John MacArthur Tells Beth Moore to ‘Go Home,’ Says Bible Doesn’t Support Female Preachers

Reformed pastor and author John MacArthur says Beth Moore needs to “go home.” He also says there is no biblical precedence for female teachers.

MacArthur offered his opinion on female preachers last week during the “Truth Matters Conference” at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. MacArthur and others on the panel were asked to offer one-word responses to given phrases.

The phrase “Beth Moore” was offered up for gut reactions.

“Go home,” MacArthur said on a video clip of the panel.

After the laughter and applause died down, he elaborated: “There is no case that can be made biblically for a woman preacher. Period. Paragraph. End of discussion.”

MacArthur continued on to say that just because someone has the ability to sell jewelry on TV doesn’t mean they are qualified to preach, indicating that female pastors are often put in position for their personality and ability to speak. He also criticized Paula White Cain as a “heretic,” saying that the church is bowing to pressure from feminists.

“This profoundly troubles me because I think the church is caving in to women preachers. Just the other day, the same thing happened with Paula White. A whole bunch of leading evangelicals endorsed her new book. She’s a heretic and a prosperity preacher, three times married. What are they thinking? … When the leaders of evangelicals are rolling over for women preachers, feminists have really won the battle.”

MacArthur argues that feminists don’t actually want equality, as evidenced by most plumbers being men.

“They want power, not equality,” he says. “This is the highest location they can ascend to that power in the evangelical church and overturn what is clearly Scripture. I think this is feminism gone to church. This is why we can’t let the culture exegete the Bible.”

He then criticized the Southern Baptist Convention’s resolution supporting critical race theory and intersectionality as well as calls for more diversity in teams translating the Bible.

Although MacArthur’s comments were met with rounds of applause at the conference, not everyone took kindly to his opinions.

SBC President J.D. Greear responded to MacArthur’s comments by welcoming Beth Moore to his church:

Dear @BethMooreLPM, you’re welcome in our home any time.#BFM2000

— J.D. Greear (@jdgreear) October 19, 2019

Moore has not directly responded to MacArthur’s comments on social media, but she did post a reminder to her followers that she responded to God’s call, not man’s, when she decided to follow Jesus:

I did not surrender to a calling of man when I was 18 years old. I surrendered to a calling of God. It never occurs to me for a second to not fulfill it. I will follow Jesus – and Jesus alone – all the way home. And I will see His beautiful face and proclaim, Worthy is the Lamb!

— Beth Moore (@BethMooreLPM) October 21, 2019

Some were so disgusted with MacArthur’s words that they’ve decided to stop selling his books. Paul Wilkinson, owner of a Christian bookstore called Searchlight in Couborg, Ontario, Canada, announced he was pulling MacArthur’s works from his store’s shelves.

“This weekend things on Twitter really blew up with the misogyny of John MacArthur becoming much more apparent, not that he said anything really new. I’m not by any means a Beth Moore fan, but his ‘Go Home’ comment to her has gone viral and not in a good way. My feeling is it’s MacArthur who should go.

“… I deeply regret the money I spent over the years stocking authors who I was made to believe were the vital voices in contemporary Christianity: Mark Dever, Kevin DeYoung, R.C. Sproul, John Piper, Paul David Tripp, Albert Mohler, Voddie Baucham, Ligon Duncan, etc.

“… One woman posted on the weekend that MacArthur’s response to another Evangelical was the last straw for her husband. He’s leaving the church altogether. If that’s what the fruit of his ministry looks like, I want out.”