Difference between revisions of "John MacArthur"

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John Fullerton MacArthur Jr. is an American preacher and Christian apologist.
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'''John Fullerton MacArthur Jr.''' is an American preacher and Christian apologist. Like many American Christians, MacArthur is homophobic, misogynistic, against social justice, has hatred for many other Christian denominations, and holds extreme anti-science views in the fields of biology, geology, psychology, and others.
  
 
==Sermon 2020-07-16==
 
==Sermon 2020-07-16==
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{{#ev:youtube|D8A2A9E_RQQ|256|inline|Sermon.|frame}}
 
{{#ev:youtube|D8A2A9E_RQQ|256|inline|Sermon.|frame}}
  
βˆ’
* 00:00 - The person who posted the sermon named it "πŸ”₯ SPECIAL SERMON UPDATE β€’ [MUST WATCH!]" Yikes!
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* 00:00 - The person who posted the sermon named it "πŸ”₯ SPECIAL SERMON UPDATE β€’ [MUST WATCH!]" That's not a good start.
βˆ’
* 00:40 - This sermon was recorded as the COVID-19 pandemic had been ravaging the nation, and not a single person in the packed audience is wearing a mask. Churches are, sadly, one of the biggest causes of death from this virus. Wear your masks! Social distance!
+
* 00:40 - If the time stamp on YouTube is accurate, this sermon was recorded as the COVID-19 pandemic had been ravaging the nation, and not a single person in the packed audience is wearing a mask. Churches are, sadly, one of the biggest causes of death from this virus. Wear your masks and social distance!
βˆ’
* 01:42 - He says that he spent 116 weeks (812 days) studying, preaching, and living the [[Gospel of John]]. It's interesting that he would focus so much on this gospel, as it is the most contradictory with the [[Synoptic Gospels]].
+
* 03:34 - "The Gospel of John is to provide evidence for the deity and Messiahship of Jesus Christ... evidence that leads you to believe and have eternal life." Unfortunately, because John contradicts the [[Synoptic Gospels]] so much, was most likely not written not an eye witness, and wasn't written until everyone mentioned in the story was long since dead, I find it to be the least believable of Gospels.
βˆ’
* 03:34 - "The Gospel of John is to provide evidence for the deity and Messiahship of Jesus Christ... evidence that leads you to believe and have eternal life." Unfortunately, because John contradicts the other Gospels so much, was most likely not written not an eye witness, and wasn't written until everyone mentioned in the story was long since dead, I find it to be the least believable of Gospels.
+
* 04:54 - "Some have suggested that John didn't even write [chapter 21]." It's nice that he's admitting that there are biblical scholars who disagree about which passages of the [[New Testament]] are genuine. We have not physical evidence of chapter 21 being a later addition, since it's in the oldest surviving manuscripts, but then, we don't have any very early surviving manuscripts, and, since chapter 20 seems to neatly end the story, it certainly seems like a later addition to me. John also has a much more widely agreed upon addition with 7:53–8:11, so forgeries aren't out of the question.
βˆ’
* 04:54 - "Some have suggested that John didn't even write [chapter 21]." It's nice that he's admitting that there are biblical scholars who disagree about which passages of the [[New Testament]] are genuine. However, it would have nicer to have him address the passages that are more widely consider to be forgeries like 7:53–8:11, but I get that this isn't the point of his sermon.
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* 08:23 - I'm not sure if MacArthur's mic was cut out here, or if he was making a joke about Peter speaking for the devil. He moves his mouth, but there is no audio.
βˆ’
* 08:23 - I'm not sure if MacArthur's mic was cut out here, or if he was making a joke about Peter speaking for the devil.
 
 
* 09:46 - Mixing events from the Gospels is always a dangerous prospect, but especially bad when a person intermixes John with the Synoptics.
 
* 09:46 - Mixing events from the Gospels is always a dangerous prospect, but especially bad when a person intermixes John with the Synoptics.
βˆ’
* 12:00 - MacArthur is injecting a lot of his own opinions into the story here. He says that Peter has returned to the life of a fisherman because he had absolutely no confidence in himself because he was a proven failure. However, none of this is states in John, this is all presumed.
+
* 12:00 - MacArthur is injecting a lot of his own opinions into the story here. He says that Peter has returned to the life of a fisherman because he had absolutely no confidence in himself because he was a proven failure. However, none of this is stated in John, this is all presumed.
βˆ’
* 12:55 - MacArthur says that, after denying Jesus three times because he fear being executed himself, we don't know if Peter is any different than Judas. Judas sold out his friend's life for money, while Peter is merely trying not to be murdered himself. Implying those two transgression are the same shows a very naive understanding of morality.
+
* 12:55 - MacArthur says that, after denying Jesus three times because he feared being executed himself, we don't know if Peter is any different than Judas. Judas sold out his friend's life for money, while Peter is merely trying not to be murdered himself. Implying those two transgression are the same shows a very naive understanding of morality.
 
* 14:48 - MacArthur is literally putting words into Jesus's mouth. This is something I don't like about most preachers. They're overly confident that their interpretation of scripture is correct. MacArthur doesn't say, "I believe Jesus was speaking in metaphor, but I'm a lowly mortal, so take my interpretation with a grain of salt," but rather, he says, "here is what ''really'' Jesus meant when he said that."
 
* 14:48 - MacArthur is literally putting words into Jesus's mouth. This is something I don't like about most preachers. They're overly confident that their interpretation of scripture is correct. MacArthur doesn't say, "I believe Jesus was speaking in metaphor, but I'm a lowly mortal, so take my interpretation with a grain of salt," but rather, he says, "here is what ''really'' Jesus meant when he said that."
 
* 15:20 - In the story, Peter doesn't know that it is Jesus who is talking to him, but, when Jesus orders him to cast his net in a specific spot, he blindly obeys. This doesn't make sense. Imagine if you're a professional fisherman who spent a night unable to catch anything, and some random person from the shore tells you where to cast your net. Who would you humor such a stranger?
 
* 15:20 - In the story, Peter doesn't know that it is Jesus who is talking to him, but, when Jesus orders him to cast his net in a specific spot, he blindly obeys. This doesn't make sense. Imagine if you're a professional fisherman who spent a night unable to catch anything, and some random person from the shore tells you where to cast your net. Who would you humor such a stranger?
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* 27:14 - Typifying his Protestant roots, he says there is only one way to pursue the knowledge of Christ is to study the Gospels. This is part of the Protestant theology of ''sola scriptura''. However, many other Christians disagree that the Gospels are the only way you can understand Jesus.
 
* 27:14 - Typifying his Protestant roots, he says there is only one way to pursue the knowledge of Christ is to study the Gospels. This is part of the Protestant theology of ''sola scriptura''. However, many other Christians disagree that the Gospels are the only way you can understand Jesus.
 
* 29:00 - "I don't think I ever thought about loving [Jesus]." Perhaps MacArthur went to very different churches than the ones I went to, because all of the ones I went to told me I had to love Jesus. He even follows up this statement with several passages which command Christians to love God that he supposedly read many times.
 
* 29:00 - "I don't think I ever thought about loving [Jesus]." Perhaps MacArthur went to very different churches than the ones I went to, because all of the ones I went to told me I had to love Jesus. He even follows up this statement with several passages which command Christians to love God that he supposedly read many times.
βˆ’
* 29:42
+
* 29:48 - "Anybody who doesn't love the Lord is anathema (damned)." Only an evil god would allow this.
 +
* 29:57 - "The opposite of that, is being given eternal life which is ''defined'' as loving the Lord." That's not how opposites work.
 +
* 30:59 - The quote is, "Do you love me more than these?" But Jesus doesn't clarify what "these" is meant to be. MacArthur again puts words into Jesus's mouth saying that he is referring to the tools of a fisherman.
 +
* 33:00 - It's nice that the preacher points out the different uses of the ancient Greek words for love. This also demonstrates what a bad job English translator often do at preserving the native message.
 +
* 33:14 - MacArthur asks why did Peter use a lesser form of the word "love," which is a valid question, but then he asserts an answer without evidence. This is his opinion, so he should have stated it as such.
 +
* 33:45 - MacArthur invokes omniscience for why Peter claims Jesus knows him, but it could just be Peter saying that Jesus knows he loves him in a normal mundane way.
 +
* 40:40 - I'm glad he points out the parentheticals in the Gospel of John. To me, these are great examples of redaction.
 +
* 46:55 - "John never calls himself by his name. Why would he when he can call himself, 'the disciple whom Jesus loved.'" A nice joke, but it only underscores the lack of humility of author. Also, most New Testament scholars don't believe the Gospels were written by the men who are attributed to them.
 +
* 48:17 - MacArthur suggests that Jesus's statement about John being kept alive until the second-coming is hyperbole, even sarcasm. However, there are some Christians who believe that this was meant to be taken literally and that Jesus made John immortal. MacArthur mocks this idea at 49:42, and then reads the follow up, again a parenthetical, which I find to be more evidence of redaction.
 +
* 50:00 - He ignores the final verses of John, probably because one verse is just a repeat of the end of chapter 20, but I think it's important to talk about verse 24. If a work has to say, in it's own text that is should be believed because the person who wrote it is the same person who lived it, that's usually a sign that it shouldn't be trusted. This is how compulsive liars talk, not honest people.
 +
* 54:42 - MacArthur wraps up by quoting from the [[First Epistle of Peter]] presenting it as though it was actually written by Peter, but most New Testament scholars do not believe it is genuine.
  
 
==Links==
 
==Links==

Revision as of 23:25, 30 July 2020

John Fullerton MacArthur Jr. is an American preacher and Christian apologist. Like many American Christians, MacArthur is homophobic, misogynistic, against social justice, has hatred for many other Christian denominations, and holds extreme anti-science views in the fields of biology, geology, psychology, and others.

Sermon 2020-07-16

My aunt requested that I listen to this sermon. Here are my notes with timestamps.

Sermon.
  • 00:00 - The person who posted the sermon named it "πŸ”₯ SPECIAL SERMON UPDATE β€’ [MUST WATCH!]" That's not a good start.
  • 00:40 - If the time stamp on YouTube is accurate, this sermon was recorded as the COVID-19 pandemic had been ravaging the nation, and not a single person in the packed audience is wearing a mask. Churches are, sadly, one of the biggest causes of death from this virus. Wear your masks and social distance!
  • 03:34 - "The Gospel of John is to provide evidence for the deity and Messiahship of Jesus Christ... evidence that leads you to believe and have eternal life." Unfortunately, because John contradicts the Synoptic Gospels so much, was most likely not written not an eye witness, and wasn't written until everyone mentioned in the story was long since dead, I find it to be the least believable of Gospels.
  • 04:54 - "Some have suggested that John didn't even write [chapter 21]." It's nice that he's admitting that there are biblical scholars who disagree about which passages of the New Testament are genuine. We have not physical evidence of chapter 21 being a later addition, since it's in the oldest surviving manuscripts, but then, we don't have any very early surviving manuscripts, and, since chapter 20 seems to neatly end the story, it certainly seems like a later addition to me. John also has a much more widely agreed upon addition with 7:53–8:11, so forgeries aren't out of the question.
  • 08:23 - I'm not sure if MacArthur's mic was cut out here, or if he was making a joke about Peter speaking for the devil. He moves his mouth, but there is no audio.
  • 09:46 - Mixing events from the Gospels is always a dangerous prospect, but especially bad when a person intermixes John with the Synoptics.
  • 12:00 - MacArthur is injecting a lot of his own opinions into the story here. He says that Peter has returned to the life of a fisherman because he had absolutely no confidence in himself because he was a proven failure. However, none of this is stated in John, this is all presumed.
  • 12:55 - MacArthur says that, after denying Jesus three times because he feared being executed himself, we don't know if Peter is any different than Judas. Judas sold out his friend's life for money, while Peter is merely trying not to be murdered himself. Implying those two transgression are the same shows a very naive understanding of morality.
  • 14:48 - MacArthur is literally putting words into Jesus's mouth. This is something I don't like about most preachers. They're overly confident that their interpretation of scripture is correct. MacArthur doesn't say, "I believe Jesus was speaking in metaphor, but I'm a lowly mortal, so take my interpretation with a grain of salt," but rather, he says, "here is what really Jesus meant when he said that."
  • 15:20 - In the story, Peter doesn't know that it is Jesus who is talking to him, but, when Jesus orders him to cast his net in a specific spot, he blindly obeys. This doesn't make sense. Imagine if you're a professional fisherman who spent a night unable to catch anything, and some random person from the shore tells you where to cast your net. Who would you humor such a stranger?
  • 17:43 - "Do you know how Jesus makes breakfast? *waves hand* Breakfast!" Miracles are great, but, when they're attributed to an all-good god, I can't help but be reminded of the problem of evil. Jesus could prevent hurricanes, but he instead makes bread.
  • 18:18 - MacArthur says that the Gospel of John is an eye-witness account. Most biblical scholars disagree with him.
  • 18:20 - He suggests that the specific number of fish mentioned, 153, is an indication that this is a real miracle. That doesn't make any sense. What if the number were 152, or not mentioned at all, would he think it were not a miracle?
  • 18:48 - MacArthur reiterates his non-biblical point that Jesus is impressing upon the disciples that they cannot fish ever again because he controls the fish and won't let them catch anything. If this is truly what was intended by this passage, it certainly negates free will.
  • 19:45 - MacArthur continues to put words into the mouths of Jesus and the disciples, although, at least this time he admits to not knowing what it was before making presumptions.
  • 22:02 - "How does Jesus do biblical counseling?" That would be pretty difficult considering the bible didn't exist at the time, but I take your meaning.
  • 22:33 - MacArthur, in typical preacher hyperbole, suggests that it might take years to re-teach his disciples. No, Jesus is magic. He can do whatever he wants instantly. It annoys me when preachers try to make it look as though the gospels are suspenseful. Any story which has an invincible all-powerful character can't be suspenseful.
  • 23:52 - MacArthur begins a common trope in preaching. Start with a passage of scripture, then apply it to something that has happened in real life. The fact that preachers always have to do this shows just how irrelevant most of the stories in the bible are.
  • 27:14 - Typifying his Protestant roots, he says there is only one way to pursue the knowledge of Christ is to study the Gospels. This is part of the Protestant theology of sola scriptura. However, many other Christians disagree that the Gospels are the only way you can understand Jesus.
  • 29:00 - "I don't think I ever thought about loving [Jesus]." Perhaps MacArthur went to very different churches than the ones I went to, because all of the ones I went to told me I had to love Jesus. He even follows up this statement with several passages which command Christians to love God that he supposedly read many times.
  • 29:48 - "Anybody who doesn't love the Lord is anathema (damned)." Only an evil god would allow this.
  • 29:57 - "The opposite of that, is being given eternal life which is defined as loving the Lord." That's not how opposites work.
  • 30:59 - The quote is, "Do you love me more than these?" But Jesus doesn't clarify what "these" is meant to be. MacArthur again puts words into Jesus's mouth saying that he is referring to the tools of a fisherman.
  • 33:00 - It's nice that the preacher points out the different uses of the ancient Greek words for love. This also demonstrates what a bad job English translator often do at preserving the native message.
  • 33:14 - MacArthur asks why did Peter use a lesser form of the word "love," which is a valid question, but then he asserts an answer without evidence. This is his opinion, so he should have stated it as such.
  • 33:45 - MacArthur invokes omniscience for why Peter claims Jesus knows him, but it could just be Peter saying that Jesus knows he loves him in a normal mundane way.
  • 40:40 - I'm glad he points out the parentheticals in the Gospel of John. To me, these are great examples of redaction.
  • 46:55 - "John never calls himself by his name. Why would he when he can call himself, 'the disciple whom Jesus loved.'" A nice joke, but it only underscores the lack of humility of author. Also, most New Testament scholars don't believe the Gospels were written by the men who are attributed to them.
  • 48:17 - MacArthur suggests that Jesus's statement about John being kept alive until the second-coming is hyperbole, even sarcasm. However, there are some Christians who believe that this was meant to be taken literally and that Jesus made John immortal. MacArthur mocks this idea at 49:42, and then reads the follow up, again a parenthetical, which I find to be more evidence of redaction.
  • 50:00 - He ignores the final verses of John, probably because one verse is just a repeat of the end of chapter 20, but I think it's important to talk about verse 24. If a work has to say, in it's own text that is should be believed because the person who wrote it is the same person who lived it, that's usually a sign that it shouldn't be trusted. This is how compulsive liars talk, not honest people.
  • 54:42 - MacArthur wraps up by quoting from the First Epistle of Peter presenting it as though it was actually written by Peter, but most New Testament scholars do not believe it is genuine.

Links

Link-Wikipedia.png