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Tuesday, October 22, 2019
"GO HOME": JOHN MACARTHUR'S SHARP BIBLICAL REBUKE OF BETH MOORE, DECRY OF FEMINISM SENDING SHOCK WAVES
HE SAID WHAT? SOUTHERN BAPTIST SPLIT?
"GO HOME": JOHN MACARTHUR'S SHARP BIBLICAL REBUKE OF BETH MOORE, DECRY OF FEMINISM SENDING SHOCK WAVES
Influential pastor and speaker John MacArthur is causing waves after decrying woman preachers, and saying that popular speaker Beth Moore should “go home.”
MacArthur, who last week was speaking at the “Truth Matters Conference,” a celebration to honor his 50th year in ministry, weighed in on an ongoing debate in the Southern Baptist Convention over women preachers by stating that the nation’s largest so-called Protestant denomination does not hold to the authority of the Bible.
During a question and answer forum, moderator Todd Friel, a former stand-up comic turned talk-show host, asked John MacArthur for his thoughts on popular woman preacher Beth Moore, who has publicly spoken out against what she considers “misogyny” in the Church, after a lot of back-and-forth joking.
“Dr. MacArthur, Beth Moore?”
“How many words do I get?” MacArthur asked.
“You know, actually, before you answer this please think carefully this time ’cause last time you did a one-word association the guy wrote a book about it, and we don’t want that,” Friel stated, referring to when MacArthur called Steven Furtick of Elevation Church “unqualified” during a similar exercise, resulting in Furtick later writing a book titled “Unqualified.”
MacArthur responded by saying, “Go home.”
The audience responded with an eruption of roaring laughter and applause.
“There is no case that can be made biblically for a woman preacher – period, paragraph, end of discussion,” the 80-year-old preacher added to more applause.
“So let me see if I can get a clarification on that,” Friel jokingly stated. “Got one. Phil anything to add?”
“No, the word that comes to my mind is narcissistic. I think that the first time I saw her I thought … This is what it looks like to preach yourself rather than Christ. …. In fact, she has said that, I read the Bible and try to find myself in the narrative. I put myself in the narrative. And that is exactly what she does,” Johnson stated.
Friel went on to joke more.
“I would just add one thing. Just because you have the skill to sell jewelry on the TV sales channel doesn’t mean you should be preaching. There are people who have certain hawking skills, natural abilities to sell. They have energy, personality and all of that. That doesn’t qualify you to preach.”
Friel, after a short commentary, stated in a more serious tone, “I’m perceiving this is actually troubling you.”
“Profoundly troubles me because I think the Church is caving in to woman preachers. Just the other day the same thing happened with Paula White. A whole bunch of leading evangelicals endorsed her new book. She’s a heretic and a prosperity preacher, three times married. What are they thinking? The MeToo Movement, again, is the culture reclaiming ground in the Church. When the leaders of evangelicals are rolling over for women preachers, feminists have really won the battle,” MacArthur said.
“The primary effort in feminism is not equality. They don’t want equality. That’s why 99 percent of plumbers are men. They don’t want equal power to be a plumber. They want to be senators, preachers, congressman, president, the power structure in a university. They want power, not equality,” MacArthur asserted. “This is the highest location they can ascend to that power in the evangelical church and overturn what is clearly Scriptural. I think this is feminism gone to church. This is why we can’t let the culture exegete the Bible,” he continued.
He then criticized the Southern Baptist Convention’s resolution supporting intersectionality and critical race theory, as well as calls for more diversity in teams translating the Bible.
In response to the comments, Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear took to Twitter on Saturday and tweeted: “Dear Beth Moore, you’re welcome in our home any time.”
Others, including, author Lauren Chandler, who is the wife of the church-planting Acts 29 Network president and pastor Matt Chandler, also tweeted on Saturday, “When I hear the words ‘Beth Moore,’ I think ‘good and faithful servant.’”
Brandon Cox, who leads a church plant from Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in California, also commented on the situation on Twitter: “The host says, ‘Beth Moore.’ And a man who is supposed to be a model of biblical manhood and spiritual leadership responds, ‘Go home!’ And a room full of men laugh. This is sad. It’s unbiblical. But it’s the fruit of arrogance.”
Kyle Mann, editor-in-chief of the popular satire website Babylon Bee, which has been criticized for its mockery and insensitivity, also raised concerns in an online opinion piece, stating that “…Moore, MacArthur and the GTY gang are not going to win [Beth Moore] over with a zingy one-liner and some chuckles.” Mann, also added, “She’s not going to single-handedly topple Christianity because she’s a little looser in her interpretation of 1 Timothy 2. You are more faithful to try to win her over if you try to refute her from the Scriptures than tear her down with some buddies at a conference.”
Though Beth Moore has not directly responded to MacArthur’s comments, she did post on Twitter on Monday: “I did not surrender to a calling of man when I was 18 years old. I surrendered to a calling of God. It never occurs to me for a second to not fulfill it. I will follow Jesus – and Jesus alone – all the way home. And I will see His beautiful face and proclaim, Worthy is the Lamb!”
The Scripture teaches in 1 Timothy 2:11-15, “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.”
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
John MacArthur was doing “word association,” a tradition for conferences held at Grace Community Church. The moderator, as usual, was Todd Friel of Wretched Radio. Several years ago when Friel said “Steven Furtick,” MacArthur responded “unqualified.” Furtick later sent John MacArthur an expensive package as a gift, which included a copy of his new book, Unqualified, a “dig” on the older pastor.
This time, Friel gave MacArthur the name, Beth Moore. MacArthur asked how many words he available to use for the sake of clarification. After a moment of consideration, MacArthur responded, Go home.
The crowd, consisting of both men and women, laughed and applauded in agreement.
MacArthur wasn’t saying anything that virtually all theologically sound people agree with. But, MacArthur went on to add…
“There is no case that can be made Biblically for a woman preacher. Period. Paragraph ended. End of discussion.”
Phil Johnson followed up by saying that Beth Moore is a narcissist who preaches herself rather than Christ and quoted Moore as saying she tries to find herself in the [Biblical narrative].
Mike Riccardi, also on stage, deferred back to the opinion of MacArthur.
MacArthur went onto add, in paraphrase, that the ability to hock jewelry on television or to sell things doesn’t preach the Gospel. He went on to say that it bothered him greatly. In the same breath, MacArthur also impugned Paula White, who has been written about in Christian news after several conservatives endorsed her book to the chagrin of many.
MacArthur said, “This is feminism gone to church. This is why we can’t let the culture exegete the Bible.”
MacArthur continued on to dispute Resolution 9 of the SBC, which promoted Critical Race Theory, and the pastor said it was a “watershed moment in the SBC.”
He also went on to describe recent events in the SBC “not a direction of the SBC, it was a plunge.”
MacArthur was cool, calm, and collected. H did not raise his voice or call names. And yet, people instantly began to attack him for how he said it.
We’ll just provide on example for now, although there are thousands to choose from, and that’s from Brandon A. Cox. Cox is a BMA pastor from Bentonville, Arkansas, and is associated with Chrislam pastor, Rick Warren. Cox’s church website calls itself a “Purpose Driven Church” (which basically means it has a coffee shop and tickles itching ears) and Cox’s personal website calls himself a “leadership coach” (gag me), “entrepreneur” (apparently fleecing God’s people is a business venture) and an “influencer.”
Although Cox is at the center of the Bible-belt, his Orange County, left-coast influence is evident in his outrage at Dr. MacArthur for holding to what is pretty standard fare for Baptist preachers since time immemorial.
The room was full of women, also. Maybe they know their Bible and stuff.
Cox made no attempt to say what was unbiblical and MacArthur’s words or defend a woman usurping leadership over men (1 Timothy 2:12). He simply made an assertion without any attempt to support it by the Bible. In other words, it was probably a lot like his preaching.
Here’s a tip: When someone accuses a truth-teller of arrogance, it’s because they can find no fault in the truth itself.
Yet, what many of us have been saying over the weekend is that it has nothing to do with how MacArthur said it. It’s what he said. These gutless wonder coward-pastors are just afraid to say they’ve gone the way of the United Methodists and other estrogen-fueled quilting circles.
Consider a tweet from Cox later in the day.
You see, it wasn’t really about how MacArthur said it. It’s that he said it. The reason why so many complain about how he said it (which was super polite) is that they are afraid to just come out of the egalitarian closet and say, “I’m for women preachers, oppose the Word of God, and deny Biblical inerrancy.”
Trying to get them to just come out and admit they deny the inerrancy of Scripture is like pulling teeth, but they will always first complain about tone. It’s easier than just straight-forwardly stating their position.
In retrospect, it makes total sense that Pastor Cox would oppose John MacArthur and support Beth Moore.
It is easier for emotionally lactating males to lament “tone” than to stand up like men and simply state their real positions. When it comes to defending their position, they are just far more comfortable squatting than standing.
