Is John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, Paul Washer Heretics and False Teacher?

Question: Is John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, Paul Washer Heretics and False Teacher? 

Jerry: The way I answer this question will not satisfy everyone. 

One camp will oversimplify and say Yes. They will provide ample quotes to their side. However they will not look at evidence that they do teach sound doctrine.

The other camp will oversimplify and answer No. They will provide ample quotes to their side. However they will not look at evidence that they have error in their doctrine.

In the middle is the Christian who wants no part of the debate or others give a reasoned biblical response using discernment and grace. 

I take the position of John R. Rice when it comes to differences among Christians with whom we differ on doctrines:

(I) have felt a clear duty to love born-again Christians, people who had a holy devotion to Christ and the Bible and the fundamentals of the Christian faith and who tried to win souls. So [The Sword of the Lord] published a sermon on Hell by Colonel Brengle of the Salvation Army and another by Dr. H. C. Morrison. Though we did not agree to their teaching of entire sanctification, we did believe what they preached in those messages.

We publish messages by Dr. James M. Gray, president of Moody Bible Institute, and Bishop Ryle of England because they were noble, good men of God. We did not publish and did not agree with some of their Episcopalian viewpoints.

We publish many sermons by Charles H. Spurgeon, great soul winner and mighty preacher, though we do not agree with part of his Calvinism. We have published sermons by Dr. Carl McIntire, though we do not agree on sprinkling babies.

This editor came out of the Southern Baptist Convention, refusing to support the relatively small number of modernists then in the program, when Dr. Carl McIntire was still in the Northern Presbyterian Church, Dr Bob Jones, Sr., was still in the Methodist Church and Dr. W. B. Riley was still in the Northern Baptist Convention. We were pressing hard against the liberalism in Fuller Seminary and trying to save it for the fundamentals of the faith when Dr Woodbridge was active on the faculty and before he came out.

We made our open break with modernistic leaders and programs when it was a lonely, hard business and not convenient or popular. We helped fundamentalists and gave them a platform and helped them wherever we could. With Dr. H. A. Ironside and Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., we worked actively in the organization of the National Association of Evangelicals. I was on the International Commission of that group when the executive secretary made a strong attack on Dr. Carl McIntire and I immediately resigned. I would not be counted against a godly fundamentalist.

I think that well-informed people all know that my position has been consistent and my voice has been clear in standing against modernism and against association and support of modernists and in defense of fundamental doctrine and fundamental brethren. I have tried to practice Biblical separation.    John R. Rice, Come Out or Stay In (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974) 217 – 221.

The first illustration I am presenting is why over simplified answers do not really answer the question. The first preacher of God's grace is Paul. All sound Bible Teachers are like a pendulum that can swing from one extreme of Arminian/Humanism/DAISY to Calvinism/Fatalism/TULIP.

D.A.I.S.Y. - Arminianism

D: Diminished Depravity
A: Abrogated Election
I: Impersonal Atonement
S: Sedentary Grace
Y: Yieldable Justification

T.U.L.I.P. - Calvinism

T: Total Depravity
U: Unconditional Election
L: Limited Atonement
I: Irresistible Grace
P: Perseverance of the Saints

The Christian who is centered on the Pauline Epistles will avoid going from one extreme to the other. 

The problem is that the Arminian will brand the grace centered Christian as a Calvinist when we show from the Bible that God elects the believer in Christ or that man is depraved in sin. 

The Calvinist will brand the grace centered Christian as a Arminian when we show from the Bible that salvation offered by God and the believer receives it by faith or that we do not have to keep the Mosaic law as the rule of life for the Christian who has the Holy Spirit for sanctification.

Charles Spurgeon, a Reformed Baptist and Calvinist said it well.

Pastor Andy Woods, a Grace Theologian puts it this way.

There is so many degrees between the anachronism DAISY and TULIP....I have created my own called GARDEN

The problem we have with John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, Paul Washer and Lordship Salvation goes all the way back in history to Galatia. 

Recommend Study on Galatians:

Bible Prophecy and Grace: Who Has Bewitched You
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.2657023251211878&type=3

Galatians: Gil Rugh
https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=330181217456

Galatians: J Vernon McGee
https://www.blueletterbible.org/audio_video/mcgee_j_vernon/Gal/Galatians.cfm

What happened in Galatia?

Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.  Acts 2:1 & 2

 

The "certain people" here are known in history as the Judaizer. 

In the early church, those who taught a combination of God’s grace and human effort were called “Judaizers.” The word Judaizer comes from a Greek verb meaning “to live according to Jewish customs.” The word appears in Galatians 2:14 where Paul describes how he confronted Peter for forcing Gentile Christians to “Judaize.”

A Judaizer taught that, in order for a Christian to truly be right with God, he must conform to the Mosaic Law. Circumcision, especially, was promoted as necessary for salvation. Gentiles had to become Jewish proselytes first, and then they could come to Christ. The doctrine of the Judaizers was a mixture of grace (through Christ) and works (through the keeping of the Law). This false doctrine was dealt with in Acts 15 and strongly condemned in the book of Galatians. 

To add anything to the work that Christ did for salvation is to negate God’s grace. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, not by returning to the Law. “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing” (Galatians 2:21).

There are many groups today with beliefs/practices very similar to those of the Judaizers of the New Testament.  https://www.gotquestions.org/Judaizers.html  

There were three types of Jews in the New Testament. 

Judaism: These were unbeliever's who opposed Christianity to live in self-righteousness by faith. They persecuted Messianic Jews for being followers of the Way. Later they would be called Christians. They would try to compel them to return to Judaism or they would expel them or kill them. 

Messianic Jews: These were believer's would accept Jesus as their Messiah and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to Jews and Gentiles and immersed new believer's into the Church. They were followers of the Way and then were called Christians. 

Judaizers: These were Jewish believer's who mixed Judaism into their faith to have both law and grace. They judged other Jewish Christians for their abandoning their Jewish Heritage. 

Do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Colossians 2:16  & 17

They were also unbelieving Jews who mixed the parts of Messianic Judaism they liked with the Law and their traditions. 

They both shared a hatred of Paul and the gospel of God's grace because they regarded it as antinomian heresy. 

“Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place. Acts 21:28

While Paul worked among the Jews and Gentiles preaching the gospel of God's grace and disciplining when they came to faith....the Judizers came to proselytize these new converts to their perverted gospel.    

Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers...

The Judaizers would counter Paul's work by perverting the gospel they learned that they received by teaching:

Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved....

They were teaching saved believer's they were not saved by grace...they needed the law and grace to be saved. This is not first tense salvation, justification,...the Galatians were already justified by faith....this gospel would affect their second tense of salvation...their sanctification.

These same thing is being taught in Churches today:

a) Unless you...

• are baptized
• take the sacraments
• speaking in tongues
• repent and confess your sins 
• make Jesus Lord of your life
• produce fruits of righteousness

b) …according to....

• Church traditions
• the King James Version, the Latin Vulgate
• the Mosaic Law
• the Book of Acts (baptismal regeneration, speaking in tongues)
• the Pauline Epistles (hyper-dispensationalism)
• the second use of the Law

c) …taught by...

• the Church Fathers
• Augustine
• John Calvin
  
• Arminius
• John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, etc. 
  
• Pentecostal teachers

 …..you cannot be saved....

I have been proselytized many time in the same manner by modern Judaizers trying to covert me away from the gospel of God's grace that saved me. I have witness when they teach the simple gospel to sinners to win them and then when they are saved, covert them again to the perverted gospel that adds works. I have had converts that I lead to Christ, reconverted to Arminianism, Reformed, Pentecostal or Roman gospel. 

Paul said to the Galatians of this gospel:

 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! Galatians 1:6-9

Paul is not saying here that the believer's among the Judaizers were unsaved or lost their salvation by teaching their perverted gospel...rather their perversion of the gospel places them under God's curse. This means the loss of blessings, the loss of fellowship with God, loss of rewards, etc. This same truth applies to Lordship Salvation and those who teach it.

When these believer's accept this gospel, then the Judaizer's taught that sanctification to be righteous was also by keeping the Law, the Feasts and the traditions of Judaism. 

Paul said to the Galatians:

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?  Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Galatians 3:1-6

The Judaizer's were trying to alienate the Galatians from Paul:

You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them. Galatians 1:10, 11, 16 & 17 

They were so influential that they even caused the Apostle Peter to fear them to briefly deviated from from the gospel of God's grace. This would lead to Paul rebuking him for his error.

When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? Galatians 2:11-14

So how does this apply to John Mac Arthur? 

I have heard of John's testimony of salvation and about how God called him to the ministry. I have watch his life and teaching and can say that from the evidence he is a genuine believer in Jesus and is NOT a false teacher of a heretic. But neither will I endorse him as a sound teacher because of errors in the gospel he preaches. The strongest word I will use is that he is a compromised teacher. 

Pastor John started as an Evangelical. Overtime John was was Galatianized. I know this because I followed his teaching before he published his book "The Gospel According to Jesus" in 1989.

This is an example of John MacArthur before 1989 and after.

 So how did Pastor MacArthur changed from Evangelical to Gomarist TULIP Calvinism?
He tells us in his own words:

So Pastor MacArthur confesses that he gradually went from Grace Theology that he learned from Dispensational teaching to TULIP by what he read from Reformed Theologians. 

In 1989 when Pastor MacArthur published "The Gospel According to Jesus" is when he embraced Lordship Salvation as taught by Reformed Theologians with a remnant of his dispensationalism to counter with Covenant Theology and Replacement Theology that is a part of some Reformed  Teaching. 

After 1989 R.C. Sproul, Paul Washer and other Reformed Teachers became his friend and featured speakers at Grace to You and Master's Seminary. 

Overtime Pastor John would become hostile to Grace Theology and dispensationalism. 

 So to wrap this up...the answer is that John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, Paul Washer are not Heretics and False Teachers. They are saved Christians who are Judaized that add works to the gospel of God's grace. They are under God's curse for teaching the perverted gospel of Lordship Salvation, but they will not go to hell like the False Teachers and heretics of 2 Peter 2. However at the Bema Seat of Christ they will suffer loss when their works are tried by fire. 1 Corinthians 3:11-15. 

The difference between Reformed Teachers and False Teachers? 

Reformed Teachers hold to the Orthodox Doctrines of the Christian faith with error in their doctrines and their gospel,

1. The inerrancy of the Bible.
2. The literal nature of the biblical accounts, especially regarding Christ's miracles and the Creation account in Genesis.
3. The virgin birth of Christ.
4. The bodily resurrection and physical return of Christ.
5. The substitutionary atonement of Christ on the cross.

https://www.gotquestions.org/sound-doctrine.html

While False Teachers and Heretics deny the Orthodox Doctrines of the Christian faith and teach another Jesus, a different gospel by another spirit (2 Corinthians 11:1-4, 12-15, Galatians 1:6-9 and 1 John 4:1-6). 

One example of many: https://www.gotquestions.org/questions_false-doctrine.html

The Word of Faith movement grew out of the Pentecostal movement in the late 20th century. Its founder was E. W. Kenyon, who studied the metaphysical New Thought teachings of Phineas Quimby. Mind science (where "name it and claim it" originated) was combined with Pentecostalism, resulting in a peculiar mix of orthodox Christianity and mysticism. Kenneth Hagin, in turn, studied under E. W. Kenyon and made the Word of Faith movement what it is today. Although individual teachings range from completely heretical to completely ridiculous, what follows is the basic theology most Word of Faith teachers align themselves with.

At the heart of the Word of Faith movement is the belief in the "force of faith." It is believed words can be used to manipulate the faith-force, and thus actually create what they believe Scripture promises (health and wealth). Laws supposedly governing the faith-force are said to operate independently of God’s sovereign will and that God Himself is subject to these laws. This is nothing short of idolatry, turning our faith—and by extension ourselves—into god.

From here, its theology just strays further and further from Scripture: it claims that God created human beings in His literal, physical image as little gods. Before the fall, humans had the potential to call things into existence by using the faith-force. After the fall, humans took on Satan’s nature and lost the ability to call things into existence. In order to correct this situation, Jesus Christ gave up His divinity and became a man, died spiritually, took Satan’s nature upon Himself, went to hell, was born again, and rose from the dead with God’s nature. After this, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to replicate the Incarnation in believers so they could become little gods as God had originally intended. https://www.gotquestions.org/Word-Faith.html