Interview with theologian John MacArthur about the state of the church

While Martin Luther called the church back to the truth of Scripture
and the simplicity of the gospel, modern movements like the Emerging
Church uphold “mystery” and question the traditional understanding of
the gospel.

“We want to embrace mystery rather than conquer it,” declare leaders
within this movement. One prominent Emerging figure was quoted in
Christianity Today: “I don’t think we’ve got the gospel right
yet ... . I don’t think the liberals have it right. But I don’t think
we have it right either. None of us has arrived at orthodoxy.”

Emerging churches are an informal network of worldwide Christian
communities who believe God’s way for today’s generation is to focus
more on relationships and emerging ideas than hard-and-fast truths and
traditional statements of faith. They favor dialogue over doctrine and
are filled with people who say traditional church no longer works for
them. Inside their walls, you’ll typically find couches in place of
pews, conversation instead of preaching, compromise in place of
convictions, and questions in place of truth.

Dr. John MacArthur, a popular evangelical writer and pastor, expressed
his deep concern about the Emerging Church during a recent visit to
Answers in Genesis’ Creation Museum. While those leading the movement
say that the gospel can’t be clearly known, they presume to know one
thing for certain: “The Bible doesn’t mean what traditional people
think it means.”

The Emerging Church is just one of the latest assaults on the
truth and certainty of God’s Word.

“They are saying, in effect, that God may have spoken, but He mumbled,
and we’re not really sure what He said. Saying that Scripture is not
clear is just another way to undermine biblical authority,” MacArthur
explains.

MacArthur explores past and present assaults on truth in his new book
The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception. We
caught up with him for a special interview a couple months ago.
Hear No Truth, Speak No Truth, Follow No Truth

“This is not an intellectual movement. This is not a movement that has
discovered evidence that overturns inspiration, evidence that
overturns inerrancy or authority. This is a movement born of people
who do not want to accept the clarity of Scripture,” says MacArthur.
Dr. John MacArthur

Dr. John MacArthur (above) sat down with Answers magazine national
editor Pam Sheppard to answer questions about the Emerging Church.

Solomon’s Porch (below), pastored by Doug Pagitt, is a popular
Emerging Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This and other Emerging
Churches seek to embrace mystery and put less emphasis on truth.
Solomon's Porch, an Emerging Church

This kind of thinking is very convenient, he explains. If God’s Word
is not clear, then we’re not responsible to follow it.

“It allows them not to take a position on homosexuality, premarital
sex, or anything, besides ‘Let’s light some candles and incense, think
good thoughts about Jesus, and give to the poor,’” he observes.

But as MacArthur reminds readers in his book’s introduction, “To claim
that the Bible is not sufficiently clear is to assault God’s own
wisdom and integrity.”

Sadly, some Christian bookstores now devote entire sections to books
promoting the Emerging Church movement. MacArthur explains there are
several reasons for the movement’s explosive growth:

If they don’t believe anything, they can’t offend anybody. They’re
not under any mandate to say anything in particular. They play on the
bad experiences and disappointments of people raised in the church.
They basically can define themselves by experiences that are familiar
to the culture.

Just Give Me Jesus—But Don’t Make Me Change My Ways

MacArthur brought up another quote from a different Christianity Today
article. He considers it a metaphor for the whole movement. A young
lady stated that she loves Donald Miller, the author of Blue like
Jazz, because she wants to be religious but isn’t prepared to let
religion alter her lifestyle.

“I’m a Jesus girl,” she said. “But I also like to go out and do
tequila shots with my friends.”
Doubting God’s Word—from the Beginning?

Is this truth war unique to today’s postmodern culture? The image on
the cover of MacArthur’s book—the serpent from the Garden of Eden—
gives readers an idea about how long this battle has been going on.

“The assault has never stopped since the Garden,” MacArthur says. “It
just escalates and escalates and escalates. It takes different forms
and moves in whatever direction the mood of the mob—the spirit of the
age—dictates.”

Not only have people questioned God’s Word from the beginning of time,
but many Christians today doubt God from the beginning of His Word.
MacArthur attributes that doubt to a very flawed view of Scripture.
For example, he notes how few Christian colleges believe and promote
the literal creation account.

MacArthur, who addressed the importance of origins in an earlier book
The Battle for the Beginning, says he always asks the same question
when he discusses the creation account with others, “At what point do
you start believing the Bible? Do you kick in at Genesis 4, Exodus,
Deuteronomy—when do you decide this is believable?”
History—It Says What?

MacArthur says the Emerging Church promotes a different version of
church history than the one he gives readers in Truth War:

All the great heroes of the faith end up becoming fools. And the
antiheroes—the fools who compromise and who don’t take a stand—become
the heroes.

“It’s turning history on its head,” he says. “They undo the
Reformation so they can go back to a quasi-Christian, medieval
spirituality.”
The Church Today—How Did We Get Here?

Speaking on the church today, MacArthur writes, “It is quite possibly
more susceptible to false teachers, doctrinal saboteurs, and spiritual
terrorism than any other generation in church history. Biblical
ignorance within the church may well be deeper and more widespread
than any other time since the Protestant Reformation.”

MacArthur attributes much of this to the twenty years of the seeker-
friendly movement, which he says stripped Bible teaching, especially
expository teaching, out of the pulpit. “You end up with a very, very
marginally knowledgeable church, largely made up of unconverted
people,” he said.

“I hear pastors say to me, ‘Oh, I believe the Word of God is sharper
than any two-edged sword,’ and I say, ‘It’s good that you say that,
but when I hear you preach, you tell a bunch of stories and a bunch of
cultural insights. You think your own inventions have more power than
the Word of God?’”

MacArthur says that people frequently tell him that it’s easier for
him to preach the truth than other people because he has greater
courage, because he’s bolder.

“That’s not the answer,” he says. “The only reason I have courage and
boldness is because of my belief about the Scripture—and because of my
belief about being responsible and faithful to the Scripture, and to
the God of the Scripture.”
The Church of Tomorrow—Will It Stand?
Is Dr. MacArthur worried about this latest attack on God’s Word? As
someone who has defended truth, verse by verse, for over 30 years, he
is confident that truth can never be shaken.

“No matter what deviations come up, we always have the truth,”
MacArthur says about God’s Word.

However, Christians have the obligation to protect and defend that
truth. As he states in Truth War, “It is our duty to guard, proclaim,
and pass that truth on to the next generation [1 Timothy 6:20–21]. We
who love Christ and believe the truth embodied in His teaching must
awaken to the reality of the battle that is raging all around us. We
must do our part in the ages-old truth war. We are under a sacred
obligation to join the battle and contend for the faith.”

LL - Yelling at Sinners Does Not Help [.]

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to Sinners Does Help.

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