A Gospel of Doubt: The Legacy of John MacArthur's The Gospel According to Jesus
Wilkin, Robert N
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLY9IcmV16LTTRZv96nOy970jTHgdrOtiJ
Synopsis: A critique of John MacArthur's The Gospel According to Jesus. Wilkin shows that MacArthur actually teaches salvation by works. He goes through all the verses that MacArthur appeals to, and shows that eternal life is a free gift, given by faith in Jesus apart from our works. Wilkin also explains the proper roles that Christian growth, obedience, and rewards, have in life of faith.
About the Author:
Robert Wilkin(Ph.D., Dallas Theological Seminary) was born and raised in Southern California. After graduating from college he joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ, serving two years each at Arkansas State University and North Carolina State University. During his seminary studies Bob served in a variety of ministries including a year each in college and high school ministry, a year as a hospital chaplain, and three years as a pastor. After receiving his doctorate, Bob taught at Woodcrest College in Lindale, Texas and then at Multnomah Bible College in Portland, Oregon.
Feeling that there was a great need for an educational and networking organization for Christians who believe in the freeness of the Gospel, Bob started Grace Evangelical Society in June of 1986. In July of 1987 he left his teaching position to devote full time to heading up this ministry. Since its inception, readership of the bimonthly newsletter, Grace In Focus, has grown from 30 to over 9,500 in 54 countries.
Dr. Wilkin has written three books, Confident in Christ, The Road to Reward, and Secure and Sure, as well as two booklets, and hundreds of newsletter and journal articles. Bob and his wife Sharon live in Lewisville, Texas.
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A Gospel of Doubt: The Legacy of John MacArthur’s “The Gospel According to Jesus.” By Robert N. Wilkin. Corinth, TX: Grace Evangelical Society. 305 pp. Paper, $22.00.
https://faithalone.org/journal-articles/book-reviews/a-gospel-of-doubt-the-legacy-of-john-macarthurs-the-gospel-according-to-jesus/
John MacArthur wrote The Gospel According to Jesus (TGAJ) in 1988. It has been very well received in the evangelical world. A new edition was published in 2008. It is safe to say that when it comes to the Lordship Salvation debate, this book is the most well-known and read.
When it was originally written, Zane Hodges, perhaps the most well-known Free Grace proponent, considered writing a specific rebuttal to the theology in TGAJ. Instead, Hodges wrote a book entitled Absolutely Free!
This book by Wilkin is a direct response to MacArthur’s book. Even though it has been over 25 years since TGAJ was first published, Wilkin’s response is needed due to the massive influence it continues to have.
Wilkin’s book responds to TGAJ in a chapter-by-chapter format. Thus, it is easy to follow. In each chapter, Wilkin explains what MacArthur teaches and gives a Free Grace response. Wilkin consistently points out that Lordship Salvation is a gospel of doubt. If anybody accepts what MacArthur says about the gospel, they will accept a gospel that does not provide assurance of salvation. In fact, Wilkin states that it is impossible to have assurance of salvation if one accepts MacArthur’s gospel (p. 146). In one footnote, Wilkin mentions that in every chapter MacArthur teaches that the professed Christian should doubt his or her salvation (p. 131). Wilkin specifically points out that if a person believes in the gospel proclaimed by MacArthur in TGAJ, he will not have believed in the Biblical gospel (p. 149).
In this book, Wilkin also points out on numerous occasions that TGAJ teaches that faith in Jesus alone is not sufficient. MacArthur does this by saying that true faith includes works. These works include things like turning from one’s sins, obedience, taking up a cross, and perseverance. Wilkin says this is a denial of the Biblical gospel.
Even though Wilkin disagrees with MacArthur on the gospel, he makes it clear that he has no personal animosity towards MacArthur. He points out that MacArthur holds many Biblical positions (p. 11). In addition, MacArthur is zealous for good works, loves God, is concerned about people, and is an outstanding preacher (p. 261). Throughout the book, Wilkin states that he wants MacArthur and those who have accepted Lordship Salvation to return to a Biblical understanding of the gospel. No works are necessary for salvation and when a person believes in Jesus Christ for eternal life they have assurance of that salvation.
Wilkin states that MacArthur is often inconsistent in what he says about the gospel. MacArthur seems to say in some places that salvation is simply by grace through faith. Then he will immediately add works to it (p. 110). There is a great deal of double speak in Lordship Salvation. For example, MacArthur says that salvation is both free and costly (p. 148).
In addition, when discussing many texts in the NT, MacArthur will add things that are not in the text. For example, he adds the requirement of being sorry for one’s sins and guilt over those sins as being necessary in order to be saved. He does this in his discussion of the first soil in the Lord’s parable of the four soils (p. 121). Of course, Jesus does not mention these additional requirements.
Wilkin’s response is that one should not interpret the Bible based upon his theological tradition as MacArthur does. Instead, he calls the reader to be like the Bereans of Acts 17:11 and search the Scriptures to see if their theological positions are correct (p. 139). In many cases, MacArthur does not cite Scripture to support his views. He simply makes pronouncements (p. 146).
Wilkin states that the issues addressed in TGAJ to which he responds are of extreme importance. Even though it is unintentional, Lordship Salvation is guilty of the same type of willful sin that the author of Hebrews addresses in Hebrews 10. It maintains that the shed blood of Christ is not sufficient to pay for our sins. We must contribute to our salvation by taking up our crosses and follow Christ until death (p. 180). The book ends with the same appendices that end TGAJ. The first appendix deals with what other writers of the NT said about the gospel. The second addresses how Christendom has understood the gospel in the past. The third lists a number questions from readers that MacArthur answered.
This is an outstanding book. It discusses many of the parables of the Lord as well as passages like James 2. Even if a person is not familiar with the Lordship Salvation and Free Grace debate, this book will be very informative. Wilkin takes the teachings of the Lord that MacArthur discusses and does what MacArthur does not. He looks at the context of these teachings and gives a Biblically based understanding. It is a breath of fresh air to see once again that the Lord offers eternal life completely free. Assurance is part of that offer. This book is a reminder that the truth is not always found in what is the most popular view of the day. Due to the great amount of influence that TGAJ has had on the evangelical church, Wilkin’s book provides an excellent refutation to a gospel that distorts the free offer of eternal life. I highly recommend this book.
Kenneth Yates
Editor
Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society
Columbia, SC
Pulpit and Pen Reviews ‘Gospel of Doubt’
https://pulpitandpen.org/2015/12/07/pulpit-and-pen-reviews-gospel-of-doubt/
I read. I read a lot.
And yet, I don’t know if I’ve ever had as hard a time reading through any book as when I recently finished A Gospel of Doubt: The Legacy of John MacArthur’s The Gospel According to Jesus. At 306 pages in the paper version and in a seemingly ceaseless blackhole of never-ending words in the Kindle version (seriously, I thought, will it ever end?), Robert Wilkin’s response to John MacArthur on the topic of so-called Lordship Salvation was overdone and overdue (twenty years late).
Wilkin’s anti-Lordship treatise, which anathematizes MacArthur countless times (literally, I stopped counting), suffers from mischaracterizations, numerous logical fallacies and flat-out distortions and all of the above so repetitively that one chapter blurred drowsily into the next.
The thesis of Wilkin’s book is simple: John MacArthur teaches Lordship salvation and he is wrong. To assert that thesis, Wilkin provides a chapter-by-chapter and point-by-counterpoint rebuttal of MacArthur’s book, The Gospel According to Jesus.
The first and greatest challenge to my sanity when reading The Gospel of Doubt was the seeming inability or unwillingness of Wilkin to understand basic soteriological terms and phrases, a working knowledge of which would have rendered most of Wilkin’s arguments moot. Particularly frustrating was Wilkin’s use of terms like regeneration (or being ‘born again’), justification and salvation as though they were all synonymous terms. With such little theological precision it was often hard to make out Wilkin’s chief arguments, and one was left with the impression that if Wilson was capable of more theological precision, he might have nothing to argue with John MacArthur about (but I suspect he’d find something).
A line from the preface set the tone for Wilkin’s treaty…
I also hope that those in your church and schools will come back to the actual gospel according to Jesus, regeneration by faith alone in Christ alone apart from works before or after the new birth. (Kindle Locations 54-55 – emphasis mine)
Wilkin let his feelings be known from the get-go; MacArthur does not preach the “actual gospel,” MacArthur believes that one is not regenerated by faith alone and MacArthur teaches that works are somehow involved in regeneration before or after it. What I would urge the reader to understand is that if these chief complaints against MacArthur can be alleviated with a tablespoon of reality (and they can), Wilkin’s book is approximately 306 pages too long.
At the heart of Wilkin’s complaints, although he never comes out and explicitly says it, seems to be that MacArthur (in Wilkin’s opinion) doesn’t have a robust doctrine of assurance. Assurance, to put it lightly, seems to be very, very important to Wilkin. So much so, in fact, that the doctrine of assurance seems to eclipse all other doctrines in Wilkin’s mind and is the criterion for judging truth in relation to all other doctrines. Wilkin complains…
According to MacArthur’s gospel one cannot be sure of where he will spend eternity until after he dies. It is true, however, that MacArthur, like the Puritan theology he follows, urges people to search their works in hopes of finding reasons to believe they will end up in Jesus’ kingdom.(Kindle Locations 75-77)
Essentially, Wilkin is upset that MacArthur recognizes the book of 1 John is in the canon of Scripture. Like most anti-Lordship proponents, and especially with those who are hung up on easy-assurance™ (I think I just coined a term), Wilkin overlooks the reality that an entire book of Holy Writ exists “so that you can know you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). Here, the epistle-writer gifts to the church an entire book dedicated to mirroring the attitudes, characteristics and qualities common to truly-regenerate Christians so that we can compare our life and works to what’s found therein and find assurance. That notion alone is enough to be anathematized by Robert Wilkin, because essential to his neurosis is the notion that assurance is found in a subjective feeling that you believe – even if that belief leads to no outward or external change.
Believing in Jesus’ promise of everlasting life is the true basis of assurance (Kindle Locations 218-219).
Assurance that you actually have justifying belief is that…you believe. Wow. That’s helpful.
Throughout the book comes very bold claims that MacArthur believes in works-salvation.
Does MacArthur teach that “salvation is a cooperative work between God and the sinner”? Does he teach that “the sinner’s own works are instrumental in justification”? [Phil] Johnson doesn’t think so…That is precisely what MacArthur believes and teaches in chapter 2...(Kindle Locations 302-304).
Does anyone with an ounce of understanding of MacArthur’s ministry believe that he is a synergist? Does anyone believe that MacArthur teaches his own works are instrumental in justification?
The obvious answer is no. So how, then, does Wilkin make such claims – even specific claims – that MacArthur teaches such in chapter two of The Gospel of Jesus? The answer is that Wilkin might be the undisputed, reigning king of category errors. John MacArthur – like John the Apostle – teaches that the evidence of faith (which is what justifies) is what faith produces; repentance and obedience. Let me put MacArthur’s teaching succinctly.
MacArthur: We are justified by faith alone. Faith (which is intangible) produces repentance and obedience (which are both tangible and demonstrable). Do you have saving faith? Check to see if you have repentance and obedience. Another way of putting it is that justification leads to sanctification. Do you have justification? Look to see if you are being sanctified.
Wilkin: Because the evidence of justification, according to John MacArthur, is sanctification (repentance and obedience), then MacArthur believes justification is caused by repentance and obedience.
Hopefully you can see the problem in Wilkin’s argumentation and representation of MacArthur’s beliefs. This next quotation is a good demonstration of Wilkin’s inability to correctly represent MacArthur…
Next MacArthur identifies what he considers to be the core truth that is missing in the “diluted gospel” of popular Evangelicalism, i.e., the truth that “The gospel Jesus proclaimed was a call to discipleship, a call to follow Him in submissive obedience, not just a plea to make a decision or pray a prayer” (p. 37). Think about that statement. Phil Johnson adamantly denies that MacArthur believes that works are necessary for justification. And yet, here MacArthur is plainly saying that discipleship and submissive obedience are conditions of salvation (Kindle Locations 307-311).
There is no distinction in Wilkin’s mind between the Gospel calling people to discipleship and discipleship being a condition of salvation. Again, you see the problem.
MacArthur says that some Evangelicals claim that one can have everlasting life without having to turn from sin or without experiencing a “resulting change in lifestyle” (p. 38). 5 He disagrees. In other words, he believes you need to turn from your sins and have a resulting change in lifestyle to be saved (i.e., you need to do good works).(Kindle Locations 326-329).
Of course, MacArthur says no such thing in The Gospel of Jesus. He does not teach one must turn from sins and have a resulting change in lifestyle to be saved, but that if one is saved, they must turn from sins and have a resulting change in lifestyle. One must wonder if Wilkin believes making a left turn in traffic makes his turn signal go on, or if turning his windshield wipers on makes it rain. Clearly, Wilkin has a problem with cause and effect.
I don’t know how much Wilkin’s delusion is
caused by his own rejection of Monergism, but I found an interesting footnote about halfway through the book…
I believed in election to everlasting life for 25 years (1980-2005). I no longer do. I’ve come to see that the Scriptures do not teach that. What they teach is election to service. (Kindle Locations 1874-1876).
We are elected to serve God, but not to be saved by God…even though one has to come after the other? Again, you can see Wilkin’s problem with cause and effect. How one can be elect unto service but not elect unto salvation is an unexplainable absurdity – and is about as absurd as claiming a salvation can change a man’s eternal destination but not his temporal behavior.
If you want to read A Gospel of Doubt, go right ahead. But don’t read A Gospel of Doubt thinking you’re going to have a better understanding of what is taught by John MacArthur.
[Contributed by JD Hall]
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