(Article by Alex Newman republished from TheNewAmerican.com)
The comments are especially noteworthy because MacArthur for decades has been known for vigorously urging Christians to submit to the government. In fact, his views on the subject were so strict that he has even accused America’s Founding Fathers of being in sin for declaring independence from their colonial rulers in London. He has also chastised Christians for being too attached to their constitutionally protected rights.
In a recent sermon delivered at his Southern California mega-church headlined “When Government Rewards Evil and Punishes Good,” Pastor MacArthur mocked Biden’s claims about the imagined threats facing America. “Our president said in the last month that the greatest threat to America, he said, on one occasion, is systemic racism, which doesn’t exist,” the pastor argued. “He said white supremacy, which doesn’t exist with any power. And then he said global warming, which doesn’t exist either, and if it does, God’s in charge of it.”
The congregation giggled as the pastor summarized Biden’s increasingly unhinged views about the alleged threats facing America. But then MacArthur dropped a bomb shell.
“In reality,” he said, “the greatest threat to this nation is the government.”
Citing Romans 13, a key chapter in the Bible explaining the purpose of government from a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the fledgling church in Rome, MacArthur shed light on why he believes out-of-control government authorities in the United States now represent the most significant danger to the nation. In short, they are now doing the opposite of what they are supposed to be doing: Instead of punishing evil and protecting good, government in America is increasingly punishing good and rewarding evil.
“The role of the government is to restrain evil, and when it functions to restrain evil, it is fulfilling its God-ordained purpose,” MacArthur explained, citing verses 1 and 2 in Romans 13. “That government is from God, by God, of God. It is designed as a necessary restraint in a world of sinners.”
Because Romans 13 calls on Christians to submit to the government, it has been frequently abused and perverted by totalitarians — including Adolf Hitler’s National Socialists (Nazis) — to promote slavish obedience to any and all evil decrees. The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was even caught creating a “Clergy Response Team” that would deploy the chapter in crises to convince Americans to blindly obey.
And yet, as MacArthur explained in his sermon, when government fails to do what God created it to do, “it yields up its authority,” just like a father would forfeit his authority if he began leading his family into evil.
“The man who wrote that, the Apostle Paul, was in violation of the government more often than any other person in the entire new testament,” continued MacArthur. “And when he went to preach the Gospel, he was very often thrown in jail. Ultimately he was executed by the government that he refused to obey when it no longer functioned to protect good behavior and punish evil behavior.”
While MacArthur has always recognized the admonition in Acts 5:29 that it is “better to obey God than men,” he has historically been among the most zealous American preachers of the Christian duty of submission to government — even when it involves brutal dictatorships. In fact, MacArthur has even condemned America’s Founders for resisting the tyranny of King George and the British Parliament, as well as American patriots working to protect their God-given rights enshrined in America’s founding documents.
However, since the start of the liberty-shredding government response to the COVID19 pandemic, the California pastor appears to have taken a somewhat different approach to the issue. After complying initially with Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom’s edicts purporting to shut down churches for “health” reasons, MacArthur eventually became openly defiant, noting that Jesus Christ — not the governor — is and always will be the head of the Christian Church.
In a letter explaining his decision to defy Newsom and his decrees, MacArthur laid out his biblical reasoning. “Christ is Lord of all. He is the one true head of the church (Ephesians 1:22; 5:23; Colossians 1:18). He is also King of kings — sovereign over every earthly authority (1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14; 19:16),” the letter said, providing plenty of scriptural footnotes. “Grace Community Church has always stood immovably on those biblical principles.”
That means God must be obeyed first and foremost. “As His people, we are subject to His will and commands as revealed in Scripture,” continued MacArthur. “Therefore we cannot and will not acquiesce to a government-imposed moratorium on our weekly congregational worship or other regular corporate gatherings. Compliance would be disobedience to our Lord’s clear commands.”
The popular and extremely influential California pastor noted that it is beyond the civil government’s prerogative to ban, modify, or mandate worship. In fact, Caesar gets no say in that question, because God has issued His own decrees in that area, putting it outside the realm of government jurisdiction, MacArthur argued. While everyone is required by God to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, the things that are God’s are outside of that scope, he said.
“The biblical order is clear: Christ is Lord over Caesar, not vice versa. Christ, not Caesar, is head of the church,” added MacArthur in his letter. “Conversely, the church does not in any sense rule the state. Again, these are distinct kingdoms, and Christ is sovereign over both. Neither church nor state has any higher authority than that of Christ Himself, who declared, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth’.”
In response to government threats that he would be prosecuted and jailed for opening his church and defying Newsom’s COVID decrees, MacArthur responded by casually noting that he would simply start a jail ministry if imprisoned for his faith. Authorities were not amused, relentlessly terrorizing his church and its members with threats, fines, and even an effort to revoke his authority to use the parking lot.
While MacArthur has always shunned politics, he was becoming more and more outspoken as evil grew in government even before the COVID lockdowns came for his church. For instance, after the Supreme Court issued its unconstitutional opinion purporting to invent a “right” to a homosexual “marriage,” MacArthur vowed: “We will not bow.”
“The two greatest attacks of terror on America were perpetrated by the Supreme Court,” he thundered from his pulpit, pointing to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision purporting to legalize the murder of unborn babies and the 2015 Obergefell decision pretending to establish a “right” to a so-called “same-sex marriage.” “Our country is being terrorized by the people most responsible to protect it.”
In his recent sermon on government punishing the good and protecting evil, MacArthur warned that the recent assault on the Church waged under the pretext of “fighting COVID” was a test. By closing their doors and mindlessly obeying anti-biblical decrees from mayors and governors, many churches “failed” the test, he said. There will be more tests coming, and many churches will fail those tests as well.
Despite escalating social-media censorship, Catholic priests such as Fr. James Altman who have been speaking out against government tyranny and complicit Christian leaders have also been “going viral” online. Clearly, there is a deep hunger among Christians of all denominations for truth on current events — especially amid the dramatic and unprecedented trends that seem to be accelerating.
Despite the shadow banning, over 115,000 people watched MacArthur’s latest sermon on Youtube just in the first few days after its release. Many more undoubtedly heard it on his church’s popular website, and many more will hear it in the weeks to come. Large numbers of those around the world influenced by MacArthur are themselves pastors and leaders in evangelical churches. The significance of that sermon will likely be felt worldwide for years to come.
During the war for America’s Independence, pastors such as those in the Black Robe Regiment led the way. First, they prepared their congregations by preaching what the Bible says about government. Then, in many cases, pastors such as Rev. Peter Muhlenberg and Rev. Jonas Clark literally led the men of their churches in battle.
If liberty and morality are to survive in America, the nation’s pastors and pulpits must be on the front lines.
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