Ashamed of the Gospel: When the Church Becomes Like the World

The following remarks were given by Dr. John MacArthur at the second Q and A Session (Thursday, May 19th) of the 2022 Truth Matters Conference, held at the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky. This serves as a fitting epitaph for the "Evangelical Church" in the early 21st Century, which has largely neglected and repudiated Dr. MacArthur's warning given in his book "Ashamed of the Gospel" (originally published in 1993)—in the very same way its "Evangelical" forebears did to Spurgeon over 100 years earlier when they rejected and scoffed at his warnings about the "Down Grade," with the same disastrous result (for more on that, see "The Forgotten Spurgeon" by Iain Murray). And so, for most professing (self-described) Evangelicals today: "You are doing just as your fathers did"(Acts 7:51). JOHN MACARTHUR: With the emphasis of Pragmatism...where you ask the unbelievers what they want the church to be, and you design the church for Unsaved Harry or Unsaved Sally...I think once the church decides it is going to give the unconverted people what they want—in an effort to win them, ostensibly—as soon as you link up with them, and you let them dictate what you do as a church, inevitably they will take you to the bottom. In other words, you have just put a ball and chain on the church, and it's going to the bottom...So what happens is, it starts out: it's kind of benign in some ways; you have contemporary music, and the sermons get lighter and lighter, and it's about success and being happy and finding your fulfillment....But eventually, it won't stay there, because they're not just going to accept the "style." If you link with the world, they want more than the style—they're going to mess with the substance, and they'll start dragging you down. So the next thing you're going to find out is: the Gospel gets mitigated. The offense of the Gospel is removed because you've already decided that you're going to court them, so you have to get rid of what offends them...So once the church connected and decided the world was going to define it—because they were going to win the world by being the friend of the world, which James says is "enmity with God"; so, if you're the "friend of the world," you're the "enemy of God" (James 4:4)—it starts in a benign way, but eventually you get where we are now, and the Evangelical Movement sells out.

John MacArthur once again has written an excellent and much needed book. In this book, he shows the danger of "watering down" the Gospel and replacing Biblical teaching and the preaching of the true Gospel with entertainment and feel-good sermons (as well as many other things that the modern church seems to want to replace the true Gospel with). He conclusively shows that the true Gospel is inherently offensive and the "Seeker-sensative" movement cannot remove the offense of the Gospel without destroying the Gospel itself. "Ashamed of the Gospel" is also a very appropriately named movement, for (as Dr. MacArthur demonstrates), this is exactly what many people are in the seeker-sensitive movement, whether they realize it or not. John MacArthur rightly calls us to be wary of those who would sacrifice the purity of the Gospel for church growth. "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables." (2 Tim. 4:3-4). This is a much-needed book in the Church today and I would highly recommend it to everyone, especially pastors and missionaries (or anyone else who shares the Gospel a lot, as all Christians should).

Dr. John MacArthur is a pastor-teacher who is not ashamed to biblically address issues that may even make someone mad. He has done this with his books THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS, FAITH WORKS, RECKLESS FAITH, CHARISMATIC CHAOS, and this work as well. In each of his books Dr. MacArthur provides his reader not only a fair survey of the topic/movements but also gives his readers biblical exposition on the subject.In this work, Dr. MacArthur reviews the seeker sensitive movement (he has done this again in his book HARD TO BELIEVE). He uses the infamous Down-Grace controversey during the late 1800's in England and the stand taken by Charles Spurgeon against the down-graders. Just as Spurgeon saw the down-grade as moving away from the true gospel of grace, MacArthur see's the modern seeker sensitive churches moving away from a true biblical gospel toward a user-friendly, worldly, flesh based gospel that is pragmatic at best. If you are a person who struggles with church growth or possibly a pastor who wants to see their church grow but you frown on much of the church growth movement then I would encourage you to read this book. Allow God to show you His sovereignty in building His Church through His servant Dr. John MacArthur.

At the end of his long and distinguished career, the famous British preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92) found himself locked in a battle with the Baptist Union over its decreasing attachment to scripture, and increasing acceptance of error and sin. And now, more than one hundred years later, Dr. John MacArthur, of Grace Community Church and the Grace to You radio ministry, finds himself being forced into the same battle against scriptural infidelity and pragmatism in the American Evangelical church. With piercing analysis and voluminous use of scripture, he attacks this not-altogether new trend in the Evangelical church.Dr. MacArthur is a wonderful preacher and teacher, who is an expert at handling the Word. In this book, he examines the trends in the Evangelical church towards "Seeker-Friendly" services and ecumenicalism, and shows how they are incompatible with the Bible. I found his arguments to be cogent and highly convincing, and I must say that I really enjoyed his examination of the Pauline letters to Timothy. If you are interested in the course that the modern Evangelical churches are going, then you would do well to read this thought-provoking book.

Dr. John MacArthur has produced a book which gives a good view of the modern evangelical church in view of the "Down-Grade" controversy of Charles Spurgeon's days. The "Down-Grade" controversy, which erupted when Spurgeon noted the decline of doctrine in the Baptist Union and began exposing it in his "Sword and the Trowel". Spurgeon requested that the Union adopt a doctrinal statement, whereas the only requirement for membership was to agree on the issue of Baptism. He noted that once an organization gets on the "down-grade", the slide to the bottom gradually picks up speed until it cannot be stopped. That was where he found the Baptist Union towards the end of his ministry. This is a good book for those who are interested in the history and legacy of Spurgeon's ministry, for Dr. MacArthur brings out many little-known facts about the controversy. The main theme of the book, however, is not the bare historical facts, but how the principles of Spurgeon's stand are to be applied to the down-grade of today's Evangelical churches. MacArthur shows that while theological liberalism was the issue of Spurgeon's day, PRAGMATISM is the issue of our day. Whatever works in building a church must be all right. He uses several examples of theatrics, marketing tactics, and acceptance of worldliness all play a factor in the loss of biblical Christianity in the modern day. Preaching is no longer looked at as the central mission of the church, but consumerism, pleasing the customer. "Worldliness is rarely mentioned today, much less indentified for what it is. The word itself is beginning to sound quaint. Worldliness is the sin of allowing one's appetites, ambitions, or conduct to be fashioned according to earthly values. (I John 2:16, 17). Yet todaywe have the extraordinary spectacle of church programs designed explicitly to cater to fleshly desire, sensual appetites, and human pride - 'the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life.' To achieve this worldly appeal, church activities often go beyond the merely frivolous." (preface, xvii) There are many quotes in this volume of Spurgeon, Lloyd-Jones, Tozer, and others. MacArthur goes on to show the problem behind the pragatism goes deeper than simply falling into marketing tactics, but the roots are in doctrinal declesion. The doctrine of salvation, sanctification, predestination and election, and others are clearly defined and the decline and misrepresentation of these doctrines are traced to the modern problems in the church. The book closes with 3 appendixes, the first on Spurgeon and the Down-Grade Controversy, the second tracing modern pragmatism to Charles Finney, and the last is an excerpt from the Puritan writer and preacher Thomas Boston, "Carnal vs. Spiritual Wisdom", note the excerpt below: "Carnal Wisdom: Work dilige