John MacArthur's Latest Episode of Hypocrisy and Schizophrenia

https://www.christianpost.com/voices/john-macarthur-vs-christian-nationalism.html

The California megachurch pastor has long attacked Christian political activism and the idea that Christians are to labour for justice in this world. These endeavours distract the Church from its God-appointed task. Such expressions on the part of MacArthur would be in keeping with his Dispensational Premillennial eschatology that sees no hope for this present age and calls the Church to await the pre-tribulational rapture. According to this scheme, great calamity will follow in the form Anti-Christ and the so-called Great Tribulation.

While MacArthur believes all this on paper, he doesn't live that way. A multi-millionaire, he curries the favour of the political sector, law enforcement, and the military. Far from living as a pilgrim or exile, he's very much at home with the American Establishment. His wealth and praise for the status quo testify to this. If he really believed this world is given over to evil and doomed and headed for chaos, he wouldn't have encouraged his son to seek wealth in the realm of the markets - to tear down his barns and build bigger ones as it were.

He believes in American idealism, capitalism, and wants the strong hand of the state to impose a 'law and order' regime. In other words he believes the system (at least at one time) stood for justice and he wants it back and advocates for it. He doesn't seem to grasp that his defense of the status quo is a kind of political advocacy and embraces a narrative of justice. It just happens to be one that many find wanting.

He expresses the kind of other-worldly Fundamentalism that was once prevalent but has been all but eradicated by the Neo-Evangelical movement that arose in the aftermath of World War II. The fear of communism and the shock of the rising counter-culture that hit a crescendo in the 1960's drove many Fundamentalists into embracing both the ethos and tactics of Evangelicalism.

By the 1990's, the Evangelicals had won outright and upped the ante as it were. And we're seeing this again at present in the triangulation that has been labeled Christian Nationalism. Fundamentalism has been in a state free-fall and barely registers today. And of the remaining Fundamentalist congregations, they are almost unrecognizable from what they had been just a generation ago. Those that have stood their ground and retain all the old forms and practices have all but died out.

MacArthur makes some great statements and exposes some of Postmillennialism's fundamental misreads of Scripture. They miss critical aspects of New Testament teaching and its governing ethos. He rightly identifies it as a form of prosperity gospel - in other words a heresy. Amen.

And the real problem is not the particular eschatological or millennial outlook held by this or that person. The problem is Dominionism which flowing from the sewer of Postmillennialism has infiltrated, affected, and transformed not just Amillennialism but most of the Premillennial sector as well.

I say 'Amen' to MacArthur's statements but he himself does not live out this creed. He has flourished in this cultural environment and clearly has no argument with power or Christians wielding it. His complaint is that of an older man longing for the good old days. As awful and unbiblical as Dispensationalism is, on this point it once was appreciable.

My wife and I both remember the ethos of Fundamentalist circles from our younger days - as we both grew up in those circles. MacArthur is the same age as my late father. That older ethos is long gone and while MacArthur here affirms it - it makes no sense for him to do so. He does not live it. And when he speaks of losing - what is he talking about? Clearly he doesn't believe in taking up the cross and bearing witness as he notoriously filed suit against the state and won a substantial monetary award. Was this for a righteous cause? Hardly. Motivated by political narratives he allowed the ethics of the GOP to trump (no pun intended) the ethics of the New Testament. He defied the state not on a Christian basis but utilizing political armour while wielding a Libertarian sword. It was a disgusting shameful episode that led to sickness and death. Apparently he thought he needed to seek justice - it's all rather perverse and hypocritical. The latter term can be applied over and over again when it comes to John MacArthur and how he deals with people.

As we might expect, Mr. Tooley gets it all wrong and distorts both the context and the reality. If all of this wasn't disheartening and confusing enough - the reader comments nearly drive one to despair. It's clear that almost no one understands the real issues. Almost every comment is sidetracked by the packaged narratives of the political class which has set up shop within the camp of Evangelicalism.

MacArthur for once spoke a few words of truth but they rang hollow and lost all meaning in the context of his life and actions. It's almost as if he reverted to deeply rooted beliefs that he once held fifty years ago - but in practice progressively abandoned. It seems clear enough that he no longer knows up from down.