My Appreciation For Reformed Baptist Preacher, Pastor John F. MacArthur

In the past, I was only stuck with the very narrow view of Hylestic theology until years later, I began to embrace Reformed Theology and a semi-Calvistic view, it may not be long before I become a full-blown Calvinist. Looking at this page by Atty. Zigfred M. Diaz concerning why John MacArthur is his favorite preacher, I decided to think outside the box of Hylestic theology and read through John Macarthur and do research on his page on what Lordship salvation is really about. Just for a bit of his theological style is that he is a Calvinist, Reformed and dispensationalist preacher which are styles I adhere to as of late in Christian apologetics.

Many times, it must be emphasized that Lordship salvation is not about you can lose your salvation or adding works to salvation, instead it makes a distinction between the true convert and the false convert, that's what he was talking about. What does it mean to turn from sin? It's a very misunderstood term in the theological circles. A turn from sin is an acknowledgement and repentance of one's sinful nature, a repentance of sin or to change one's mind about one's sin and the Savior. Before a sinner will ever truly receive Jesus Christ, they must first repent of their sins or either their conversion was never true to begin with. It's not enough to teach once saved, always saved but to show the distinction between the saved and the unsaved. Sad to say but the easy believism movement have been taking Scriptures out of context to justify the heresy of the continuous carnal Christian just as Arminians take Scriptures out of context to justify their heresy of conditional security.

What makes his preaching really good is the fact he spends time to read through the Greek, the Hebrew and through his methodology of expository preaching. To preach by expository means to go verse by verse, not skipping one verse, taking verses into context in order to expose and understand the meaning of the Bible. Listening to his verse-by-verse preaching either on my Smartphone or on my PC, I would admit that it's enjoyable to explore a deeper meaning of the Scriptures. When I learn to take the Scripture into context with the expository method, I learned that I am bound to make much lesser mistakes and out-of-context preaching than those who don't. In expository preaching, he also properly explains Matthew 24:13 which is used by Arminian theologians to justify conditional security but he properly explains that true believers may falter for awhile but they will endure to the end by the grace of God. He goes from Genesis to Revelation over and over again, reducing the number of mistakes in preaching.

I would mention I really enjoyed reading his books the moment I have started embracing Reformed Theology and Lordship salvation theology. Perhaps his controversial book was the "The Gospel According to Jesus" which I have the revised edition. The book was criticized for supposedly adding works to faith but the more I read it, the more I realize it was focusing on what real Lordship salvation is all about - it's about drawing a distinction between true converts and false converts. Other books that I found were meaningful are "Fool's Gold" which talks about developing discernment, "The Jesus You Cannot Ignore" which makes a study of Jesus' ministry to how the Jesus of the Bible differentiates from the Jesus of today's modern view and "Truth War" which also talks about how it's important to battle for the truth to be spread in a world gone wrong. I am yet to check out his other books but I pray by God's grace I'll be able to get more.

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