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John MacArthur’s Other Gospel
“And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born.
– Zechariah 12:10 (NASV) [emphasis mine, ed.]
The highlighted portion of this passage in Zechariah is quoted again in the Gospel of John, chapter 19, verse 34:
But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water. And He who has seen has borne witness, and his witness is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. For these things came to pass that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “Not a bone of Him shall be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.” – John 19:34-37 (NASV)
It is not my purpose today to enlarge upon either text but rather to bring to your attention what God has declared to the Church as prophecy fulfilled. My point in doing so I trust will become both evident and beneficial.
Now then, here you have two texts, one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. The passage in the Gospel of John, a testimony of the beloved Apostle, who, he himself says he witnessed not only the actual piercing of Christ on the cross, but that his own testimony is true. Not only that, the Apostle declares by authority of the Holy Spirit of God that what he himself has witnessed is the fulfillment of the prophecy recorded in Zechariah 12:10, quoted above.
Now, you the reader have two choices.
- You can affirm that what God has declared fulfilled through His Apostle is so, and say Amen, or…
- You can say it is only partially fulfilled or worse, deny it en totem.
If you choose to declare that God’s Word stands true and in this case, fulfilled, you do well. If you declare it only partially fulfilled or deny it outright, you are either lacking in spiritual ability to see the truth, or you are deceived.
The Importance of the Question
The issue I bring to your attention today is not one of small import. There are teachers and preachers in our country who are using the very passage in Zechariah, and many others, in regards to a future salvation of a people – after the Second Advent of Christ, where they are teaching, at the coming of Christ again, an opportunity for repentance and salvation – not by faith alone- but by faith and sight upon His coming.
To say the least, it disregards the Scriptural exhortation that Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts (Hebrews 3:7, 13, 15; 4:7) and teaches the Church that, for the Jews, “Today” is not the day, but tomorrow-therein lies your salvation. Now why would the Holy Spirit emphasize today, when tomorrow will do just fine for some?
It is a twisted exegesis that concerns the very souls of men. We are not dealing with some theological nuance here, nor partaking in a futile exercise of hermeneutical nit-picking. We are talking about redemption of the souls of men by faith alone in Christ, the central focus of the entire record of Scripture.
A Denial of Scripture’s Testimony of A Fulfilled Prophecy
As I’ve said, God, through the Apostle John, declared the statement quoted earlier, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.” as being fulfilled at the crucifixion of our Lord. It’s just that simple folks. That’s what it says, and that’s what it means.
Yet, listen to what John MacArthur tells us in his footnotes on the passage of Zechariah 12:10 in the MacArthur Study Bible:
God, in His own perfect time and by His own power, will sovereignly act to save Israel…Israel’s repentance will come because they look to Jesus, the One whom they rejected and crucified, in faith, at the Second Advent. (emphasis mine, ed.).
MacArthur here teaches that opportunity for repentance will be available at the Second Advent. What? Brethren, if there will be opportunity for repentance at the Second Advent, why worry about repentance now? If what he says is true, there is no sense of urgency regarding repentance and the judgment of God for many. Moreover, what the Apostle John says happened at the crucifixion, MacArthur denies and relegates to the future. MacArthur’s wrong. Listen, when Christ Jesus comes again, when the trumpets sound and our Lord appears with all His holy angels, the time for repentance and salvation for the unbelieving is over….even for the Jew. MacArthur promises a false opportunity for repentance and a false hope to many.
An Assault on Sola Fide
MacArthur doesn’t stop there. It gets far worse. In a sermon on Zechariah 12:1-14, he states this concerning the Jews:
While their spiritual eyes are up and they’re thinking about God and how He has delivered them, they’re going to see God incarnate, Jesus, coming. They’re going to look on Him….they recognize that the very one who came back as their deliverer, was the same one they killed and they pierced when He came the first time. That’s why they mourn. And now that’s the anguish of true repentance, beloved.
He goes on:
And then Israel is going to receive salvation, look at 13:1, “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.” God’s going to wash the nation from its sin.
First, they’re going to cry “My Lord and my God,” when they see Jesus. They’re going to realize it was God they pierced. And then God’s going to turn the fountain loose and wash them and pour out His Spirit.
What ever happened to Sola Fide?
Here MacArthur has not only promised opportunity for repentance after Christ appears, but he teaches that, at least for the Jews, salvation is no longer sola fide, by faith alone, but for the Jews, it is in faith by sight. Brethren, this contradicts all teaching of Scripture. This man’s dispensationalism forces him into a twisted, unbiblical exegesis that promises hope at a time when there is none any longer.
John MacArthur may desire to appear calvinistic, but his teaching in eschatology is clearly from the bosom of John Nelson Darby where it originated. In fact, reformed theology has always, historically opposed MacArthur’s dispensational teaching. Far from teaching the doctrines of grace and proclaiming the urgency of repentance today while there is yet time, John MacArthur is clearly proclaiming another gospel – for the Jew – which truly is not a gospel at all, but a lie endangering souls of men, deceiving the Church body at large and robbing the Church of Jesus Christ of the comforts of God’s faithfulness in fulfilling His prophetic Word in Christ Jesus.
Related Posts:
Judgment & The Millennial Error
The Dismissal of Earthly Jerusalem as Spiritually Significant
Isaiah 35: Glorious Gospel, Millennial Problem
The Davidic Covenant Fulfilled
A Glimpse of Pauline Hermeneutics
There were two reasons I never had any interest in the MacArthur Study Bible when it came out with such hoopla – even in some reformed circles:
a) I do not care to have a study Bible that is the product a man. It’s dangerous to the reader and not good for the man who is behind the Bible. A plurality of editors is the wise man’s study Bible.
b) I will not use a study Bible riddled with dispensational notes – I’ve spent too many years sitting under that fable-based theology to spend more weeding through its note in my Bible.
Your post has encouraged me that God was protecting me.
He was indeed Manfred. God bless…continually!
I truly have enjoyed many posts on this blog, however this is ridiculous. John MacArthur preaches Christ crucified and salvation from the pleasure of sin(regeneration), penalty of sin(justification), power of sin(sanctification) and one day presence of sin(glorification). All from God’s grace through Christ. Please reconsider how you phrase things.
He also teaches precisely what I have shown, by his own statements Dave. That’s hard to deny, isn’t it? No matter who it is, anyone who promises opportunity for repentance after the Second Advent is teaching something that deviates from biblical Christianity.
My friend, I know the angle you are taking and I don’t have the desire or the knowledge to debate eschatolgy. My passion is the atonement where Christ satisfied the wrath of God for both Jew and Gentiles for his elect. Dr Mac preaches this. I will give you the last word (thank you for your response by the way) but let us salt our words with grace towards men who preach Christ.
Thanks Dave, but while you’re contemplating the atonement, think of error and the mandate to contend earnestly for the faith. Do not turn a blind eye when the Gospel is attacked brother.
The Scripture appears to say that those Jews who are saved during the Great Tribulation and survive until the return of the Lord, will look upon Hin Whom their people had crucified and then mourn what their ancestors had done. They were saved prior to HIs appearance at the second Coming.
Stan, well, that is not what MacArthur teaches, nor is it the majority thinking of Dispensational teaching.
Thanks so much for this post! I was just wondering about that Zech. verse yesterday. I nave read and even studied John, but never noticed that John said this prophecy was already fulfilled. It really helps when you show how the NT teaches the fulfilling of OT prophecies like this.
Have you ever asked Dr. MacArthur about your accusation that he is preaching another Gospel? It would seem to me that before you call him s heretic you might have the grace to speak to Dr. MacArthur personally.
Greg,
Brother, I will certainly mention that to John next time I speak to him.
There is no excuse for a preacher’s or teacher’s shortcomings, but there is a reason: he is human and, thus, destined to imperfection in this life. In that, he is no different fromthe members of his audience. By diligently seeking to, we can probably find the chink in every man’s armor and, in many, far more glaring lacks than a mere chink. While we check off our list of the blindspots of others, we fail to detect our own. Why?– because there is too much at stake– we stand to suffer too great a loss by openly seeking to know and be divested of our own errors.
Think of the changes that Mr. MacArthur must make, were he to confess to the errors of his past eschatalogical publishings, because of the many who they have affected! So, possibly being under conviction of the Holy Spirit, he launches attacks against the teachings of the reformers which expose his misinformation (in order to protect his vested interests?).
For the sake of the church of Jesus Christ our Lord, we need to pray for Mr. MacArthur’s increased conviction, conversion, and repentance, and not merely settle for some small-scale local criticisms of him. But will we? After all, he is just like us in his imperfections– is not to pray for his reversal to open up ourselves to the same treatment from God?
To quote a late, great political commenter, “We have met the enemy, and he is us!” ~~Pogo Possum
Although I agree with pretty much everything Joel has to say about MacArthur, taking him out of the equation altogether, the doctrine of dispensational theology must be attacked with ferocity in my opinion. The only thing I’m thankful to MacArthur for is his celebrity drawing attention to the flaws in this wayward doctrine. It becomes so obvious when such a gifted expositor becomes so inadequate at attempting to defend something that is obviously unscriptural.
One of the biggest problems I see with dispensationalism is that it relegates eschatology to little more than a footnote of history, or a post script to be tacked onto some systematic theology. When in fact the subject of eschatology runs progressively from start to finish in the Scriptures, and watches the unfolding of God’s magnificent plan of redemption, until it reaches its ultimate fulfillment in Christ and His Kingdom yet to be fully revealed. It is the same tree of life that is in view at the beginning and end of the Bible narrative, and it is the same unchanging plan of God that is progressively revealed through the Old Testament, revealed bodily in Christ as the firstfruits, and is looked forward to by those who are found in Him, whether Jew or Gentile, and from whatever point in history.
I am also one who believes the Bible gives hope that God will once again draw many Jews into His Kingdom as the number of Gentiles is fulfilled, but to suggest that opportunity will be found in any other place than to respond in faith to the Gospel today is utterly absurd, and a lie from the pit of Hell, regardless of whose lips it comes from.
I’ll amen that!
So, are you saying that John MacArthur is “eternally condemned” according to Galatians 1:8?
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!”
Remember, you did accuse him of preaching “another gospel”.
Have you not read:
Isaiah 60? Romans 11:25-36? And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, The Deliver will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob; and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins. As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake, but as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
By God’s grace, John MacArthur will remain with us for many years. Lord knows we need the few pastors that hold the inerrant Word as, well, inerrant.
Have you not read – “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.”
“All Israel” means all the elect of God, those chosen by Him, the spiritual children of Abraham – NOT the fleshly children of Abraham.
Have you not read Romans 11:26? It tells how, not when, all Israel will be saved. Oh, if John MacArthur holds the Word as inerrant, why does he deny the fulfillment that God declares in Acts 2:30, 31?
I just came across this post. I haven’t been to this post in ages. Other things going on. I’m glad that I saw this post because like one other comment I never saw the passage in John before. I do have a question hopefully it can be answered. “What about the passage in Revelation?”
Revelation 1:7Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
How does this apply to the passages in John and Zechariah? Or does it?
Joel,
The reality is that MacArthur, like the rest of us, believes Jews and Gentiles alike are saved by the redeeming work of Christ alone. Though I don’t believe in Dispensationalism, I don’t really believe it rises to the level of heresy. Whether, in your view, he believes in sola fide or not, it is clear that, according to his view, the Jews will trust him as their Savior when they see him. He doesn’t necessarily say, BECAUSE they see him whom they have pierced. It would still be through trusting God’s promise to save believers in Christ.
What I am saying is that perhaps you could have softened your rhetoric just a bit.
No, Randy, I can’t, not in good conscience before God. And MacArthur clearly says ‘when they see.’ and that’s after the second advent. It’s too clear to make excuses for him. Perhaps you could firm up your defense of the faith once delivered to the saints?
I’m confused, the Zechariah verse says “…so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born.”
But on the day Jesus was crucified the Jews didn’t mourn or weep bitterly. They still rejected him that day.
Verse 11 says, “The sorrow and mourning in Jerusalem on that day will be like the grievous mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo.”
This didn’t happen on that day either, among the Jews. It was more like good riddance!
I’m not seeing how these verses in Zechariah relate to the day Jesus was crucified.
There were some who cried and mourn for Jesus when he was crucified. The women and his disciples all did. Just because “all” didn’t mourn, doesn’t mean that this wasn’t fulfilled.
Tammy, I don’t think that’s who Jesus was talking about. Read the Zechariah verse more closely. It says “they will look on Me whom THEY HAVE PIERCED…”
I don’t think Jesus was accusing his mom or his disciples as being the ones responsible for piercing him – or as those who originally took pleasure in it. He is clearly talking about Jews who were happy that he was killed. He’s talking about those who formerlly rejected him but now are coming back to him. This verse is contrasting their former position with their new one.
Also, the first part of the verse is clear in that it’s talking about the “FAMILY” of David and “ALL the people of Jerusalem”. It’s not just talking about those who were physically present on the day he was crucified. This verse is clearly talking about a much larger group of people. This verse when read correctly is saying that the “family of David” (i.e. the new believing Jews) and “all of Jerusalem” another way of saying all the Jews, will mourn and weep bitterly when they realize the true meaning of the cross.
This has obviously not yet happened. Verse 9 says this will happen AFTER God destroys all the nations that come against Jerusalem. That clearly hasn’t happened yet either.
As to Joel’s concern that anyone is teaching that anyone can be saved after passing the point of no return – I share that concern. However, verse 13:1 says, “On that day a fountain will be opened for the dynasty of David and for the people of Jerusalem, a fountain to cleanse them from all their sins and defilement.”
So the Bible does teach that there’s a future day when God is going to open his fountain of grace and cleanse those Jews from all their sins. Romans 11:25b – 26a says, “Some of the Jews have hard hearts, but this will last only until the complete number of gentiles comes to Christ. And so ALL Israel will be saved…”
We’ve not seen that happen yet. We’ve not seen all of Israel come to Christ. And I’m sorry, but Jesus’ mother and disciples don’t count as “ALL Israel”.
Jonathan, see todays post. http://5ptsalt.com/2012/09/04/qa-how-zechariah-12-relates-to-the-crucifixion-of-jesus/
Random thought: What about when Paul saw Jesus, or when He was revealed risen to His disciples?