Expository: John MacArthur 1939-2025

Southern California pastor, John MacArthur, a popular Bible teacher excelled in expository preaching, while unafraid of wading into controversy.

Just learned last night that John F. MacArthur Jr., a well-known Bible teacher at Grace Community Church, died at age 86. Christianity Today published a remembrance of this beloved Bible preacher.

John MacArthur was one of those people who had the strength of his convictions, who was not shy about speaking what he considered to be the truth. Perhaps the greatest strength in his ministry was his commitment to expository teaching from the Bible. He started preaching at Grace Community Church at age 29, and to my knowledge, went verse-by-verse through every book of the New Testament, and much of the Old Testament, before he died. It took him 42 years to cover the entire New Testament. Grace Community Church grew dramatically with that kind of preaching, becoming one of the largest churches in Los Angeles. MacArthur was often considered to be the dean of expository preachers.

However, MacArthur was not without controversy. Charismatic Christians were frustrated by him. He was unwavering in his commitment to Young Earth Creationism. Women were not allowed ever to speak in any leading capacity in his church, nor were any women allowed to lead even in singing for worship. He believed that so-called Christian “social justice” was compromise of the Gospel. He was really rough on Roman Catholics. He minimized mental health issues. Once he made what he thought was a sufficient study of a doctrine of Scripture, there was no changing of his mind. He even promoted his specific teachings through his popular annotated John MacArthur Study Bible.

MacArthur got a number of things right. He promoted the idea of “Lordship Salvation,” suggesting that it was wrong to think that you can have Jesus as your Savior but NOT as your Lord. He was suspicious of attempts to find truth in forms of Christian mysticism, which were not properly grounded in the text of Scripture. He made it a point to say that the Greek word often translated as “servant” in the Gospels should in most (if not all) cases be translated as “slave,” as it is more consistently done in the Legacy Standard Bible, which he helped to develop. He affirmed biblical inerrancy, even though his view was very strict.

MacArthur also got a lot of things wrong. Dead wrong in my view.

But one thing I can always respect him for was a love for the text of Scripture. He rightly chided other pastors who skipped passages of the Bible which were “too hard” or too controversial. Simply doing topical preaching, a common practice taught in many seminaries to seminarians today, simply would not do for MacArthur. I have come to agree with him (though I do not mind more “topical” preaching sessions every so-often as a change of pace). It took him almost eight years to cover the Book of Romans. Over the years, I have grown more fond of MacArthur’s way of approaching the Scriptures in a verse-by-verse manner. Life is just too short to get piece-meal sound-bites from the Bible on Sunday mornings.

This beloved and controversial preacher will be missed by many. May his soul rest in peace.