John MacArthur - A Review by Jeffrey Riddle

The fact that the staunchly Reformed publisher Banner of Truth has released a biography of dispensational pastor John MacArthur is testimony to the fact that MacArthur is one of the most influential evangelical ministers of our times. This book¹ began in 2009 as a biographical portrait commissioned from Iain Murray by the elders of Grace Community Church to mark MacArthur's fortieth anniversary of ministry in that congregation. Murray has expanded that profile but concludes by noting that this is 'little more than a sketch; this is not the time, nor I the writer to give a full portrait' (229).

What do we learn about the life of John MacArthur? Murray begins by describing MacArthur's early years growing up in a minister's home in Southern California. As a young man he attended Bob Jones University and preached his first feeble sermon in a Spartanburg, South Carolina bus station. Uncomfortable with Bob Jones, MacArthur eventually transferred to Pacific College and then on to Talbot Seminary, where he came under the influence of Charles L. Feinberg. This transition reflected MacArthur's discomfort with the 'war psychology' of classical fundamentalism and his move toward more mainstream evangelicalism.   Continue at Jeffrey Riddle

John MacArthur:

Servant of the Word and Flock, by Iain H. Murray (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2011), HB 246 pages.

In the concluding section of his first letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul challenges the brothers to "Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, [and] be strong" (I Cor. 16:13), not least of all those men who have been set apart as under-shepherds of the flock.  Sadly, in our increasingly effeminate culture, these biblical marks of manhood appear to be diminishing amongst both laymen and ministers.  Dandified, progressive, culture-centric preachers (and preaching) are becoming as ubiquitous as Starbucks and American Eagle.  Harder to find is Lionhearted, authoritative, expository, God-besotted, Law/Gospel-filled preaching like that which characterized the preaching of men like Calvin, Knox, Owen, Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones.  It is, in part, for this reason that John Fullerton MacArthur Jr.'s long and steadfast ministry of the Word is a welcome and timely subject for reflection.  

It never occurred to Iain Murray to write a biography on John MacArthur until after he was invited to preach at MacArthur's fortieth anniversary at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California on Sunday, February 1, 2009.

 

Rightly unwilling to set aside the preaching of God's Word during Lord's Day worship, Murray chose rather to write "a biographical sketch as a short tribute" to MacArthur's ministry. (xi)  That sixty-page biographical sketch, later included as part of an anniversary volume of landmark MacArthur sermons, formed the basis of the present volume.  Keep Reading...

Appreciating John MacArthur

While at the New Life Bible Conference (which I hope to write more about soon), I picked up a copy of Iain Murray’s new biography,John MacArthur: Servant of the Word and Flock. I enjoy Murray’s biographies and like many others I was eager to get to know John a bit better. So, I figured a biography about MacArthur written by Murray would be win-win.

And I was right! Once again I enjoyed Murray’s uncluttered style, which seemed particularly appropriate for a man whose life has been marked by plainness of speech and love for the truth. The volume reads really smoothly and quickly. I regard myself a slow reader, but I was able to finish all but a few pages on the 4.5 hour plane ride from Chicago back to Cayman. A nice read for a cozy trip home.

Murray is careful to state that this biography is not exhaustive and that another writer (perhaps Phil Johnson) ought to take up a more complete study. So, the book really gives us the “high points” in MacArthur’s life, those moments and eras that were in many ways defining of the man and his ministry. We learn of his parents’ influence, his college years and days at seminary, of his early ministry at Grace Community Church, the development of Master’s and Grace to You, and of a few personal and theological crises that attracted MacArthur’s attention. Murray also gives us a “tour” of MacArthur’s writing along the way, giving particular attention to The Gospel According to Jesus, which sent seismic tremors through much of evangelicalism a couple decades back. Keep Reading...

THE CHANGING SCENE IN THE UNITED STATES

Nations do not stand still, and by the last decade of the twentieth century there was much evidence of moral collapse in an increasingly materialistic culture. An age had dawned in which traditional Christian values were being shunned by many in public life. 'What are Christians to do,' MacArthur asked in 1993, 'when the government allows the wholesale slaughter of babies, exalts homosexuality, and denigrates any kind of moral standard?' Answers to the situation were diverse. Some thought a public relations campaign should be a priority. Others advocated the need for more social action, and the organizing of political pressure with demonstrations and protests. There were not lacking those who thought that psychology or mysticism could aid in reversing the decline in Christian belief.

For John MacArthur such proposals were only adding to the confusion.

Not the reformation of culture but the salvation of men and women is the church's mandate. But too many churches lacked a sufficient hold on truth to fulfill such a calling. They lacked the faith to assert that from Scripture

we can understand the ebb and flow of life better than all the educators, philosophers, politicians and social pundits combined . . . A look at the trends sweeping today's churches demonstrates just how small a god we've fashioned. How else can we explain the boom in Christian psychology, flashy, Las Vegas-style worship services, and high-tech church growth seminars? Read it all HERE

John MacArthur: Servant of the Word & Flock

I have a deep respect for John MacArthur. I admire the man himself, having met him several times; I admire the teacher, having had many opportunities to sit under his teaching; I admire the writer, having had his books (literally) change my life; I admire the leader, having spent a lot of time with the people he surrounds himself with—always an interesting means of finding the measure of a man. MacArthur is a man who has been used by God in amazing and unexpected ways. He is the subject of a new biography penned by Iain Murray whose previous subjects include Charles Spurgeon,A.W. Pink and Jonathan Edwards.

Writing this biography did not occur to Murray until he was asked to preach at Grace Community Church on the fortieth anniversary of MacArthur’s ministry at that church. He says, “I sensed that some comment by me on the ministry we were commemorating would be appropriate, but how to address that subject was not at first clear to me.” Wanting to use the pulpit to preach, Murray settled for writing a 60-page biographical sketch. However, he knew that 60 pages could not do justice to the man, so he went ahead and followed it with this full-length biography. Keep Reading...

The Forgotten Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon is one of the most quoted preachers of the past. Thousands still read his sermons and writings. Yet few, according to Iain Murray, remember Spurgeon's theology. And even fewer remember his willingness to defend it. The Forgotten Spurgeon is not a biography. Instead, Murray’s book focuses on the three major controversies of Spurgeon's ministry: his stand for historic Calvinism while at New Park Street in the 1850s, his involvement in the baptismal regeneration debate of 1864, and the Down-Grade controversy of 1887-1891. Read the rest HERE