John MacArthur, Firebrand Preacher and Culture Warrior, Dies at 86

U.S.|John MacArthur, Firebrand Preacher and Culture Warrior, Dies at 86

The Rev. John MacArthur, a theologically uncompromising pastor in Southern California who influenced generations of evangelical preachers and became a culture warrior late in life, died on Monday in Santa Clarita, Calif. He was 86.

His death was announced by Phil Johnson, who headed up Mr. MacArthur’s media ministry and edited many of his books. Mr. MacArthur had several operations on his heart and lungs over the years, and he had been hospitalized this month after contracting pneumonia.

Mr. MacArthur, a theological conservative and natural polemicist, preached from the same pulpit at Grace Community Church in the Los Angeles area — often at length, up to five times a week — for almost his entire career. When he was preaching, he always wore a suit and tie, eschewing the casual style of many evangelical pastors.

His church’s growth defied conventional wisdom about “seeker-sensitivity,” a model that emphasized appealing to non-churchgoers. Mr. 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.

“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 earlier this year.

In recent years, Mr. 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.