Death Of A Hero

He didn’t know me. We met once, but he wouldn’t have remembered. But I remembered because he was one of my heroes. I thought highly of his teaching and his ministry. He once spoke at our church…but that was before I was here. His dad, Jack MacArthur, was the pastor of Des Plaines Bible Church back in the late 70s and he brought in John, who was already a well-known radio preacher at the time.

While John MacArthur didn’t know me, I thought of him as a mentor. I listened to him every night for years, and read most of what he wrote up until the late 90s. My kids still have memories of riding in the car and listening to MacArthur’s exposition of difficult texts.

I remember when I first heard John MacArthur on the radio. He had a voice that was easy to listen to, and a style of conversational preaching that resonated with me. He loved to get into the original language and bring out the full meaning of words and phrases. I was a Biblical languages major, so it helped me see how Greek and Hebrew could enhance my own preaching.

At the time, I was a student in Bible college. But I used to say that I learned as much from John MacArthur’s radio teaching as I did from my Bible classes. The Bible college I graduated from was strong academically, but it was steeped in legalism. Listening to John MacArthur and Chuck Swindoll kept me sane during those years.

John was a fourth generation preacher and was proud of his heritage. He pastored Grace Community Church for over 55 years and has been heard around the world on Christian radio stations for nearly 50 years. His MacArthur Study Bible is one of the best ever produced. His Bible commentary series is also viewed by many to be the easiest-to-understand technical commentary series available.

By the time he was in his 40s, he was the president of a Christian college (The Master’s University) and a pastoral training seminary (The Master’s Seminary).

I especially appreciated his approach to complementarianism, dispensational theology, and cessationism. If those technical terms mean nothing to you, it’s okay. We talk about these concepts all the time at The Bridge in a way all of us can understand.

It was MacArthur’s ardent stance on repentance for salvation that helped churches around the world clarify their understanding of Jesus’ Lordship in relation to our salvation.

Above all, John MacArthur was a faithful servant of Jesus Christ to the very end. I’m happy for him, but sad for those of us left behind. My prayers are with his family.