The evangelical world lost a giant on July 14, 2025, when Dr. John F. MacArthur, Jr., went to be with his Lord and Savior at the age of 86. I first met Dr. MacArthur as a freshman at UCLA in the long-ago spring of 1989. I was, perhaps, what some might refer to as a 'seeker.' When I arrived on campus in the fall of 1988, Bruin Walk (the main walkway dividing the north side of campus from the south side of campus) was filled with student clubs and organizations recruiting new and returning students. I perused several of their tables and wares, picking up literature from Campus Crusade (now CRU), Maranatha, the Church of Scientology, and many others. I spent the next few months meeting with various representatives, listening to their spiels, and considering their claims.
By late fall, just before the winter holidays, I could feel the Lord leading me toward the Christian groups. My next door neighbor in Hedrick Hall, Karen, invited me to a Friday night Bible Study on campus. It was interesting, and the students seemed to have something I was missing, a joie de vivre, if you will. They sang together, lived together, lunched together, and generally enjoyed being together. I didn't know it then (this was pre-internet), but the group was an outreach from Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA, called Grace on Campus. Thirty-seven years later, the outreach is still meeting on Friday nights on the UCLA campus. The following week, I met with one of the group's small group leaders, Eddie Gonzalez. After our lunch and chat, I didn't hear back from him. When classes resumed in the spring, I asked Karen about it. She said he thought I wasn't 'ready' yet, whatever that meant. I later learned that he meant that I had expressed a self-reliance based on being a 'good person' who did not need a savior. I spent the rest of that spring reading the New Testament and a book Karen had lent me called Evidence That Demands A Verdict by Josh McDowell. I, of course, had lots of questions that my unbelieving friends (and I) couldn't answer. Then I came across the verse that changed everything:
Matthew 5:20
[20] For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (ESV)
I threw my hands up in despair and asked the only Christian I knew what that meant. I mean, weren't the scribes and Pharisees the holiest and most righteous people in Israel? If they were not good enough, how could I be? That was the day I first heard the gospel clearly explained. It was also when I learned that I needed a savior, one who would pay the penalty for my sins. That's when my agnostic self-reliance ended and I embraced Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Memorial Day weekend was coming up, and Karen invited me to visit Grace Community Church. Pastor MacArthur preached on 2 Corinthians 5:10 that Sunday. I will never forget his exposition of that verse. I became a member of the church that summer and spent the next three years eagerly absorbing his sermons, listening to older ones from the tape lending library (yeah, cassette tapes), and reading his books.
I lived on campus that summer in the Hitch Suites and worked as an access monitor at Hedrick Hall on the graveyard shift, which gave me plenty of time to read. I read numerous books like Chosen by God (R.C. Sproul), The Pleasures of God (John Piper), and MacArthur's The Gospel According to Jesus. I also read his commentary on Matthew.
When classes resumed in the fall of 1989, I met up with Eddie again. He couldn't believe how much the Lord had changed me, and he became my small group leader. From attendance at the Friday night Bible Study, small group, and Sundays spent in Sun Valley, I was immersed in John MacArthur's teaching. His ministry had a tremendous influence on my growth as a Christian in those days. His preaching also spoiled me for many years because I compared every preacher to Dr. MacArthur. Nobody else came close except John Piper and R.C. Sproul.
I give thanks to the Lord for the life and ministry of John MacArthur. His faithfulness and integrity set an example for others to follow. He walked in a manner worthy of his calling. That's not to say he was perfect. He would be the first to admit that. He also had no problem admitting when he was wrong. My college roommate for a quarter, Lee Irons, wrote to MacArthur after finding that he used the word 'infused' rather than 'imputed' in an early version of his commentary on Romans when referring to the righteousness of Christ. MacArthur acknowledged the mistake, and it was rectified. That's just one example of the humility he displayed.
I didn't always agree with MacArthur, particularly on issues distinctive to dispensationalism. Over the last decade, I struggled to reconcile his political activism with the Christianity I was converted into, particularly his endorsement of Donald Trump, and his fight with the state of California during the pandemic. Like a lot of Christians, MacArthur made the journey from condemning a president for an illicit affair (Bill Clinton) to endorsing a candidate who had cheated on at least two wives, and boasted about grabbing women by the privates because '...when you're a star, they let you do it... .' Regarding the pandemic, I was taught that Christians should obey government authorities under most circumstances, and seek the best for their brothers and sisters. Gathering together in defiance of state authorities when tens of thousands of people were dying from COVID-19 did not seem, to me, to be the right thing to do.
Nevertheless, I will forever be grateful for the teaching I received, the fellowship with other faithful believers at Grace Church, and the availability of more than 3000 sermons on Grace to You preached by Pastor MacArthur. Your faith has become sight. Bask in the presence of our Lord and Savior. I am sure the Lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.'
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