MacArthur on the Gospel

It’s interesting to hear MacArthur attack the emerging church and say that the scope of the gospel of Christ is utterly limited to propitiating God & eliminating the guilt of sin and that this “is the only reason he came. He didn’t come to fix life here. He didn’t come to eliminate poverty. He didn’t come to eliminate slavery…he came to save people from eternal hell.” It really makes me wonder how he gets around the sermon on the mount or sayings like “I came that you might have life, and life abundant.” I really think MacArthur is off base and it seems like this video, which flashes up pictures of the people he seeks to denegrate, displays his true colors.

After reading a ton of theology over the past few years, I can’t believe that MacArthur makes the arguments he does. It seems clear that he has never made a serious study of missional theology, ala Darrell Guder’s book Missional Church, any of Leslie Newbigin’s work or the incredible thought of Moltmann, Jenson, and Pannenberg. If you are going to have a serious voice in the theological conversation, you need to at least come into contact with these guys ideas and show that you’ve interacted with them. His idea of truth is untenable – it completely disregards the nature of truth, of language/linguistics, and distorts the nature of God. His characterization of the thought of those he is seeking to undermine is simply wrong.