Deception by Nuance
In my studies over the last two-three months, I have seen a confluence of men who use God’s words but they are not using God’s definitions and they are deceiving thousands of people and making themselves enemies of the cross of Christ. I will give you three examples.
The first is probably the most well-known: John MacArthur. MacArthur has preached for the Grace Community Church in California since 1969. He has written a commentary on every book of the NT. I have some of his books but I don’t have any of his commentaries.
One book I was reading recently is on evangelism. Evangelism: How to Share the Gospel Faithfully. That book was edited by MacArthur and its authors are co-ministers with MacArthur at his church or they are missionaries supported by his church. They have a chapter on the errors of the sinner’s prayer, which I have used in a sermon myself. You would think that if they are going to talk about the errors of the sinner’s prayer, they would point out that it isn’t in the Scriptures at all and no inspired man ever told anyone to pray to receive Jesus into their hearts. Therefore, it should never be used. But, alas, they do not. The author of that article simply says that you should make sure the sinner is sincere and committed before he asks Jesus into his heart.
In a chapter which MacArthur himself wrote on “Jesus is Lord,” he states: “Nowhere in either the Old or New Testaments do we find an invitation for sinners to believe now, but obey later. The call to trust and obey is a single summons. The word obey is sometimes even used to describe the conversion experience” (pg. 161). With that statement we would agree and we would be tempted to think MacArthur preaches the gospel. In which case, he would have told my mom that she had not obey the gospel originally, right? Probably not…
Because then he goes on: “The first command for every Christian is baptism.” Don’t you see a problem with that statement? What’s the problem with that statement? MacArthur is making baptism a command for Christians to obey!
His teaching perverts the words of Jesus: “He that believes (and is sincere) shall be saved and immediately must be baptized” (Mark 16:15).
MacArthur goes on: “Baptism is not a condition of salvation but an initial step of obedience for the Christian. Conversion is complete before baptism occurs; baptism is only an external sign that testifies to what has already occurred in the sinner’s heart. Baptism is an ordinance, and it is precisely the kind of ‘work’ Paul states cannot be meritorious.”
There is not a statement in that paragraph that is out of the mouth of the Holy Spirit. It is false, false, false. Is John MacArthur leading people to Jesus Christ? Or is Satan deceiving people by twisting in the mouth of MacArthur the gospel given by Jesus Christ?
To confuse the issue even more, Satan has MacArthur write on the next page (162): “Therefore they [the early church] viewed baptism as the turning point. Only those who were baptized were considered Christians” and he points to the treasurer in Acts 8. That is true. It is absolutely true. But he’s already told us that he doesn’t believe what the Scriptures teach about baptism. Do you see the deception by nuance?
He then speaks of those who are “professing Christians for years but have never been baptized.”
One of his coworkers, in the next chapter: “Starting the Conversation,” talks about obeying Christ. He writes (pg 171):
“Only by believing in Christ may you be forgiven:
- You must repent of all that dishonors God (Isa. 55:7; Luke 9:23).
- You must believe in Christ as Lord and Savior (Rom. 10:9).
And that’s all he says. Because that’s all they believe. And that is Satan deceiving the world through these men, through nuance. Next time, we’ll take on a highly respect scholar within evangelical circles, Dr. D. A. Carson.
Paul Holland