John MacArthur suffers from spiritual, cultural and theological myopia. With great due deference to a Christian leader many of us admire, his conclusions regarding the largest and fastest growing of global Christendom, the Pentecostal/charismatic movement, speaks to a man ignorant of the community’s unbridled commitment to biblical orthodoxy.
Unfortunately, this blessed Christian leader cannot differentiate between substance and style, or engaging a biblical metaphor, between Christianity’s “wine” and the varied “wineskins.”
In other words, Mr. MacArthur should be focusing on the fact that while many in the church continue to abandon our Christian faith, the Pentecostal/charismatic community continues to offer the church a legitimate growth mechanism.
Correspondingly, with great due deference of course, he must be made aware that the optics of the criticism also imply a cultural naiveté. The epicenter of the World’s Pentecostal and charismatic demographic stems not from North America but from the continents south of the equator.
In essence, he is condemning the very Christian narrative responsible for shining the light of Christ to God’s children in Africa, South America, the Caribbean and elsewhere.
As a result, this movement is one of the few non-white led and arguably the most ethnically diverse Christian movements in the globe today.
Finally, I encourage this gracious preacher to preach the word. In a world full of relativism, decadence, strife and apathy, John MacArthur should focus on preaching the word; Christ crucified, resurrected and coming back again.
The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and the Hispanic Evangelical Association.
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