Let me say right up front that I am not posting this write up because of any personal grudge or animosity towards John MacArthur, Jr., But lately I have come across many Reformed websites which are providing links to MacArthur and portraying him as a Reformed Calvinist! This not only grieves my heart but upsets my spirit. It is not what the man himself claims to be or what the people believe him to be, but what he really preaches that betrays his true identity.
MacArthur says, “I believe in volition (free will). I believe, anybody who wants to anytime, can come to Jesus Christ and receive Him as Saviour” (Tapes- GC 2001; GC 45-73). The reader should bear in mind that MacArthur is not an ignorant or misguided preacher who preaches heresy for a lack of instruction. No, no. MacArthur is a well read hypocrite who constantly quotes from faithful Calvinist and Puritan writers whenever it suits his purpose. But like his Arminian ‘brethren’ he hates the doctrines of grace and the absolute sovereignty of God and has therefore corrupted the word of God and changed the truth of God into a lie.
When preaching to the unsaved, Arminians often draw an analogy between God’s sending of the Gospel to the sinner, and a sick man in bed, with some healing medicine on a table by his side: all he needs to do is to reach forth his hand and take it. It is interesting to note that John MacArthur, as a true Arminian uses this very analogy in trying to prove that God has done all that He can and now it is up to mankind to appropriate it and be saved. [GC 54-13].
MacArthur teaches that fallen sinful man who is dead in trespasses and sins has the potency or ability whereby he can comply to the demands of God. Listen to his own words : “The God of the Bible is not a God who makes demands on impotent people who are unable to comply and then crushing them because of their non-compliance.” [GC 50-21]. Beloved, this is the great Arminian heresy. It directly repudiates the doctrine of Total Depravity and the Bible which teaches that “the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be [Rom. 8: 7].”
Concerning the teaching on Total Depravity, the Roman Catholic Church warns—”If anyone shall affirm, that since the fall of Adam, man’s free-will is lost and extinguished; or, that it is a thing titular, yea a name, without a thing, and a fiction introduced by Satan into the church; let such an one be accursed”! Hence we see, though MacArthur avows to dissent from the teachings of Rome, at least in this aspect he walks hand in hand with them.
MacArthur pretends to hold and teach unconditional election, but he only uses this doctrine whenever it suits him and does not believe it in the biblical way. The election he teaches is not an unconditional election but a conditional one. It is based on the condition that men choose God. His own words are “God does not save them whether they like it or not, He will not save them against their will. He does not universally save all men, because he does not violate their choice”. (GC: 54-13).
MacArthur’s view of election is nothing but God choosing those who choose Him, which is not properly election. If man’s will is the ultimate factor in his choice between believing and not believing in Jesus, then it is rather absurd to go on talking about unconditional election. However, some people do, indeed, indulge in such absurdity. According to them election is nothing but God’s choice of those whom He foresaw would believe. This is a contradiction of terms, for if God chooses those who choose Him, it is not God’s election of man but man’s election of God.
Commenting on the verse, “Jacob I loved, but Esau have I hated” MacArthur erroneously teaches that the decree is on their posterity and not on Jacob and Esau themselves (se his commentary on Romans).
The Bible explicitly teaches an election unto damnation as surely as it teaches an election unto salvation. Sadly, even many professing Calvinists who fervently uphold and teach the doctrine of election either ignore or outrightly deny the doctrine of Reprobation.
John MacArthur, Jr., not only ignores the doctrine of reprobation but at times out rightly denies it. To quote his own words “You’ll never find any place in the Bible that God sends people to hell, you’ll never find any place in the Bible that God damns people. If men choose to go to hell, they go there because they pronounce their own sentence in rejecting Jesus Christ” (Tape GC 1746). Well, that is true, but it is only a part of the truth. It is the truth from the human side. But there is a divine side too, and this side of the truth needs to be stressed or God will be robbed of His glory.
Again MacArthur says, “MacArthur, “Those who perish and go to hell, go because they are depraved and worthy only of hell and have rejected the only remedy, Jesus Christ; not because they were created for hell and predetermined to go there.”( MacArthur Commentary Bible on 2Pt 3:9)
Writing to the saints at Thessalonica the apostle declared “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” [I Thess. 5:9]. MacArthur deliberately misinterprets the plain truth of this scripture by saying “May I mention that their disobedience is not destined, their unbelief is not destined or appointed, their doom is appointed because of their unbelief.” [ Tape GC 60-20]
MacArthur outrightly rejects and refutes this doctrine. He flatly states “I believe in an unlimited atonement” (Tape GC1514). And again “Jesus Christ in His death purposed to die as a substitute for every man” (Tape GC 1606). And again, “Since Christ gave His life a ransom for all men, and God wants all men saved, we need to pray for all men.” (Tape GC 54-11).
Having rejected the Biblical teaching of Limited Atonement, MacArthur has no choice left but to hold and teach erroneous views of the Atonement. According to him “Jesus Christ made a sufficient sacrifice to cover every sin of everyone who believes. Out of all humanity, only those who believe will be saved” (MacArthurs commentary on Titus 2;11). And again, “(Jesus Christ) tasted death for everyone – everyone who believes that is” (Commentary on Heb 2:9) . All through his teaching MacArthur sickeningly substitutes the word ‘believer’ where the word ‘elect’ or ‘called’ ought to be used, and such manipulation is employed in order to remove the offense of the Gospel. For ‘believer’ implies any ‘Tom, Dick or Harry’ who believes of his own so-called free will, where as ‘elect’ means only those whom God hath chosen as opposed to the majority He hath not chosen i.e., the ‘non elect’. But plainly speaking his theology of the Atonement is reduced to this. “If the sinner believes, then Christ died for him; if the sinner does not believe, then Christ did not die for him; thus the sinner’s act is made the cause of its own object, as though his believing would make that to be which otherwise was not. To such insane absurdities are the opposers of grace driven” [Pink- The Satisfaction of Christ].
MacArthur is so thoroughly convinced on the doctrine of Free will, that it pervades and influences every aspect of his theology. He denies that there is any persuasion from God in the salvation of sinners. He says “God does not save them whether they like it or not, He will not save them against their will”. Again “He does not save universally all men, because he does not violate their choice”. And again “Some people are judged and go to hell because, God’s desire, for men to be saved is not always man’s desire, and God will not ignore the volition of man” (GC:54-13) And again in the same sermon – “The greatest single proof that God wanted to save all men was the death on Jesus Christ on behalf of all men.” (Tape GC 54-13).
MacArthur’s inconsistency on the ‘Perseverance of the saints’
Unlike his Arminian counterparts MacArthur holds and teaches the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints. This would have been commendable had he faithfully preached all the five points of the Reformed Faith as they are taught in the Word of God rather than preach what seemed more agreeable to his feelings and plausible to his understanding. In modifying and denying the harsher and controversial doctrines of Calvinism he has developed a theology that is inconsistent and contradictory. Having denied the doctrine of ‘Total Depravity’ and ‘Limited Atonement’ his illustrious and profound teachings on the ‘Perseverance of the Saints’ amounts to nothing but sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
It is a contradiction to contend for the free-will of fallen man and yet at the same time the eternal security of the believer. They both cannot be true. Jesus taught that our will is determined by our nature. He said “Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit” [Mt 7:17,18]. The tree is not free to produce good or bad fruit at random but is governed by its nature. But, if according to the Arminian, the fallen, depraved sinner is free to choose God and holiness against his nature, then there can be no guarantee that the believer who has partaken of the Divine nature will cease to choose that which is evil in the life to come. In fact a person whose will is “free” would be a dangerous associate even in heaven; for his acts would be irrational and we would have no way of knowing what he might do under any conditions. That which guarantees the permanence of the states of the saved and the lost in the next world, is the fact that volition’s are a true expression of the person’s nature. The born-again child of God will forever continue to choose that which is holy and good because his nature (heart) has been changed and God has made as it were the tree good and its fruit good’ [Matt.12:33]. Whereas the wicked, after the restraining influences of the Holy Spirit are withdrawn, become bold, defiant, blasphemous, and sin with an irremediable obstinacy. “Only the Calvinistic principle that the will is determined by the nature of the person and the inducements presented, reaches a conclusion in harmony with that of Scripture which affirms that “there is a great gulf fixed”, so that none can pass over, — that the states of the saved and the lost alike are permanent.” [Lorraine Boettner ]
Again, it is a contradiction to speak of an Unlimited Atonement saying, “Jesus Christ in His death purposed to die as a substitute for everyman” ( Tape GC 1606) and at the same time contend for the eternal security of the believer. For if Christ is the propitiation for those that are lost equally as much as for those that are saved, then what assurance have we that believers too may not be lost? If Christ is the propitiation for those now in hell, what guarantee have I that I may not end in hell? The blood-shedding of the incarnate Son of God is the only thing that can keep anyone out of hell, and if many for whom that precious blood made propitiation are now in that awful place of the damned, then may not that blood prove inefficacious for me! Away with such a God-dishonoring thought!!
“Jacob have I loved Esau have I hated” [Rom. 9:13].
Consider his commentary on this verse: “With regard to Esau, I say, nowhere in Genesis does it say that God hated Esau, it doesn’t say anywhere that he hated Esau. It was only after Esau had chosen sin and abandoned God, for many many years, over a thousand years, before God would look back and say “Esau have I hated”. By that time it was clear to all where Esau stood. So once the sinner is inexorably, and finally identified with his sin, then the sinner feels the hatred of God.( Tape GC-70-11).
This perversion of God’s truth regarding reprobation fully satisfies the unregenerate multitudes who gather around MacArthur’s teaching, for there is nothing offensive about God hating a man after he has lived out his sinful life. But the scriptures under consideration do not teach that God hated Esau after he had chosen sin and abandoned God. But what saith it? “For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth” [Rom. 9:11]. Beloved, this is one of the most offensive and hated truths revealed in the Word of God i.e. that God loves or hates a man before he comes into the world. And because this truth of God’s sovereignty in regards to election and reprobation are so offensive to the carnal mind, the Holy Ghost through the apostle has heaped one expression upon another throughout Romans 9 to establish this truth. The whole ground of preference in regards to election or reprobation is not in man, but in Him who of the same (unfallen) lump maketh one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor; and hath mercy on whom He will and hardeneth whom He will.
So beloved, do not go by what the preacher claims he believes or what the people believe him to be. You be like the Bereans and examine the man’s preaching and compare it with the Scriptures to see ‘whether these things be so!”