September 19, 2007

Radio host and columnist Frank Pastore recently interviewed Dr. John MacArthur, pastor and president of The Master’s College and Seminary. MacArthur is also a widely-recognized evangelical leader through his daily radio program “Grace to You” and his many books. They spoke on the campus of The Master’s College in Santa Clarita, California.

Pastore: Talk to me about your latest book, “The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception.” I’ve got an article that’s running right now on the importance and centrality of inerrancy, when it comes to people inappropriately citing the Bible. I’m sure you touch on that, that’s a huge passion of your life.

MacArthur: Thank you for taking on the issue of inerrancy. It’s all we’ve got. The word of God is all we’ve got. God spoke in one book, that’s it. You tamper with that book and everything is lost. And the bottom line in the Bible is this is the word of the living God. It is inerrant. Abandon that and we have nothing but human opinion, another philosophy. You can shut everything down, it’s over. Being faithful and true to the Book is critical. And a true commitment to the Book demands that you believe that it is the word of the living God. And it, in itself, sustains the confidence that we believe that. Whether you look at it prophetically, scientifically, from the standpoint of the miracles, from the person of Jesus Christ, whatever view you take of the Bible, whatever scrutiny you apply to it, it will stand the test and verify its own authenticity, veracity and inerrancy. That’s where we have to stand. If we can’t trust the Bible, everything is lost.

Pastore: You’re aware of this argument, let just phrase as Bob Edgar, the former chairman of the National Council of Churches shared on my show last week. He basically said, “You conservatives are always fond of quoting your Bible verses. But the Bible only once or twice talks about homosexuality and yet there are thousands of verses on poverty. Obviously, God cares far more about poverty than homosexuality. Why don’t you adjust your priorities, care less about abortion and homosexuality, more about our social agenda, which really deals with poverty.”

You hear these questions all the time…. How would you teach your students here at the Master’s College to respond to that type of critique or analysis?

MacArthur: Statistics don’t prove anything. It isn’t how many times God said something, it’s what did He say? The issue is what God said, not, “Did He repeat it enough times to make us think He really meant it?” Once is significant enough. You can look at the life of Jesus. And Jesus didn’t say anything about homosexuality. He didn’t say anything about a lot of things. He didn’t anything about abortion for that matter. It doesn’t change the word of the living God at all. It isn’t a statistical issue. It’s what God says, not how many times you can count up the word in some kind of a word search.