MacArthur has been the object of a witch hunt for years in certain Baptist circles because of his Reformed beliefs. Once you say you believe that God has ordained the future as well as the past, free-willers of all stripes come out to take their shots.
Generally, that's because if you deny free will, you've taken away the mechanism by which the temporal powers of this world control us worker bees.
Either God controls His creation, or men control it. And if men control, other men will tell you you're free while usurping your freedom. Same old, same old.
I agree, Albion Girl, that MacArthur seems to be arguing against the idolization of any matter, even Christ's blood. How different is His actual human blood than the supposed relic of His foreskin? It's all magick. The body does not matter. Christ's atonement is what saves; His act of standing in our place and taking on our punishment for sins when we should be sentenced to the fire. I like a Baptist arguing against ceremonial relics. My Presbyterian upbringing cringes at the very thought of Christ's infused righteousness going into anything of this world other than the spiritual hearts and minds of His sheep.
I disagree with MacArthur over his dispensationalism, although generally he's not rabid in that belief.
I've admired him on Larry King's show several times when he's on a panel of idolators, goats and New Age fools who preach universalism and the voodoo economics of salvation. He's the ONLY one to stand up for Biblical truth and declare that ONLY Christ saves. For that, he's targeted as an enemy to many.
The following CNN Larry King transcripts are very telling -- they portray precisely the world in which we live.
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Full Court I'm glad to see you are back, yet I can't help but wonder why you would post an article attacking John MacArthur.
That's an interesting comment, and I have never seen evidence of that.
The KJVO independent baptist church of which I was a member for several years carried and still does carry his radio program. The pastor there says he is one of his favorites.
In Southern Baptist circles, he seems to be just as popular, if their Lifeway book stores are any indication.
Also, there is a quite a large seqment of calvinist and reformed theology present within the SBC. (Less so in the KJVO IFB movement.)
For our discussion........