Pastor’s Blunt Words Roil Christian Waters : Religion: The Rev. John MacArthur Jr. takes charismatics and fellow members of the clergy to task for failing to require more diligent faith from their flocks.

With sweeping attacks in his books and radio sermons on the alleged doctrinal errors of fellow clergy, the pastor of a large San Fernando Valley church has emerged as the enfant terrible of conservative Protestantism.

The latest Christian best-seller by the Rev. John MacArthur Jr. of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley declares that countless preachers “witlessly” blend the “pseudo-science” of psychology with Christianity to attract churchgoers.

In an earlier Christian best-seller, MacArthur contended that too many clergy dispense “easy believism” by not requiring more diligent faith from believers.

And in a series of Sunday night sermons that will be published next year, MacArthur threatens to roil the waters further by renewing his assault on Pentecostalists and charismatics because of their speaking in tongues, demon-fighting and faith-healing.

MacArthur, who has been pastor of his nondenominational church for 22 years, believes with many fundamentalists that everyday miracles and speaking in tongues--utterances in languages unknown to the speaker--ended during the time of the Christian apostles. Thus, for MacArthur, old-line Pentecostalists and the mainstream charismatics erroneously claim extra “gifts of the Holy Spirit”--with the effect of relegating ordinary Christians to a second-class status.

MacArthur sees himself “as a channel for God’s truth. I am driven by a passion to give a voice to Scripture. As the (religious) scene shifts, I’ve become more or less a problem to the evangelical church.”

He has become such a problem, that in reviewing MacArthur’s latest book, “Our Sufficiency in Christ,” one evangelical publication concluded: “MacArthur’s unrelenting, hard-boiled approach forces us to . . . side with him and throw out baby, bathwater and all; react defensively, or simply turn away from the argument. I recommend the latter.”

One of MacArthur’s chief battles is with the charismatic movement, a dispute many conservative Protestants feel is pointless.

By the end of the 1970s, most doctrinal battles over the authenticity of charismatic gifts died out. The two sides found more in common with each other than they did with what they saw as a sinful, secularized culture.

“The charismatic movement has all the elements of a mystical approach--coming to truth, not through the objective revelation of Scripture, but through intuition, experience and emotion,” MacArthur said.

But said J.I. Packer, a renowned evangelical theologian at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada, “the charismatics are here to stay. They have permeated most of evangelicalism. The wiser course is not to attack them head-on but rather to watch and moderate their emphasis.”

On the other hand, author Michael Horton, president of Christians United for Reformation, a conservative think tank in Anaheim, praised MacArthur for being “probably the most vocal opponent of the charismatic movement.

“There is too much fear that the evangelical movement will come apart at the seams if we think critically and ask questions,” said Horton.

MacArthur, 52, a polished preacher who attracts 8,000 to 9,000 people for his church’s three Sunday services, is president of The Master’s College in Newhall and guides a 175-student seminary on the church grounds. His views have become known nationally through his 20 books, appearances at pastors’ conferences and his taped sermons, now being broadcast on about 200 U.S. and foreign radio stations.

MacArthur and his church drew attention this year when one of its elders, Los Angeles Assistant Police Chief Robert L. Vernon, was under investigation for allegedly allowing his religious beliefs to improperly influence his decisions on the job. Vernon denied accusations that he pressured officers to attend his church, and said that allegations were unfair that he discouraged the hiring and promotion of women and homosexuals.

At a pro-Vernon rally in June, MacArthur and elders at his church issued a statement asking, “How long until the architects of this attack on biblical Christianity and religious freedom are building furnaces to burn all the ‘politically incorrect’ religionists?”

MacArthur’s penchant for such hyperbole is noted even by religious allies such as Horton, who has solicited a chapter from MacArthur for an upcoming book critiquing popular evangelical trends. “In order to make a point, he overstates his case,” Horton said.

MacArthur has acknowledged that he is considered divisive and “out of sync” with pastors who feel that fundamentalist-style Bible teaching drives many potential churchgoers away.

“Apart from the charismatics who rant and rave and do their own thing on television,” MacArthur said, “if you listen to the preachers today, you’re going to hear spiritual psychology, preaching about family, marriage, love. They are trying to raise people’s comfort level, to help the hurting people.

“That preoccupation with comfort zones and with relationships begins to dictate to the preacher that he not say anything that hurts, is painful, or divisive or even doctrinal,” MacArthur claimed.

Many members of MacArthur’s church agree with him that conforming to biblical absolutes is essential.

“Church is meant to examine ourselves constantly to see if we are doing what God wants us to do,” said Joy Land of Valencia. “The power of positive thinking makes some feel good; that is not biblical, however.” Her husband, Alan Land, believes that MacArthur is a “shepherd protecting people from false teachers.”

MacArthur does not name names in his books unless they are well-known figures. But some unidentified examples are recognizable to church insiders.

For example, the Rev. Jess Moody agrees he is the unnamed pastor who urged his congregation to relocate the church, saying that the Lord had instructed him three times to do it and that “God’s plan” could be likened to the Israelites’ move to the Promised Land.

“That’s the classic intimidation of an appeal to mysticism!” wrote MacArthur. “He implied that anyone who disagreed with his plan was opposing God’s will.”

Several years ago, Moody relocated the old Van Nuys First Baptist Church to Chatsworth and renamed it Shepherd of the Hills Church.

“Many pastors attacked by John have worried that John believes that the Bible (provides) the only leadership,” Moody said. “We believe the Holy Spirit leads people also, but never contrary to Scripture. The leadership we received was based on . . . God, the Bible and good sense. Without those three you end up with nonsense.”

MacArthur does maintain cordial relations with some colleagues whose theology he attacks.

One example is the Rev. Jack Hayford, a leading Pentecostalist and pastor of the large Church on the Way in Van Nuys.

“I have a lot of respect for charismatics who love Christ,” MacArthur said. “Jack (Hayford) and I have a lot in common. Periodically, we get together and talk about ministry, agreeing to disagree.”

Likewise, MacArthur said he respects Christian psychologist James Dobson, founder-president of Focus on the Family, a nationally influential, multimedia ministry now moving its Pomona headquarters to Colorado. Focus on the Family spokesman Paul Hetrick said MacArthur and Dobson are friends and “do not disagree on primary issues.”

Although his book dismisses psychology as a field with “atheistic” roots and a complement to Bible teaching only for some behavior modifications, MacArthur said that he is not critical of Dobson because he “is not a purveyor of psychotherapy.”

MacArthur nevertheless said he has problems with the graduate school of psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena and with Christian radio talk shows that use pop psychology.

Speaking of an evangelical pastor who was fired for committing adultery, MacArthur said, “The way it was articulated was that he had been struggling and needed time for help and healing. What they meant was, ‘He had been sinning, and needed time for chastening and repentance.’

“This is a frightening thing to me,” MacArthur added. “If you redefine everything in non-moral, non-spiritual terms, you put the church out of business.”