neutralism II: Exposing The Gray Of Compromise". by John E. Ashbrook |