A Worried Christian by John McArthur

[soundingthealarm]

A Worried Christian

I read this article from time to time that I feel tempted to worry, thought it might be timely for someone else

[anath]

Thanks sounding, this is excellent.
Many believers place their trust in the Lord for their salvation and leave it at that. Indeed, Jesus died for all our sins that we may have eternal life but there's so much more. Because he died for our sins, we now have access to and have favor with God. We now must trust in Him day by day and every moment in everything we do. And by doing this, trusting completely in Him, we yield and let Him lead.

[arapahoepark]

I believe he wrote a book called Anxious for Nothing

[soundingthealarm]

Found it on Amazon "Anxious for Nothing"

[mattfivefour]

Thanks sounding, this is excellent.
Many believers place their trust in the Lord for their salvation and leave it at that. Indeed, Jesus died for all our sins that we may have eternal life but there's so much more. Because he died for our sins, we now have access to and have favor with God. We now must trust in Him day by day and every moment in everything we do. And by doing this, trusting completely in Him, we yield and let Him lead.

Amen, sis! Amen! As a dear Christian brother and pastor friend wrote to me in an email today:

"America's churches are full of either unredeemed or baby Christians who really do not desire to have a deeper relationship or a relationship with God. The workers for the fields of harvest are not being fired up and trained as God would like them to be. As a result most people who say they are Christians are useless to the work of God."

These are sobering words. And absolutely true. Sorry for the hijack, Tim, but this just fit so well with what Susan just wrote.

[GlennO]

This article went directly into my "keeper" folder !

[SteveJM]

This article went directly into my "keeper" folder !

Mine too!

[Kathy_57]

Just bookmarked this as it is a keeper

[ShilohRose]

A Worried Christian

I read this article from time to time that I feel tempted to worry, thought it might be timely for someone else

Thank you for posting the link to this article. I have had several things preying on my mind. First of all, I listened to an excellent sermon about anxiety using the same verses, and then you posted this. I think the Lord really wanted me to get the message. Isn't God wonderful!!!!

[IamPJ]

Wow....great article! I really needed to read that. I've saved it to my favorites. Thanks for sharing!!!

[Ducati]

Though McArthur has some basic good teaching I personally am not a big fan of him. He is a Hyper- Calvanist and teaches man has no will. His teaching on "un"-conditional ES is ,(IMO) way off.

Hope I'm not changing the subject. Sorry.

[arapahoepark]

Though McArthur has some basic good teaching I personally am not a big fan of him. He is a Hyper- Calvanist and teaches man has no will. His teaching on "un"-conditional ES is ,(IMO) way off.

Hope I'm not changing the subject. Sorry.

With all do respect, I assume you're kind of ignorant about Calvinism and especially MacArthur's teachings period. Not trying to be mean but, I do hate it when people set up straw men because they don't take the time to read what people REALLY SAY OR WRITE.

Now I will not try to have people think like me or debate about the subject of Calvinism, but please get your facts straight before you talk about it, because odds are you'd be wrong if you don't. The greatest evangelists of the Great Awakening where Calvinists. Hyper-Calvinists are different from Calvinists. Hyper Calvinists are nuts.

[mattfivefour]

In the Grace Bridge Panel Discussion on September 26, 2001, Dr. MacArthur began the discussion by saying: "The doctrine of election simply means that God, uninfluenced and before creation, predetermined certain people to be saved."

I think that is as clear an expression of the fundamental belief of Calvinism as possible. Man is depraved and can never find God. God in his sovereign will and for purposes known only to Himself chooses some to be saved. His grace is irresistable. End of story. The argument about hyper-Calvinism is, respectfully, a straw horse. There is no such thing. A TULIP Calvinist must believe that God chose some to eternal heaven and some to suffer eternally in hell.

In fact the relatively moderate Calvinist Corner puts it quite plainly:

"Predestination is the doctrine that God alone chooses (elects) who is saved. He makes His choice independent of any quality or condition in sinful man. He does not look into a person and recognize something good nor does He look into the future to see who would choose Him. He elects people to salvation purely on the basis of His good pleasure. Those not elected are not saved. He does this because He is sovereign; that is, He has the absolute authority, right, and ability to do with His creation as He pleases. He has the right to elect some to salvation and let all the rest go their natural way: to hell. This is predestination."

What could be more clear than that? And this is John MacArthur's repeated, self-confessed position. And while he circles around various contrary scriptures (which I find mildly amusing because he does exactly what he accuses the Arminians of doing—and he is right, they do exactly that) nonetheless his fundamental belief is what he plainly stated at the beginning of this response.

In any case, this is not to open up a debate on Calvinism. That is a total non-starter here at RF. But I did want to jump in on this because the issue of Dr. MacArthur has been raised. I agree with Ducati that, while his scriptural teaching is often very, very good ( have listened to Dr. MacArthur for years and admire much of his scholarship), he is a Calvinist and people need to be warned about his teachings in that vein.

[arapahoepark]

In the Grace Bridge Panel Discussion on September 26, 2001, Dr. MacArthur began the discussion by saying: "The doctrine of election simply means that God, uninfluenced and before creation, predetermined certain people to be saved."

I think that is as clear an expression of the fundamental belief of Calvinism as possible. Man is depraved and can never find God. God in his sovereign will and for purposes known only to Himself chooses some to be saved. His grace is irresistable. End of story. The argument about hyper-Calvinism is, respectfully, a straw horse. There is no such thing. A TULIP Calvinist must believe that God chose some to eternal heaven and some to suffer eternally in hell.

In fact the relatively moderate Calvinist Corner puts it quite plainly:

"Predestination is the doctrine that God alone chooses (elects) who is saved. He makes His choice independent of any quality or condition in sinful man. He does not look into a person and recognize something good nor does He look into the future to see who would choose Him. He elects people to salvation purely on the basis of His good pleasure. Those not elected are not saved. He does this because He is sovereign; that is, He has the absolute authority, right, and ability to do with His creation as He pleases. He has the right to elect some to salvation and let all the rest go their natural way: to hell. This is predestination."

What could be more clear than that? And this is John MacArthur's repeated, self-confessed position. And while he circles around various contrary scriptures (which I find mildly amusing because he does exactly what he accuses the Arminians of doing—and he is right, they do exactly that) nonetheless his fundamental belief is what he plainly stated at the beginning of this response.

In any case, this is not to open up a debate on Calvinism. That is a total non-starter here at RF. But I did want to jump in on this because the issue of Dr. MacArthur has been raised. I agree with Ducati that, while his scriptural teaching is often very, very good ( have listened to Dr. MacArthur for years and admire much of his scholarship), he is a Calvinist and people need to be warned about his teachings in that vein.

I never said I wanted to start a debate about it. I could careless, what I detest is people misrepresenting other people's positions and creating straw men fallacies out of ignorance.
I am sorry but that is my biggest pet-peeve
Thanks for that post by the way.

[Ducati]

I was just saying the same thing, matt54 just said it longer.

[RT-here]

soundingthealarm, thank you for posting this! I printed it out and gave it to someone who has been really suffering with anxiety / panic for many, many yrs. She read it 3-4 times last night and it was the 1st night in months where there was no panic attack. In fact, she felt better than she could ever remember. So thanks again. Said a special prayer this morning thanking God for giving this insight to J.MacArthur and for you posting it. BTW, J. MacArthur is my favorite preacher! He's on the radio fairly early each morning, as I'm driving to my part-time job - RT

[Chris]

We really do try to keep MacArthur off the board here for his Calvinism, which is not biblical. There are other better teachers out there we can draw from than MacArthur. MacArthur is popular because he writes a lot of books that end up in the bookstores, while some of what he teaches is good, there's quite a bit that is suspect like the Calvinism stuff. I'd just prefer we leave MacArthur off the board here as many who are young in the faith will not be able to see the errors as quickly as we do. Thank you.

ETA: Per the forum rules Calvinism and Arminianism are not allowed on the board. We just go straight by the Bible, not clay man doctrines, etc.

[06] Do not promote false teachings , false prophets, heretical movements, paganism, ritualism, Two House, Ten Lost Tribes, Third Wave Latter Rain, Words of Faith (WOF), Words of Knowledge (WOK), extra biblical teachings from tele-preachers, John Wimber's Vineyard teachings, Dominion theology, Soul Sleep, Signs & Wonders, Gospel to the Stars, the Mazzaroth, Toronto Blessings, Mike Bickle's I.H.O.Prayer, 7th Day (Sabbath) keeping, liturgy of works and practices for obtaining and maintaining salvation, Eucharist, Lordship Salvation, Annihilationism, Universalism, Calvinism, Arminianism, predestination, catechisms (RCC and their offshoots), Ecumenism, baptismal regeneration, prayers for the dead, false scriptures such as the Pseudepigrapha , Apocrypha, Book of Mormon, Bible codes, Ufology, Inccubi, Succubi, Angelic procreation and cloning, demon seeds, or any other extra biblical preoccupations with demonic and extrasensory beliefs.

[RT-here]

Jesus said, "Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matt. 6:34). He was saying, "Don't worry about the future. Even though it will have its share of problems, they have a way of working themselves out at the time. Just deal with them as they come, for there's no way to solve them in advance." Providing for tomorrow is good, but worrying about tomorrow is sin because God is the God of tomorrow just like He is the God of today. Lamentations 3:23 tells us His mercies "are new every morning." He feeds us like He fed the Children of Israel--with just enough manna for the day.

I really like the bolded part. I know sometimes I need reminded about the "one day at a time" thing. Humans seem to develop habits and become addicted to things so easily. Worry can become a habit without realizing it. I think its a hard habit to kick personally, but there's some real misery if we don't. May God help us all to trust him, espescially in these times. RT

[RT-here]

We really do try to keep MacArthur off the board here for his Calvinism, which is not biblical. There are other better teachers out there we can draw from than MacArthur. MacArthur is popular because he writes a lot of books that end up in the bookstores, while some of what he teaches is good, there's quite a bit that is suspect like the Calvinism stuff. I'd just prefer we leave MacArthur off the board here as many who are young in the faith will not be able to see the errors as quickly as we do. Thank you.

ETA: Per the forum rules Calvinism and Arminianism are not allowed on the board. We just go straight by the Bible, not clay man doctrines, etc.

Sorry Chris, I missed this post. I've yet to hear anything from John MacArthur that was unbiblical. I will of course respect the rules here, but didn't see anything like that in this article. However, I think it would be very good to be able to discuss the "doctrines of grace" and man's "free will" along with scripture. God encourages us to study. I don't know how both Arminianism and Calvinism can be banned for discussion? That pretty much cuts out all study on a very central topic in scripture. We shouldn't be afraid to look at them both since we have the Bible as the final authority...that is, unless we value our opinions and our "rathers" over what the Bible might say to us. I do think it is easier to slap labels, such as Arminianism or Calvinism, onto the doctrines of grace and free will in an effort to link them to some heretical teaching of either of those men, thus ending the discussion altogether as unbiblical. Instead, forget about what those men taught and lets discuss the Bible for ourselves! RT

[Ducati]

With all do respect, I assume you're kind of ignorant about Calvinism and especially MacArthur's teachings period. Not trying to be mean but, I do hate it when people set up straw men because they don't take the time to read what people REALLY SAY OR WRITE.

Now I will not try to have people think like me or debate about the subject of Calvinism, but please get your facts straight before you talk about it, because odds are you'd be wrong if you don't. The greatest evangelists of the Great Awakening where Calvinists. Hyper-Calvinists are different from Calvinists. Hyper Calvinists are nuts.

Why ban it ?....to avoid comments like this.