John MacArthur of Grace Community Church (GCC) was recently interviewed about the Covid Crisis, Totalitarianism, and Antichrist. In the interview he stated,
“The notion that somehow the church can make friends with the world is just an absurdity. . . . You can’t be a friend of this world. If the love of God is in you, the love of the world is not in you, 1 John.”
He is right. 1 Jn 2:15-17; Jam 4:4; 1 Cor 2:12 among other passages make this very clear.
The issue isn’t in what he said but in what his actual practice is, contrasted to the statement. His actual practices and beliefs contradict what he says here, revealing hypocrisy and a hypocrite. We see this in the areas of standards and music, bearing the characteristics of neo-evangelicalism. MacArthur has claimed the entry point to the Charismatic movement is the music. He says,
“Once you let the music in, the movement follows” and that he “would go so far as to say that evangelical non-charismatic churches are using music that is unacceptable to draw people in. They’re using the music of the world to suck people in as if somehow people would get saved through the music. The two have no connection.” (Strange Fire).
He says it is the style of music. But this style of music of the Charismatic is also popular in evangelicalism and popular and rampant with those in John MacArthur’s circle of influence. MacArthur's church actually promotes the entry point to the Charismatic Movement. There is no question that ungodly and very worldly rock music is accepted and approved by MacArthur and GCC. MacArthur hosts a youth conference which is called the "Resolved Conference” where thousands of young people gather and listen to lyrics sung to the heavy drum beat of rock music, charismatic-style, like a pop concert. This can be verified at the "Resolved" website, which pictures on its own reflects the ungodly and worldly atmosphere.
Strange fire is false worship. The music is the worship. Majority of MacArthur's music comes out of the stream he decries. It justifies all of the music that is the professed entry point and Trojan horse for the poison and destruction all over the world, and what has resulted in nations being turned over to destruction and God’s judgment. He, like practically all other evangelicals and Calvinist Reformers, are the actual cause of it! Why should people change if MacArthur and the graduates of Master's College and Seminary are going to use the same stuff? And believe me, it's all over and bad and worse, and it produces a massive amount of unregenerate people blaspheming God. “For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.” (Rom 2:24).
All of this comes out of the earlier revivalistic stream and the Lonnie Frisbee/Calvary Chapel stream, and twice MacArthur has said what happened at GCC was out of the Jesus Movement and that this was a true revival that lead to explosive growth at GCC. The strange fire and worldliness is right there! Yet many times MacArthur contradicts himself and plays the hypocrite, as we see here with the music issue. Never has he publicly repented or expressed change concerning GCC’s charismatic roots or of the ungodly music. And it’s only getting worse, but allegedly he’s “never seen so much love.” Ok.
Even the GCC hymnal is committed to contemporary worship, which is the music of the world. When the Bible speaks of not loving the world, it’s obviously speaking of not loving the things of the world, and CCM, like any other worldly music, is most definitely an object of the world. It’s unbiblical in all its facets. CCM is unholy, worldly, fleshly, ecumenical, charismatic, adulterous, and contrary to worship expressed in Scripture. Nothing about CCM is Biblical. Not its lyrics (mostly unsound), melody, beat, attraction, musicians or flaunting sensual style. It is worldly and condemned as “another spirit,” a “spirit of error” which is “that spirit of antichrist” (2 Cor 11:4; 1 Jn 4:1-6).
Yet MacArthur claims,
“You aren't going to find that kind of music in a reformed church." And, "the attraction is sensual experience that disconnects you from the realities of life."
He says it would end if you shut down the music and turn on the lights, and they must be "white lights," he says. MacArthur is saying this while it’s taking place at his very church and throughout his coalitions, the reformed churches. Where is he coming from? What about C.J. Mahaney? Its even worst at Piper’s church. Todd Friel once said that his children listened to "Jesus Culture."
MacArthur is a worldly rock & roll evangelical and a serious hypocrite about it. Matt Redman is a longtime partner of the unBiblical and ungodly Hillsong United, Bethel Music, and a Joyce Meyer Ministries worship leader (who is one serious apostate), yet who also led the chapel worship of Master's College in 2020 (Matt Redman Leads Music in Chapel). Plenty of loving the world and strange fire is occurring at GCC, the gateway to Charismatic false worship, while MacArthur supposedly preaches against loving the world, and against Charismaticism. This is unBiblical and hypocrisy, and reveals corrupt fruit falling from corrupt trees, the fruit of wolves in sheep’s clothing. Beware! (Matt 7:15-20).
So he preaches against loving the world and befriending the world but then embraces and welcomes ungodly and worldly music into the church: has plenty of bad worldly music at his church hand raising and all, in his hymnal, in the youth conferences and practically everyone attending that church listens to such music outside of church, while all his coalitions love it as well. He refuses to denounce the music or separate from those who embrace it and worst. This all reflects the characteristic of a pure hypocrite.
But not only music, but also people of the world. He says don’t “make friends with the world” yet he has habitually embraced and associated with many enemies of Christ and friends of the world, found throughout his books, such as psychoheretics like Larry Crabb and James Dobson and their false gospel of self-esteemism; and other wolves in sheep’s clothing such as Dallas Willard, Augustine, Billy Graham, Luis Palau, National Religious Broadcasters, Greg Laurie, J.I. Packer, Henri Nouwen, Chuck Colson, Joni Erikson Tada, John Piper, Tim Keller, etc. He not only promotes psychoheretics but also embraces psychological heresy in his preaching and books.
Not only music and people but also standards. Not loving the world involves dressing godly, modestly and according to ones sex. Both in church and daily life, Christians should dress in a way that is clearly marked by modesty and a distinction between the sexes (1 Tim 2:8-10, De 22:5, 1 Cor 11:14-15), according to the doctrine of godliness (1 Tim 6:3-5). But that is certainly not the case at GCC, and any attempts MacArthur has made to deal with the subject has been a convoluted mess.
GCC does not,
“consent … to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;” and the solution is: “from such withdraw thyself.” (1 Tim 6:3-5).
That means separate.
These are only a few of the issues and hypocrisies with MacArthur and GCC, there are others such as his explicit statement of having never had a conscious salvation experience (he also claimed he never really rebelled from God and always remembered serving Christ, which is extremely troubling), use of modern Bible perversions (even has his OWN Bible which he autographs) and against the KJV (God’s Word in English because of text and translation method), embracing the theology of Reformed Calvinism including the TULIP which is heresy (his ESV aggressively promotes Calvinism in its marginal explanations of key passages), embracing reformed apostates John Calvin and Martin Luther, denying the eternal Sonship of Christ, denying the blood of Christ as an element of the gospel and required for salvation, etc. Considering the content of his interview, I wonder if he continues to hold the unscriptural and heretical view that one who takes the mark of the beast can still be saved?
Although John MacArthur has some good teachings and stance in some areas, he is very inconsistent, and a hypocrite and heretic in other very important areas. God “hates every false way” (Ps 119:104, 128) including hypocrisy (Matt 23). No place in Scripture is a hypocrite ever saved. Flee from these hypocrites! Obey God's Word!
Job asks,
“For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?” (Job 27:8).
How can we expect politicians to rule with integrity and honesty, without hypocrisy, when even the mainstream Christians in the land do not do so?
This is not the only example of John MacArthurs hypocrisy. No, hypocrisy reigns supreme in these circles of Reformed-Calvinism and Neo-Evangelicalism, and here is another example:
See also here for further Warning on John MacArthur and a Rebutal of his False Logic to Prove All Are Closet Calvinists.
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