John F MacArthur is believed to be one of the best known American pastor and radio preacher in the United States of America. He was featured on internationally broadcast program Grace to you, which went on air in the year 1977.
John MacArthur is believed to be a well-known teacher and has also served as a senior pastor of the Grace Community Church present in the Sun Valley of California. He has been serving there since the year 1969.
Early Life of John F MacArthur
The early life of John F MacArthur junior was spent in the city of Los Angeles. He was born in the year 1939 to a Baptist Preacher and evangelist Jack MacArthur and Irene Dockendorf.
In the school, he was very passionate about sports like Basketball, football, baseball, and athletics and was even offered multiple college sports scholarships.
But it was the request of his father which made MacArthur put aside his dream of playing professional sports and attending the Bob Jones University, which was an accredited Evangelical Christian College, which had no athletic programs at that particular time.
After 2 years of college life, John MacArthur was recruited for playing football at the Pacific College where God confirmed the call to the ministry for MacArthur.
He then decided to attend the theological seminary and never looked back in his life. At the time when he was at the seminary he reminisced:
“I knew this was the course of my life, it all changed … Everything I studied came out of the Bible. And I just had an avaricious appetite … to dig into it because I loved it.”
While still a seminary student, MacArthur began traveling and preaching in the expository style (verse by verse through the Bible) that would become the hallmark of his ministry.
He recalled, “I was at Youth for Christ, Campus Crusade, Young Life – every camp, every youth convention, churches, colleges, universities.
I preached about 35 times a month for nearly three years, and that was great; that was like cramming ten years’ experience into three.”
During his second year at the Talbott college, John MacArthur met and married his wife Patricia. They are still together till the present day and have for married children and 15 grandchildren, who all live in the southern part of California.
Finally, after graduating from the college in the year 1969, John F MacArthur began his tenure as the pastor of the ministry of grace community Church and then started the grace to your radio program.
Interesting Facts About John F MacArthur
Various facts and interesting trivia are famous for John F MacArthur. Some of the best facts are given below:
- The full name of John MacArthur is John Fullerton MacArthur junior.
- He was born on 19th June in the year 1939 in the city of Los Angeles present in California.
- His parents were Jack MacArthur and Irene Dockendorf.
- He later married Patricia MacArthur.
- He is famous as the pastor of grace community Church present in the Sun Valley of California. He is also famous as a prolific author and a Bible commentator.
- He has also attended many conferences and has been given the award of the best speaker. He is also a teacher of the internationally broadcast radio program Grace to you.
- Some of the selected works of John F MacArthur are The Gospel According to Jesus (2008); Our Sufficiency in Christ (1998); Strange Fire (2013); Ashamed of the Gospel (2010); The Murder of Jesus (2004); The Prodigal Son (2008); Twelve Ordinary Men (2002); The Truth War (2007).
- The Jesus You Can’t Ignore (2009); One Perfect Life (2013); The Gospel According to Paul (2017); One Faithful Life (2019); Only Jesus (2020); The MacArthur Study Bible (2006); and The MacArthur New Testament Commentary (2015).
- He later had four children. They were Matt MacArthur, Mark MacArthur, Melinda MacArthur, and Marcy MacArthur.
- One of his most famous quotes is “if I could simply the Christian life to one thing, it would be obedience”.
No Stranger to Controversy
In his career which has spent more than 50 + years in the ministry, John F MacArthur has sparked a lot of controversies.
He criticized the charismatic Movement in his famous book strange fire the danger of offending the Holy Spirit with counter feet worship in the year 2013 which resulted in a lot of chaos and firestorm of the denunciation and several books in the response.
In addition to this, he has also been critical about the prosperity of the gospel. He has also said a lot of things about the Trinity broadcasting network and the megachurch pastor Joel Osteen.
John F MacArthur has also heated a very big debate by the launch of his book The Gospel according to Jesus in the year 1988.
In this particular book, he said that the call of the Gospel to the people for surrendering to the lordship of the Christ in humble and repentant faith was criticized by a lot of people.
The Evangelical people attack this particular lordship theology by claiming that it is a mixed work with Grace and has made repentance a false addition to the gospel. Talking about today’s scenario, John F MacArthur has said that he has not changed his views about lordship salvation.
Positions of MacArthur
John F MacArthur has taken and expository approach to the scripture and has often praised the original Greek or the Hebrew text. Given below are his positions on the major issues:
- He has talked about the Bible where he has said that the Bible is the word of god and is infallible. He has also said that the Bible is authoritative and sufficient by all means along with its inerrant approach.
- It is also written that the Bible is the source of everything which a person needs for knowledge about life and all the happenings on the earth which have already occurred or are yet to occur. One can trust the Bible and read it all the time because it is the living word of god.
- The church began on the Pentecost teachers and it is comprised of the people who have put in their faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is believed to be the one Supreme authority of the church.
- Local churches should be autonomous and self-governing. This should not be controlled by any external hierarchy or any other organization.
- John F MacArthur has always opposed evolutionist and the teaching of young-earth creationism.
- Miraculous gifts like the healing power and the revelation were believed to be temporary during the new testament period for establishing the apostle’s authority. No one has the gift of healing in the present scenario and he also says that God can still heal the sick people in answer to the prayers.
- John F MacArthur is called the Holy Spirit, the essence of the truth and the one who is always guiding the people on the path of truth. The Holy Spirit plays the role of being a teacher.
- He has also said that the Holy Spirit has inspired various Gospel writers so that they were able to record the words of Jesus Christ accurately and precisely.
- He has said that Jesus Christ is God and every person must face the question of the deity of Jesus Christ. He has also said that Jesus Christ has revealed Himself in the form of God to his disciples.
- The Holy Spirit has revealed Jesus Christ to all the people in the form of God today. Christianity is all about believing is the fact which is believed by John F MacArthur.
- John F MacArthur has also said that salvation is the grace of God and based on the redemption of Jesus Christ and also based on the merit of his bloodshed. It is not based on human merit or works.
Author, Teacher and Pastor John F MacArthur
John F MacArthur became the president of the master’s college which was formerly known by the name of Los Angeles Baptist college in the year 1985.
In the year 1986, he founded the famous Master’s seminary which was a graduate school for training the men so that they can become good and obedient missionaries and ministers.
Most people very well know about John F MacArthur by the means of radio and television ministry Grace to you. It airs more than a thousand times a day throughout the world.
The Spanish version of this particular show has reached 23 countries in Latin America and Europe. Around 8 to 10 years back, John MacArthur posted more than 3500 of his sermons on the grace to your website, which was free to download and listen online.
John MacArthur has also said that when he realized that it was the right time for calling to the ministry he wanted to be a pastor.
For this particular instance he said the lines which are given below:
“I wanted to follow what my dad did and my granddad did. I wanted to be in a church, and I wanted to exposit the Word of God.
Not so much for the sake of the congregation; I wanted to know what the Bible taught. I had just a craving to understand the New Testament in particular.
And so, the only way I knew I’d ever satisfied that hunger would be to get in a church and go through it systematically.”
John F MacArthur is also a prolific writer who has authored more than 400 books and study guides.
One of the most famous of his writings is the MacArthur study Bible which is available in 9 different languages and has been able to sell more than 1 million copies all around the world.
In the year 2015, John MacArthur completed his 34 volume new testament commentary which was famous by the name of the MacArthur new testament commentary.
In this particular book, he took all the readers to book my book and verse by verse through the entire new testament.
In more than five decades of teaching and training, John MacArthur was able to expand his reach from a single congregation in the southern part of California to millions of people all around the world in a single day.
He was able to do the same with the help of grace to you, radio, broadcasts, online videos, podcasts, books, and other print media.
But at the same time, he was well in touch with various controversies which made him highly visible. But because of the bundle of good deeds, his public image has never been tarnished by the different scandals or moral failure.
Conclusion
John F MacArthur is a famous American pastor and radio teacher. He was featured in the international broadcast program in the year 1977.
He has been a well-known teacher and has served at various high positions in different churches and has brought millions of people close to God by increasing their faith and believes.
People Also Ask (FAQs)
In which year was John MacArthur born?
John F was born in the year 1939 to a Baptist Preacher and evangelist Jack MacArthur and Irene Dockendorf.
When did Grace to You become famous all around the world?
John MacArthur was featured on the internationally broadcast program Grace to you, which went on air in the year 1977.