John MacArthur, the pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, passed away on Monday at the age of 86 after fighting pneumonia.
A post on Monday night from the X account of “Grace to You,” MacArthur’s media ministry, shared the sad but joyful news: “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. This evening, his faith became sight. He faithfully endured until his race was run.”
This announcement followed a message from associate pastor Tom Patton to church members during a Sunday service on July 13, where he said MacArthur had been hospitalized with the illness, according to Caldron Pool.
“This week, Pastor John contracted pneumonia,” Patton said during the service. “He was admitted into the hospital and may be in the presence of the Lord soon.”
MacArthur started his role at Grace Community Church after graduating from Talbot Theological Seminary in 1969, according to the church’s website. During his leadership, the church grew tremendously. The two morning worship services filled the 3,500-seat auditorium to full capacity, and thousands of members joined different training programs and fellowship groups.
In 1985, MacArthur became president of The Master’s University, a four-year Christian college in Santa Clarita. The next year, he founded The Master’s Seminary, a graduate school that prepares men for full-time pastor jobs and missionary work, according to Grace Community Church.
He also served as president and main teacher for Grace to You, a nonprofit group that creates and shares his audio recordings, books, and the “Grace to You” TV and radio programs.
MacArthur wrote nearly 400 books and study resources, including *The Gospel According to Jesus* and *Our Sufficiency in Christ*, and his work has been translated into more than two dozen languages, according to the church’s website.
The pastor made national headlines in 2020 when a California judge ruled that the church could keep holding in-person services, even though Gov. Gavin Newsom had set statewide rules to limit gatherings because of the coronavirus.
MacArthur had dealt with health problems for years, including a sudden illness while preaching at a 2023 service. After that, he had several surgeries for atrial fibrillation and other conditions.
But his health kept getting worse. Patton told church members that the pastor’s recovery from “three surgeries in the second half of 2024” was “slower than expected,” and there were “occasional setbacks affecting his heart, lungs and kidneys.”
Earlier this year, MacArthur was in the hospital for a “second procedure” on his lungs, the report said.
MacArthur is survived by his wife, Patricia, four children, and fifteen grandchildren.
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He’s the last of those old Evangelical giants. I’m sure there are a number of godly men who will take his place, but this guy…I never agreed with his Lordship salvation stance, or his blanket condemnation of the Charismatic brethren, but he was otherwise possibly the best Bible expositor of the last hundred years. Go to GTY.org and listen to or read the text of his masterful exposition of Mattew 24-25, delivered way back in 1985, and you will find an accurate, understandable, and ultimately disturbing blueprint and timeline of the events leading to the Second Coming. Nothing I’ve read about those events even come close. He was a strict old school Scottish puritan, but man did JM have integrity. Dig as you might, you cannot find one blemish in his half century of ministry as a pastor. God bless his memory.
I agree, absolutely true, such a devout man of God. His advice to read the Gospels 7 chapters at a time each month until you’re completely immersed in the Word was very good. He loved God and His Word and sought to be His mouthpiece. I too am not a Calvinist but I see those differences as non-essential doctrines, rather than the essential doctrines of say, the Trinity, the Virgin birth of Christ, and His death, resurrection, and atonement for sin, etc. May he enjoy being in the presence of the love of his life, our Holy God: Father, Son, and Spirit, and may he enjoy the company of the saints gone before him. Amen!
He was an abusive to women and a misogynist. He wanted a wife and her children to go back to her husband after that husband had sexually abused the children. That father was convicted of sexual abuse and put in jail in the state of California. He stated that all women even single must submit to men. He has covered up sexual abuse in the church.
Diana, those claims from Julie Roys are severe false accusations. She deliberately shuffled around the timeline.
That woman’s husband was charged and convicted of those crimes LONG AFTER she received counseling to return to her husband. Because at that time the only complaint with him that she had voiced to the church was that he disciplined the children by spanking. She did not say anything to the church about any alleged sexual abuse, and she had not reported any such alleged abuse to the authorities.
Julie Roys needs to repent of her severe false accusations
One of her beefs was that he was in his underwear when he spanked the kids. She considered that to be sexual abuse. And Julie Roys repeated that stupidity, as if it were true. One of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard.
It’s no surprise that she was told to quit being a crazy, falsely accusing, wannabe victim, and return to her husband. She needed to be told to grow up, frankly. And so does Julie Roys.
Julie Roys is a lying, falsely accusing, sniveling, snarling wolf in sheeps clothing, if I’ve ever seen one. She took issue with John MacArthur because he told Beth Moore to “go home”, because she is not supposed to be teaching men or pretending to be any sort of elder or pastor.
Ironically, Julie Roys, proves the Lord correct. As does Beth Moore, and others like her. Because by being so easily deceived, as Eve was deceived, and leading so many astray as a result, they show that women are not equipped for the job.
Adam’s responsibility was to tell his wife NO. And he failed to fulfill that responsibility. This is why Eve was merely deceived and fell into transgression, but Adam outright deliberately sinned. God had directly told Adam. And through Adam sin entered the world. Not Eve.
The rabid feminists need to quit acting like spoiled Cinderellas, quit rebelling against Almighty God, quit trying to “dismantle” that which He put into place (and is not going anywhere for that reason), and consider how much pro-woman the Lord’s created order actually is. It is very, very pro woman. The blame and responsibility nearly always falls squarely on the head of men.
This article is a place to remember a great Godly man and preacher. This mans teaching was awesome.
Take your judgement somewhere else. This is not the place for it.
I look forward to seeing my brother in Christ again with all the “truly” saved.
My friend, faith is not something we merely say, it’s something we do. As James stressed to us, faith without action is dead. Faith without action is not faith at all.
In Romans and Galations, it is explained to us how Abraham was saved by faith because Abraham by faith, obeyed the Lord.
The notion that obedience is in contrast with free grace is a false dilemma fallacy. If the faith and trust in the Lord is real, then there will be submission, and if there is submission, there will be obedience. Faith is knowing. And knowing results in obedience.
The commandments of God are not grievous. (1 John 3)
It is not harmful or costly (in the big picture, and eternal scope) to obey. It’s still a very free gift.
In Jude, 2 Peter 2, etc. we are warned of false prophets who pervert the grace of God into a license to sin. The word repentance means a change of heart. It means to turn away from sin.
1 John 3 – no one who is born of God will continue in sin.
It is not something we merely say. It is something we DO.
What will Jesus say?
Well DONE, my good and faithful servant. Well DONE …
Well DONE
I will miss John but I am grateful I have his teachings to carry me through. I have read his daily Bible study for over 25 years. He taught me well !
MacArthur was yet another anti-Catholic bigot ‘pastor’. No wonder the DIY Prod sects are so fractured