John MacArthur: an appreciation

by Dan Phillips

After a longer time of faithful service than many of you, dear readers, have been alive, our brother John MacArthur has gone to his reward. He now sees the face of Him whom he loved and served with all his might, faithfully and with integrity.

His gain is our great loss, a fact which I think will become more apparent as the days pass. Old heresies and heterodoxies will dust themselves off and don new garb, and we will look for a clear and incisive voice to unmask them...and one such leading voice will remain silent.

Yet in another way and at the same time, we know that voice will be heard from faithful pulpits all around the globe. As surely as it will take years fully to feel the loss of John MacArthur, so it will take years to measure his impact. Men literally across the planet have been formed under God by MacArthur's teaching and example of biblically-faithful pastoral service. We recognize them for certain if they pronounce "brethren" as "brother-en." Even more, they will be known by their unswerving devotion to the exposition and application of the truths of Scripture.

I'll tell you one way in which some of us can measure John's impact. Decades ago, as a young Christian, I wrote a question to the expositor William Hendriksen. Just in passing and by way of introduction, I noted that I was "a Calvinist dispensationalist," then went on to my question.

Hendriksen was little interested in my question, to which he responded almost dismissively. He was much more interested in disabusing me of the thought that I could be Calvinist and dispensationalist. He assured me there was no such thing. I needed to read his commentary on Revelation and lose my dispensationalism, if I wanted to be "100% Calvinist." (Some dispensationalists felt similarly about my Calvinism.) I was not to write him again until I was "100% Calvinist."

Today, were I writing Hendriksen, I'd only need to have said that doctrinally I was "basically in John MacArthur's neck of the woods," and there would have been no turmoil. Though MacArthur and I came to our convictions separately — I was not a MacArthur reader — we landed in the same place by the same path: it is what Scripture taught. (I could never have imagined that one day John MacArthur would graciously endorse my first book.)

But it took John MacArthur to earn acceptance of that blend from people who just recently had been calling dispensationalism a heresy. They saw in John MacArthur a man who stood unwaveringly for the centrality, authority, sufficiency, and inerrancy of all of Scripture. They saw a veritable library of Biblical writing, and a fount of Christ-honoring ministry decisions, investments, and works. MacArthur blazed a trail where none had seemed likely, obvious as it should have been.

I personally became more exposed to John's qualities as a leader by getting to know Phil. Inevitably, I read more books and listened to more sermons and heard more anecdotes.

More than any one book or sermon, I came to respect and admire MacArthur's stance. He was not reflexively "agin'" everything, he just was not immediately "fer" anything. It had to be analyzed Biblically. And often he would see to the heart of The Latest Greatest Thing, with Biblical clarity, long before others did.

And he'd say so, with clarity. That word clarity is another key to understanding MacArthur's impact, I think. He dug into the Bible, and then he was able to bring what he learned to bear in clear, direct, memorable language. This made him useful — and quotable. I myself have quoted him in teaching a number of times, though (defying my own conviction) I can't always source my quotation.

Just last Sunday I quoted a tale of MacArthur. Someone asked him how many people he'd led to Christ. His answer (as I heard it): "Everyone I've ever preached to." That's perfect: profound, yet simple. Or his comment on the faux-Shekinah gold dust in Charismatic meetings: "If that really were the Shekinah, they'd all be dead."

It is that quality of incisive clarity which I think I admire most, and will miss most. John MacArthut was unflappable and beyond intimidation. Talking to a guy at a conference, or talking to Larry King on national cable, or talking to the governor of California, he was the same man.

In fact, that really is a huge thing. You never had to wonder whether MacArthur would wobble, act embarrassed by the Bible, or equivocate, in any setting. He wouldn't be a jerk, but he wouldn't be a quaking aspen. He'd just kindly, firmly lay down the truth of what Scripture said, in any setting. Of how many can you say that — that you'd never worry about what he would say under bright spotlights? Precious few. And now there is one less, and it is a real loss.

I also appreciate MacArthur for his enemies. I'm sure all of us pastors have this or that where we think otherwise than John did. But when you see someone who really hates John MacArthur, or has only bad things to seethe about him — you can be fairly sure that something unhealthy is going on there.

Would I compare MacArthur to Spurgeon? Yes and no. In terms of eloquence and heart-stopping beauty of expression, in terms of speaking to despondent and fearful hearts — no. That's Spurgeon.

But in terms of the breadth, scope, and influence of his Gospel-centered works and impact? Yes, absolutely. What's more, in terms of lasting production of directly Biblical material, I'd say MacArthur excels. Spurgeon left a great library of timeless and priceless sermons and talks and articles. But CHS is not known for leaving a volume of exposition. That's John MacArthur's signature contribution.

The morning after John's passing into Christ's presence, I began the day with tears. I knew the world  — Christian world and world-world — had lost a key unwavering voice for God's truth. That is a hard blow, a gut-punch.

But God loves His church more than we do, He loves His word and truth more than we do, and He knows exactly what He is doing. There was no Spurgeon before Spurgeon, and no MacArthur before MacArthur. God formed and raised up those two faithful servants exactly for His purpose and for their time.

Who is He forming and preparing now? God knows. We can only pray.

And what is more, I can't think of a death of a public figure that had more personal impact on me than John MacArthur's death. His life challenges me to strive to give full value to both elements of the phrase "man of God." His passing makes me mindful of my own little field, and more determined to find a way to fill my remaining years with fruitful devotion to Christ and His Gospel.

As John MacArthur did.

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