Why Don't People Want to Read the Bible John Macarthur
As he walked across the stage July 26 to the large, wooden pulpit, the auditorium that seats 3,500 people was filled with not-masked, not-socially distanced conservative evangelicals with another one,000 people gathered outside who all jumped to their feet for a standing ovation.
Rick Pidcock
The man who many evangelicals believe to be the greatest expositor of Scripture alive best-selling the roar of the crowd and and then got right downwardly to concern reading a passage from Psalm 19 and praying earlier the church joined together in a rousing rendition of "Come Christians, Join to Sing!"
A few days before, John MacArthur and the Grace Church elders released a statement maxim they were going to disobey their government's temporary ban on churches gathering together. As might be expected from Grace Church, the argument was filled with Bible verses to prove every point. The statement used the word "authority" 31 times, "right" 13 times and some grade of "head," "subject area," "command," "rule," at least some other lxx times.
They see the world through the lens of authority and power. And according to their theology, the ones who have the power are determined by a nuanced set of arrangements that ultimately boils downwards to the men who are elders over their church.
In addition to proving that the men in their church are in charge, they also tapped into popular conspiracy theories near politicians manipulating statistics, the media covering up or camouflaging "inconvenient truths," the projections of scientists being incorrect, the coronavirus disease non really being that bad, and of course the government persecuting Christians.
John MacArthur
Not one single word of lament for the lives affected by this disease in their community.
As of July 27, there have been 173,995 confirmed cases of COVID-nineteen with 4,360 deaths in Los Angeles alone. These numbers are on the ascension and account for one-half the deaths in the land. And based on the numbers of people sitting shoulder to shoulder with virtually no masks in their service July 26, the people of Grace Church building don't seem that concerned.
In fact, they're not just oblivious to what they are doing. They are actually proud of it.
John MacArthur'due south henchman Phil Johnson took to Twitter boasting about "John MacArthur preaching to a full Worship Center," posting multiple photographs of all the unmasked people sitting shoulder to shoulder. He fifty-fifty went so far as to argue with people who questioned how full the auditorium was past showing them even more photos of how full information technology was. And the responses flowed from supportive conservative evangelicals all around the country expressing gratitude through tears for their boldness.
Where is this basic lack of humanity coming from?
"Love of self, neighbor and God will ultimately go cut off at some point by a theology of eternal witting torment."
Earlier on Sunday, I sat downwards to read an commodity by the Eastern Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart as he responded to withal some other uninformed review of his Christian universalist book, That All Shall Be Saved. In this article, Hart says, "The irresoluble contradiction at the very core of the now dominant understanding of Christian confession is that the faith commands us to beloved God with all our heart, soul and mind and to beloved our neighbour as ourselves while besides enjoining us to believe in the reality of an eternal hell; we cannot possibly exercise both of these things at in one case. I say thisnot only because I think it emotionally impossible fully to love a God capable of consigning any creature to everlasting suffering (though in fact I do think this). I say it, rather, because absolute dearest of neighbor and a perfectly convinced belief in hell are antithetical to one anotherin principle."
In other words, the dearest of self, neighbour and God volition ultimately get cutting off at some point by a theology of eternal witting torment. Once i is willing to accept the thought that their neighbor will get set on burn down forever by God and label that torture as good, they are no longer concerned for the good of their neighbor.
Of course, non all conservative evangelicals are as heartless as John MacArthur and the Grace Church elders. Other influential ministries such every bit Mark Dever'southward 9 Marks take respectfully called MacArthur out on Grace's decision to gather.
Aerial view of Grace Church building in Southern California
Just ultimately, while there will be some varieties of convictions amid conservative evangelicals, the reality is that their shared belief in eternal conscious torment will serve only to produce varying shades of lost humanity. Hart explains, "Really, all our linguistic communication of Christian love is rendered vacuous to the precise degree that nosotros truly believe in eternal perdition. Honey my neighbor all I may, if I believe hell is real, I cannot love himevery bit myself. My conviction that in that location is a hell to which one of us might go while the other enters into the Kingdom of God means that I must exist willing to carelessness him — indeed, abandon everyone — to a fate of total misery while still standing to presume that, having done so, I shall exist able to enjoy perfect eternal bliss."
Or, in one case you accept immune in your mind for someone to exist assail burn down forever every bit something they deserve, the thought of them suffering temporarily from COVID-nineteen in a infirmary bed doesn't quite seem to be that large a bargain anymore. The theology of eternal witting torment deadens the humanity of both the person being seen and the seer. As a result, you lot end up with John MacArthur and the Grace Church elders receiving a continuing ovation for exercising their authority in the face of human suffering.
"The theology of eternal witting torment deadens the humanity of both the person being seen and the seer."
As John MacArthur stood before his congregation to preach, he rejoiced in their decision to "return to what we love the most: the fellowship of the saints and the worship of our Lord." Noticeably absent was whatever mention of loving their neighbors as self, which was what Jesus said he loved the nigh.
MacArthur continued: "At that place have been many people who don't sympathise why we would exercise this. We sympathise that. We empathize that the globe does non sympathise the importance of the church. The world doesn't sympathize that it is non just essential; information technology'southward the only promise of eternal life for doomed sinners. People have been very concerned to make certain people'due south physical lives are protected and in the process shut downwards places where there'southward hope for their spiritual lives to exist transformed, where they can live eternally in the presence of God."
And then he moved into describing unbelievers in nothing just negative terms. In other words, John MacArthur is doing exactly what David Bentley Hart says infernalists will do. He's dismissing the suffering of his community based on his theology of eternal witting torment.
Some have tried to defend MacArthur by saying his conclusion is a Romans 14 matter of conscience. But Romans 14 is nigh eating expert meat offered to idols. Information technology is not about pastors offering poisoned meat to their communities.
One of MacArthur's favorite phrases that appears throughout the letter and his sermon is, "The Bible is very clear." Since the Bible is so clear, hear this passage from Isaiah 1 where the prophet Isaiah describes what God thinks about people who gather for fellowship and worship while ignoring the suffering of the oppressed in their communities:
Hear the give-and-take of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Heed to the teaching of our God, yous people of Gomorrah! What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fatty of fed beasts; I do non delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. When y'all come up to appear before me, who asked this from your hand? Trample my courts no more than; bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation — I cannot suffer solemn assemblies with iniquity. … Wash yourselves; make yourselves make clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to exercise evil, learn to exercise good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.
Rick Pidcock is a stay-calm male parent of v kids. He and his wife, Ruth Ellen, have started Provoke Wonder, a collaboration of artists that exists to foster kid-like worship through story and vocal. Provoke Wonder'due south first album, Consider the Stars, was released in March 2020. Their showtime children's volume, What If, will be released in 2020. Rick is pursuing a principal of arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary.
Source: https://baptistnews.com/article/how-john-macarthur-loves-the-bible-but-not-his-neighbor/
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