2022: Of Silence and Resolve
Last I saw of the interwebs, Owen Strachan and the Calvinist clan had given us permission to celebrate Christmas. Thankful for that greenlight as we all were, I endeavored to enjoy the gorgeous weather, wonderful food and fellowship with family and friends. As I tried to convince my friends that Wakanda was not a real place, that crypto was still a bad idea, but that indeed the Legacy Standard Bible is good for nothing but pointing out the depths to which mismanagement abounds and the staggering Dunning-Kruger that exists in Christianity today. Heaven help us.
The end of the year bit us at the end, no doubt, as hospitals are reporting a pretty severe uptick in hospitalizations and though we have avoided another masking mandate (which no one would have followed, btw), it is a worry that a new variant XBB now in the Northeast will surely find its way to the rest of the country. I was lucky that we did not lose anyone, but several friends and family do have some long-term complications with Covid that they are dealing with. We are no longer Calvinist, but we persevere nonetheless.
The primary motivation for writing this article was the constant refrain for so long of, “when is John MacArthur going to respond to…or speak about this allegation?” I saw it throughout the year as more and more stories of abuse, neglect, and harassment/retaliation came to the surface and people looked to the church on Roscoe to explain or respond to these many, many stories.
Silence
I was at Grace in the 90s and beyond and by all meaningful definitions of the word, I was a MacArthurite. I had the books, pamphlets, signed copies of the Bible when it came out, tithed, gave my time, volunteered, sponsored short-term missions, you name it. We did it. Pre-internet days at Grace Community Church were happy ones. We were ignorant, but darn happy. Yes, there were theological controversies, even splits among the notables of the day and the “what do we do with Joel Osteen and Rick Warren” (sorry, Beth Moore) conversations were brought up. Boggles the mind now because a pastor has absolutely no authority outside of the four walls that he serves, but that’s not the way at Graceland. We dictate, exposit and you fall in line. I can’t tell you how deeply I regret those years of spiritual stagnation, of trying to make a square block fit into a round hole, but I’ve certainly been trying to make up for the lost time in the next 50 articles or so. Believe that.
Here come the noughts, tho.
My pastors, the “Shepherds” who lead the fellowship groups (I almost feel like I sound like a former Scientologist with all of this explanation of terms), who were featured in many of the stories by Julie Roys, seemed different. There was a shift, if not in my own discernment and vision, but in the spirit of the place. People I knew started to seem worried. Some were fired and never heard from again. Some brought grievances to the elders, but nothing came of the grievances. Quite frankly, there was a lot more muscle. More law enforcement, more weapons on the premises.
2003. Carey Hardy and the appeal to the church for the legal defense fund of a convicted pedophile.
Dr. Snider was fired.
Dr. Dennis Swanson was fired (after he managed to secure the accreditation for both schools one last time, no doubt). Convenient for them.
Then, seminary students had started recording chapels where John had to ameliorate the probation reality, brush it off, and state with the utmost paranoia that it was an “attack by Satan himself”. No, sir, it was incompetence, cultivating an environment of intimidation, and then later, like in the last days of Stalin, fire and humiliate anyone that dared have an idea or oppose your aim. 2020 was the finest example of this.
Jane.
Your move, Abner Chou. Please do the right thing.
The more stories I list, the more I am embarrassed to have stayed as long as I did. I am nothing short of devastated as I see the same faces at Grace now, especially those who I know have lost loved ones, listening to John lie to them about the pandemic. That amount of denial I could not believe that they were capable, but it just goes to show that you don’t really know how people will react until they are put in that situation. Repent. There is time.
As I thought about this article (and yes, there is some thought to it, despite what my frenemies might think), I kept returning to this point. For all the influence of Grace Community Church, the tens of thousands of people that have been members, I have never heard the testimony of someone who was ministered to and shared the Gospel by a GCC member.
I have NEVER heard the story of someone on a plane, or at a conference, and they start off with, “I was approached by a grey-haired gentleman, gave me a Bible, asked my name and told me that I was a sinner that God’s only begotten Son had come to save.” Have you? Have you seen anyone like Lawson, Riccardi, Holland go door to door and do a little street preaching?
How antithetical to everything that the Bible teaches! To remain silent while your family, friends and neighbor live and die without Christ. That is a useless Christian, as the Bible calls it. This theme of Silence tho.
A church that does not minister.
An evangelical that does not evangelize.
50 Elders, but one spokesman, Phil Johnson.
No interviews, but to a select vetted few. (Good on you, Allie Beth Stuckey.)
No comment to any media outlets.
Just words from the pulpit, prior to the service, blacked out of the Livestreams (some of the footage I still have).
It was undoubtedly a year of missed opportunities. Covid and the church’s concern for the health of our neighbor, our brethren could have been a time revival as people saw how much we cared. Putting our money to good use instead of buying another piece of property, another house for an elder (more on that later), but then this isn’t a church. It’s a business. It’s a corporation. Enron had a better outlook.
I can only ends this by saying that if you ever get discouraged by the way things are and wonder where God is and His justice as more and more people are abused and neglected, I refer to the thumbnail and central text of the Best Preacher I know (who did not exposit!). We will have to account for every word and deed which we all have done. Nothing goes beyond the care and consideration and knowledge of God.
Dear Reader, you are loved. Believe that.
PS-Found: John MacArthur’s PhD?
