Is John MacArthur a lifelong plagiarist?
A superstar Evangelical pastor’s books seem to be written by others
Published in
6 min readFeb 13, 2022
His books have guided Evangelicalism for years. His study Bible alone has sold near two million copies. But how much was John MacArthur writing?
There’s been talk of the pastor of Grace Community Church, the apparent leader of the Evangelical world, using ghostwriters. The Bible scholar Michael F. Bird noted in 2014: “It’s a well known fact that John MacArthur’s books are not written by John MacArthur, but by Philip R. Johnson at GCC.”
But some more details having been coming out.
MacArthur’s story doesn’t seem to be one about a man who is theological whiz.
Growing up he was mostly notable for being a footback jock. A biography in 2011, Iain Hamish Murray’s John MacArthur: Servant of the Word and Flock, reads like a comedy about an athlete and his ambitious father.
When Jack MacArthur, a noted pastor, went to get his son into a seminary, he introduced him by saying: “He’s basically a football player.”
