The Voice Of One Crying Out In Suburbia

Together for the Gospel 2008

Day Two

John MacArthur

So the message from John MacArthur today boils down to this: people are basically good.

Just kidding.

Wow, MacArthur was just methodical. Good stuff but he is like a Calvinist Terminator, just relentlessly marching through the Scriptural evidence that points unfailingly to the total depravity of mankind. I took more notes on MacArthur than I did for any of the other speakers.

MacArthur started off stating that the doctrine of total depravity is the most attacked of doctrines because it is the most despised. It is the most distinctively Christian doctrine because it affirms the inability of man to do anything for his own salvation. MacArthur also stated that, in light of this, lots of people claim to love God, but in fact they hate the true God. False belief systems all affirm man's inherent sufficiency and goodness. That leads to false church growth models. Those who advocate false church growth models nay be Christians, but they are terribly confused.

The Bible speaks of total depravity in terms that evoke the imagery of death. But no one wants to preach that. Pragmatism has swallowed up doctrine in the church. The church's common theology has been replace by a common methodology.

MacArthur went through a litany of Scripture, I am not going to go through all of them but the list includes Ephesians 2, 4:18; Col 2:13; John 1: 12-13; John 3:3; John 5:21; John 8:36; Romans 8:7-8; 1 Cor 12:3, 2 Cor 4:4 and on and on. All in all, just rock solid teaching on a doctrine we all believe in, but MacArthur articulated and defended this doctrine of total depravity as well as anyone I have ever heard. I will definitely download and listen to this talk in particular multiple times.