Why Didn't John MacArthur Teach Me to Follow Jesus?
The Invitation Diminished
Chapter Two | pp. 35–38 | July 2, 2026
The church has watered down the message of Jesus almost to the point of ruining it. And it's not the liberals only, but mostly the "traditional conservatives," the "Bible-based expositors," and the "theologically trained."
The Gospel has become merely a transaction. The idea that "faith in Christ brings forgiveness, while in every other respect your life is no different from that of others who have no faith in Christ at all." "Life now being lived has no necessary connection with being a Christian as long as faith does its job of justification."
It's ridiculous. It's so far from the teachings of Jesus.
"It puts us in danger of missing the fullness of life offered to us."
This is my problem with John MacArthur and his legacy. All those years at his church, reading his books, conference after conference, college and seminary. So many hours of training.
And we were never taught to live out our faith in love.
Well, they said the most loving thing you could do is parse Greek and have the right Reformed theology. Everything was about agreeing with their system and fitting in. Conferences and books on the minutiae of doctrine and blasting everyone who disagreed. It was all so negative. And hypocritical.
Why not have a conference on Jesus himself, at least? Instead of random points of systematic theology.
Or better yet, conferences and books on how to follow him.
Why not do things like Feed My Starving Children at a conference instead of puffing our chests out in our fancy shirts and ties?
Why not train churches to show the love of God through serving our community instead of sitting and listening to eight-hour-long diatribes of exposition every day?
Why didn't we leave feeling loved and ready to love?
Why not mobilize the church to reach the ONE with the wonderful news of Jesus instead of being equipped to hit them over the head with the latest book on apologetics?
Why not help us connect with each other? Pray for each other?
Why, O God, why did we waste so much time and money and energy on being the exact opposite of Jesus?