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Los Angeles Times
16-07-2025
- General
- Los Angeles Times
Rev. John MacArthur, influential evangelical pastor of Grace Community Church, dies at 86
The Rev. John MacArthur, among the country's most influential evangelical pastors with a prolific media reach — and whose San Fernando Valley megachurch became the face of religious resistance to California's COVID-19 public health orders — died Monday. He was 86. MacArthur's death was announced on the website of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley. He had recently contacted pneumonia, according to the church. Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Assn., paid tribute to MacArthur on social media, calling him one of 'America's great Bible teachers.' 'He could get more out of a Bible verse than anyone I've ever known,' wrote Graham on X. 'His voice will be greatly missed.' Though based in Los Angeles — where his faithful filled a 3,500-seat auditorium twice every Sunday for his sermons — MacArthur reached millions of people internationally through his radio and television programs and books, and guided the lives of countless young theologians as president of the Master's University and adjoining seminary in Santa Clarita. He was known for his fundamentalist biblical standards, strictly focusing on the writings of the Scriptures and eschewing sermons that touched on more modern themes. Grace Community Church said in a statement on its website this week that his 'ministry was an unwavering commitment to declare God's truth, and Pastor John preached the Word in season and out of season. Even in recent years, though beset with health challenges, he persisted in teaching, leading, and investing in the ministries the Lord had entrusted to him.' From a family with a long line of pastors, MacArthur said he was always religious and described how a car accident in Alabama that left him in excruciating pain helped push him to the pulpit. As a freshman college student in South Carolina, he was sent for treatment to California, where doctors had to remove road asphalt from his severally damaged back. 'I had to lie in my bed on my stomach for about three months and let that all heal, at the end of which I really was ready to do whatever God wanted me to do,' he said in a 2004 interview posted by his media company. 'And I knew by then I was going to preach and teach.' MacArthur was born at St. Vincent's Hospital in Los Angeles. His father, Jack, was a pastor of a Baptist church in South L.A. and would would soon branch into evangelism, which would take the family to Chicago and Philadelphia. He attended Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., and then transferred to Los Angeles Pacific College. When he took the pulpit of Grace Community Church in 1969, Sunday attendance averaged about 700 people in the northern San Fernando Valley neighborhood. His influence expanded as thousands of radio listeners tuned into 'Grace to You,' his syndicated half-hour show, and he would later launch an extensive media outlet that broadcast his teachings to dozens of countries. He became president of the Master's College in 1985, which later changed its name to the Master's University, and presided over unprecedented growth at the fundamentalist institution, The Times wrote in 1990. He helped oversee a seminary next door. In 1997, The Times described how McArthur refused to use a typewriter or computer and painstakingly handwrote his Bible studies. 'I don't have time for the learning curve,' he said. He wrote more than 400 books and study guides, including the'The MacArthur Study Bible,' and appealed to ultraconservative churchgoers by adhering to fundamentalist biblical standards that focused on teaching an 'inerrant' Bible — a dogma that sees the Bible as devoid of mistakes. At the same time, he rejected the user-friendly sermons, rock music and community outreach that defined some evangelical churches in the 1980s and 1990s and took aim those who he said used gimmicks to attract people to church. The church 'is not a pub for the neighborhood,' he wrote in his 1993 book, 'Ashamed of the Gospel: When the Church Becomes Like the World.' 'It is not a community center where parties are held. It is not a country club for the masses.' The Times covered his attacks on fellow clergy, writing in 1991 that MacArthur turned into the 'enfant terrible of conservative Protestantism.' Over the span of his career, he called Catholicism a 'false religion,' criticized popular religious figures including Joel Osteen and Beth Moore, and called Black Lives Matter 'an organization that is the enemy of God' because of its support of LGBTQ+ equality. In recent years, at least two media outlets that cover religion — Christianity Today and the Roys Report — reported on allegations that women who sought biblical counseling over abusive marriages were advised by church elders to stay with their husbands and feared church discipline over the matter. The church did not respond to the allegations in the stories. After the 2020 pandemic left religious institutions reliant on livestreams and outdoor gatherings, Grace Community Church continued to hold indoor services, with MacArthur questioning the existence of the coronavirus and challenging whether the government could restrict prayer practices. County health inspectors who tried to enter the church where blocked by security guards. 'There is no pandemic,' MacArthur told his followers in August 2020, though later he would acknowledge the virus. Los Angeles County sued the church but ultimately settled in the face of Supreme Court rulings that sided with religious institutions. In a 2021 letter to supporters, MacArthur announced the church's legal fees would be paid. The church later received $800,000 from the state and county for the fees. 'We know that there is no circumstance that can cause the church to close,' he wrote in the letter. 'The church is not only a building but is the bride of Christ and exists to proclaim the truth.' MacArthur is survived by his wife, Patricia; four children; fifteen grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.
Washington Post
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Shahzia Sikander mesmerizes at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Some artists who diversify from their original genre don't do so very well, producing uneven results that feel contrived for the demands of the art market. Shahzia Sikander more than succeeds. The New York-based artist trained in the Indo-Persian miniature painting tradition in her native Pakistan, and much of her early oeuvre put a contemporary spin on that style, often foregrounding female figures; she had a well-received show at the Hirshhorn in 1999 to 2000. The 2006 MacArthur 'genius' grant winner has since branched out into widely varied forms and directions, including video, mosaic and sculpture.
Boston Globe
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
John MacArthur, firebrand preacher and culture warrior, dies at 86
Advertisement His church's growth defied conventional wisdom about 'seeker-sensitivity,' a model that emphasized appealing to non-churchgoers. Rev. MacArthur rejected a more accessible evangelical preaching style that favored ostensibly real-life anecdotes and practical applications. His dogged emphasis on expository preaching -- narrowly focused on the meaning and historical context of a particular piece of Scripture -- influenced thousands of conservative Protestant pastors who studied at the seminary he led, or simply listened to his sermons on the radio or online. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Evangelicalism is a pulpit-driven movement, and John has driven the most influential pulpit in evangelical Christianity for more than a half a century,' R. Albert Mohler Jr., the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Louisville, Ky., said in an interview this year. In recent years, Rev. MacArthur increasingly waded into political and cultural skirmishes. He denounced critical race theory and became a leading Christian critic of 'wokeness.' After his church closed for several months at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, it defied state public health orders and began holding indoor in-person services. The church later received an $800,000 settlement from the state and Los Angeles County, after suing on the grounds that the restrictions impinged on religious freedom. Advertisement In August 2020, Rev. MacArthur told an interviewer for a podcast associated with Liberty University that President Trump had called him to thank him for 'taking a stand' on church closures. The two men discussed why 'Christians could not vote Democratic,' MacArthur said. 'There's no way that a Christian could affirm the slaughter of babies, homosexual activity, homosexual marriage, or any kind of gross immorality.' Rev. MacArthur didn't just clash with secular authorities and liberal politicians. More often, he took on perceived enemies within Christianity. He preached on the errors of Roman Catholicism and published multiple books on the dangers of charismatic theology and the prosperity gospel -- strains of Protestantism that emphasize miraculous healing and promises of wealth, and that flourished over the course of his lifetime. He attacked popular evangelical figures including the Bible teacher Beth Moore and various pastors, including televangelists Robert Schuller and Joel Osteen, always citing specific Bible verses in his critiques. His interest in threats to Christianity from within was evident early on: He wrote his graduate thesis on Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus in the Gospels' account. Rev. MacArthur's preaching style was deceptively simple. He would speak for about 45 minutes, walking his congregation line by line through a single Bible passage. He also produced a popular study Bible and a 33-volume set of New Testament commentaries, among many other books. Advertisement His critics said that he misled listeners by insisting that even the thorniest passages in the New Testament had a single clear, true meaning. To his supporters, this was exactly the point. Unlike liberal pastors and academics, Rev. MacArthur believed that 'there's a historical, grammatical, literal sense to the text that can be derived through study,' said Austin Duncan, the director of the MacArthur Center for Expository Preaching at the Master's Seminary in Sun Valley, Calif., which Rev. MacArthur had founded in 1986. 'It isn't a subjective thing, it's an objective reality.' In 1985, Rev. MacArthur became president of the former Los Angeles Baptist College, now known as the Master's University. He opened the Master's Seminary soon afterward to train men -- and only men -- to become pastors. Unlike many pastors who ascend to a national platform, Rev. MacArthur never gave up his local role: He was the head pastor at Grace Community Church for more than 56 years. An online archive of his sermons includes more than 3,000 recordings. Known in many evangelical circles as simply 'JMac,' he had a preaching approach that translated well overseas, where it required little cultural interpretation. His books have been translated into at least 40 languages. And even his older sermons have not aged as noticeably as more recent ones from other pastors, who make frequent reference to pop culture or newspaper headlines. Rev. MacArthur 'inspired thousands of pastors to believe that explaining what the Bible means honors God, saves people, and is just plain interesting,' John Piper, a retired pastor and popular theologian in Minnesota who was a longtime friend, said in an email. 'To this day, from Dallas to Dubai, young people (especially men) come up to me and say that they listen to John MacArthur.' Advertisement John Fullerton MacArthur Jr. was born June 19, 1939. He was the eldest child of Jack MacArthur, a Baptist pastor, and Irene (Dockendorf) MacArthur, who managed the home. The family lived briefly in Philadelphia and Chicago during his childhood, but he was raised primarily in Southern California, where he would spend the rest of his life. He spent a few years at the fundamentalist Bob Jones University, following his father's prodding, and then transferred to Los Angeles Pacific College to play football and other sports. Rev. MacArthur was a fifth-generation preacher. His grandfather, Harry MacArthur, had a live weekly radio and television program in the 1940s, 'The Voice of Calvary.' His father eventually took it over, and Rev. MacArthur began preaching occasionally on Sunday evenings. He married Patricia Sue Smith, whom he met at his father's church, in 1963. In addition to his wife, he leaves their four children, Matthew, Marcy Gwinn, Mark, and Melinda Welch; two sisters, Jeanette DeAngelis and Jane Walker; 15 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren. He arrived at Grace Community Church in February of 1969. On his first Sunday, the 29-year-old preached to his new congregation on three verses from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. In the passage, Jesus says that not everyone who professes faith will enter the kingdom of heaven. Most American church members, Rev. MacArthur told his congregants, were likewise 'dead spiritually.' Advertisement He intended to nurture Grace as a living church, which to him meant one that boldly proclaimed the truth, no matter if it led to conflict. 'The church must be the conscience of the world,' he said. 'The church must be so well defined that it becomes the antagonist of the world.' This article originally appeared in
NBC News
15-07-2025
- General
- NBC News
Influential evangelical preacher John MacArthur dies at 86
The Rev. John MacArthur, an influential and exacting evangelical preacher, died Monday at the age of 86. He led Grace Community Church in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Sun Valley for more than five decades. His ministry announced his death on social media. On Sunday, Tom Patton, one of the church's pastors, told the congregation MacArthur had been hospitalized with pneumonia. MacArthur made news during the coronavirus pandemic for flouting Los Angeles County's health orders by holding indoor services for hundreds of congregants and refusing to enforce masking and physical-distancing requirements. Well before then, his influence had spread far beyond Southern California, where he grew up and took the helm of his nondenominational congregation at age 29. His Grace to You broadcast ministry circulated his theologically conservative teachings while his many books, including the popular MacArthur Study Bible, were translated into dozens of languages. 'His legacy as a pastor and teacher in the faith will continue to inspire many generations to come,' said Jonathan Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University, where MacArthur had given the convocation address. Dressed in a suit and tie, he eschewed pop culture references and emotional appeals from the pulpit, even as they became mainstays of modern evangelicalism. His followers lauded him for his expository preaching, in which he walked them through Scripture line by line. He wanted his sermons to be timeless explanations of the Bible as he interpreted it. 'He could get more out of a Bible verse than anyone I've ever known,' evangelical leader Franklin Graham wrote on social media. He called MacArthur one of 'America's great Bible teachers.' He was 'a lion of the pulpit,' wrote the Rev. Al Mohler, a Southern Baptist leader, for the evangelical World magazine. 'He was a preacher God used to make other preachers better preachers.' MacArthur was unafraid to stir controversy for the sake of his beliefs, even deriding fellow evangelicals for what he saw as incorrect teachings and theology, including the growing charismatic wing of Christianity. He was an outspoken proponent of complementarianism — the belief that men and women have different roles and women should not be pastors. He publicly rebuked two influential evangelical women: the popular Bible teacher Beth Moore and the Rev. Paula White-Cain, a spiritual advisor to President Donald Trump. During a packed, indoor Sunday morning service at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, MacArthur told applauding congregants that they were not meeting to be rebellious, but because 'our Lord has commanded us to come together and worship him.' The county and the church traded lawsuits, with the latter arguing the COVID-19 mandates violated their constitutional right to religious freedom. In August 2021, the county's board of supervisors voted to pay $800,000 to Grace Community Church to settle the lawsuit — an outcome MacArthur hailed as a 'monumental victory.' The church has also weathered allegations related to its handling of abuse allegations and its treatment of women leaving abusive marriages. MacArthur hailed from a long line of pastors, including his father. As part of his ministry, he helped train future church leaders through the Master's University and the Master's Seminary, both in Southern California. He is survived by his wife, Patricia, and his four adult children, Matt, Marcy, Mark and Melinda, along with 15 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. MacArthur had suffered from health problems in recent years, including heart and lung procedures. He spoke about his ill health in a video message to a church leadership conference earlier this year. 'I realize I'm on the last lap,' he said. 'That takes on a new meaning when you know you're on the short end of the candle. I am all thanks and praise to God for everything he's allowed me to be a part of and everything he's accomplished by his Word in these years of ministry.'
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
How did John MacArthur die? What we know about pastor's cause of death
John MacArthur, the longtime pastor of a megachurch in Southern California and founder of a syndicated media ministry, died July 14 after being hospitalized with pneumonia. "Our hearts are heavy, yet rejoicing, as we share the news that our beloved pastor and teacher John MacArthur has entered into the presence of the Savior," MacArthur's media ministry, Grace to You, wrote on social media. "This evening, his faith became sight." MacArthur, 86, was the pastor at Grace Community Church, a nondenominational congregation in Sun Valley, California, a post he held since 1969. Tom Patton, another pastor at Grace Community Church, said at a July 13 service that MacArthur had been hospitalized after contracting pneumonia. USA TODAY has reached out to Grace Community Church. MacArthur's cause of death has not been announced, though he had been hospitalized with pneumonia in his final days, Patton said. "This week pastor John contracted pneumonia," Patton said. "He was admitted into the hospital and may be in the presence of the Lord soon." A message on Grace Community Church's website noted the same about MacArthur's condition. "Last week, Pastor John unexpectedly contracted pneumonia, and the Lord took him home on Monday, July 14," the message said. A message on Grace to You's website said MacArthur died "after dealing with some significant health challenges dating back to early 2023." "Just as the details of John's death are new to you, they are new to us as well. We probably have many of the same thoughts and feelings that you do," Grace to You's website said. USA TODAY has reached out to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's office for more information. Grace to You's website also said there are currently no details about services for MacArthur. John MacArthur was a pastor and author known for leading Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and for his work with the media ministry Grace to You. He was also the longtime president and chancellor of The Master's University, a private Christian university in Santa Clarita, California, and founder of The Master's Seminary in Los Angeles. MacArthur became the pastor at Grace Community Church in 1969 after graduating from Talbot Theological Seminary in California, according to his leadership bio. Throughout his career, he also wrote nearly 400 books. Like some other preachers across the U.S., MacArthur entered the public spotlight during the COVID-19 pandemic when he hosted large gatherings despite local policies limiting congregations to small numbers outside. "At the center of Dr. MacArthur's ministry was an unwavering commitment to declare God's truth, and Pastor John preached the Word in season and out of season," Grace Community Church's website says. "Even in recent years, though beset with health challenges, he persisted in teaching, leading, and investing in the ministries the Lord had entrusted to him." In addition to his wife of 61 years, Patricia, MacArthur is survived by four children, fifteen grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Contributing: James Powel and Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How did John MacArthur die? Grace Community Church announces his death
