I am very keen to be fair to Dr John MacArthur. And so I want to acknowledge that in a recent Q and A online at GTY he states clearly that he does not believe all charismatics are unsaved. He claims he “never said that” though I have previously collected a bunch of quotes that do say precisely that. He doesn’t regret or apologize for those quotes in this audio. I think that he tends to think of the Charismatic movement in the main as being unsaved, although he sees some exceptions to that rule. In other words, if he meets a charismatic. he would be surprised to discover if that they were a genuine Christian.MacArthur appears to limit the people who he think are saved to the reformed charismatics and some of the traditional pentecostals.
However, I do feel that listening to the whole of this audio he is still keen to dismiss the whole movement as unhelpful, seeing the majority of the charismatic movement as being devoid of the gospel. He clearly states that he feels the reformed group are not really part of the charismatic movement. He also sees the Charismatic movement as being an entirely separate stream, not connected to the reformation. I do not believe that is true. MacAthur also speaks about the differences between him and John Piper, including their previous joint interview about depression.
Whatever your position on the debate that is still raging, I encourage you to listen to this Q and A. MacArthur is not as someone said to me recently “an extremist who should just be ignored” We should listen to him. We can disagree with him, and I do profusely. But, he is someone who is worthy of our attention, and especially when he moves off the subject of the charismatic he has much to contribute.
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