MacArthur vs. McAtee II

C. S. Lewis reminded Christians that human beings live forever while the state is only temporal and thus is reserved to comparative insignificance (Mere Christianity [N.Y.: MacMillan, 1977], pp. 78-79). To spend your time altering the state when you could be offering people eternal salvation is a bad bargain. To abandon the message that gives life to the eternal soul in favor of temporal change prostitutes the purpose of a believer’s life. That would be like a heart surgeon abandoning his life-saving practice to become a make-up artist. The church needs to use all its power and resources to bring men and women to Jesus Christ. That’s what God has called us to do.

John MacArthur
The Christian’s Responsibility to Government I
Romans 13:1-7

1.) MacArthur following Lewis’ mistake forgets that “the state” is composed of human beings who live forever. This, thus, is a irrational distinction.

2.) What is someone spends their time altering the state by commanding the people who run the state to repent of their sins — public and private — and trust Christ? Why wouldn’t that be a good bargain? Did John The Baptist make a bad bargain by commanding Herod to repent of taking his brother’s wife?

3.) Because MacArthur truncates the Christian message dividing it against itself he sees the proclamation of the message that effects eternal life as being in competition with the proclamation of the message that incarnates eternal life into temporal institutions precisely because those who have been given eternal life also are those who may well run the temporal institutions.

4.) The Church needs to be the armory of God so once men and women, through its offices, are brought to Jesus Christ the Church is then equipped to train men and women in Kingdom work. That’s what God called us to do.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane