Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro recently interviewed Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church on a variety of topics, including the church in America, Christian nationalism, the war on America’s children, and why we believe in the gospel. “A lot of churches have lost their sense of transcendence,” MacArthur told Shapiro. “It’s like going to a rock concert. It’s like going to a TED Talk. It’s like someone tells you that you’re a really amazing person and that you can talk your world into existence. It’s a psychological and sociological game, but it’s missing the sense of transcendence.”
“There is a lack of a sense of connection with God, of finding reality in an invisible means of support beyond oneself,” he added.
Regarding Christian nationalism, Shapiro pointed out that religious leaders are unfairly accused of being political whenever they discuss moral issues. MacArthur explained that it is the politicians who have drifted from sociological and economic views to moral ones. The Christian Standt I will report.
“I grew up in a world where Democrats had a sociological view and an economic view and Republicans had a sociological and economic view,” he said. “There were no moral issues. It was about labor and ownership. Those were the two political parties. Republicans created jobs, Democrats managed jobs. Striking a balance there was what political leaders were supposed to achieve.”
MacArthur said the more directly political arrangement “died away at the beginning of this century when politicians started to make their policies moral, which in my view is immoral. When you start saying you’re pro-LGBTQ, pro-gay, pro-abortion, pro-transgender, […]”Everything has moved from the economic definition of the past to these moral questions.”
“So, as a Christian, I’m still speaking on a moral level,” he continued. “It just so happens that politicians have stepped into the moral world and created confusion.”
MacArthur recently published his latest book. The War on Children: Providing Refuge for Children in a Hostile WorlddHe explained that without guidance, young people are led to evil by their culture.
The pastor pointed out that the war on children begins with a desire not to have children in the first place, which leads to abortions, or, once born, to be corrupted by society, which leads to an increase in mental illness among young people.
“If the child survives, let the culture raise them,” McArthur said, referring to a common parenting approach. “It’s easier to take your child and make them take medicine than it is to turn off your cell phone. It doesn’t make sense. It just creates problem after problem.” [that] It leads to irresponsibility.”
In a similar statement, MacArthur Said In April, he argued that there is no such thing as mental illness, that post-traumatic stress disorder is just “sadness,” and that the sharp rise in mental illness among children is due to a failure to teach kids personal responsibility.
Later in the interview, Shapiro asked MacArthur how a skeptic can believe the gospel.
“The only faith that makes sense is one that has an object that gives you what you hope for,” MacArthur said, adding that many people believe lies.
For example, he recently told the story of a man who believed he could fly and jumped off the roof of his house.
MacArthur cited the historical fact that the Gospels fulfill many Old Testament prophecies about Jesus Christ and that many who witnessed Christ’s resurrection were willing to give their lives for it, saying that rational faith must be based on facts.
He also argued that the Bible can defend itself and encouraged skeptics to read it.
“Read the Bible. Just read it. The Bible has the ring of truth. The Bible will protect you,” he said. “It’s like a lion. You don’t protect it. You open the cage and let it out and it’s fine. That’s what the Bible is about. But it’s also about morality. There’s something in people’s hearts that resonates with the morality of the Bible.”
Photo credit: ©Facebook/John MacArthur
