Dr. John MacArthur, author of The Gospel According to Jesus, famous Lordship Salvation author and preacher, and Pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA, was hospitalized last week with pneumonia. Any senior citizen admitted for pneumonia would be in a life-threatening situation. But that is especially true for someone aged eighty-six and with a recent history of major illnesses.
MacArthur is so well known that USA Today had a major online article about his failing health yesterday afternoon. He has since passed. See here.
For years I’ve prayed for John MacArthur. My desire has been that he would come back to the Free Grace position. Before 1980, he held a Free Grace view of salvation. Then he went on a sabbatical during which he studied the writings of the Puritans, who were English Calvinists. He became a Calvinist, though he did not advertise that for a long time. See this video (3:25ff.) where he explains to Dr. John Piper that he is a five-point Calvinist and why he kept that to himself for a long time. Brian, the host at Faith on Fire, put out the video and went on to explain why he thinks it is inappropriate to hide one’s theological position from his congregation. He calls it stealth Calvinism.
At the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in 1989 in San Diego, I met five people who had been members of MacArthur’s church for over twenty years. They said that before his sabbatical in 1980, he preached the simple faith-alone message. After returning, he preached a five-year series on Matthew, and in that series, he introduced Calvinist Lordship Salvation.
The result was his 1989 book, The Gospel According to Jesus. In the video of Piper and MacArthur, cited above, they mention that, but without indicating the details.
Although I strongly disagree with MacArthur on Lordship Salvation, I much appreciate his conservative views on things such as inerrancy, verse-by-verse Bible exposition, young-earth creationism, the worldwide flood, marriage and the family, etc.
If he ever believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for the gift of everlasting life—and I’m convinced by his own words and those of others that he did—then he is with the Lord now. Nothing can cause a believer to lose everlasting life. Perseverance is not required to be guaranteed future access to Christ’s kingdom.i That is good news for John MacArthur and for all. The Calvinist doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints is a lie. But believing and even teaching that lie cannot undo the glorious promise of everlasting life to all who simply believe in the Lord Jesus Christ!
i Calvinism teaches that only those who persevere in faith and good works will enter Christ’s kingdom. Perseverance in faith includes continuing to believe the saving message. According to Calvinism, if someone departed from the faith regarding salvation, then he would not go to heaven when he died.
