John MacArthur warns church leaders against compromising with ‘the devil’s work’ By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor via Christian Post
Pastor and author John MacArthur warned thousands of church leaders this week against compromising with the world, suggesting that churches that compromise on biblical principles to be more popular in society “cross over into the devil’s work.”
On the first day of the Shepherds’ Conference Wednesday, the pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and chancellor of The Master’s University, preached about the need for churches to be separate from the world or risk becoming corrupt.
MacArthur read from Matthew 16, the passage where Jesus predicts His suffering and death. After getting rebuked by Peter, Jesus tells his disciple to “get behind me, Satan!”
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“If you think there is a way to accomplish redemption without suffering and death, you’re offering what the devil offered,” said MacArthur, who leads the syndicated Christian radio and television program “Grace to You.” “If you can make an alliance with the devil, you can skip all the suffering.”
“Men are always interested in finding the easy way, right? That’s why they compromise. That’s why they find a way to be popular and to avoid hostility and to avoid opposition and to avoid persecution and to avoid offense,” he continued.
MacArthur said that Peter’s mistaken view has been “repeated incessantly through all of Church history.” He argued that “Christians have been trying to help Jesus build His Kingdom by striking a deal with the devil.”
“Every effort to advance the Kingdom by means of the world’s schemes is a stumbling block to Christ and His cause,” the 82-year-old added. “Pragmatism wants to find a way around any kind of pain or difficulty.”
While saying “good intentions may be behind it,” MacArthur felt that efforts “to advance the Gospel by political lobbying, by any form of pragmatism, shallow Gospel entertainment, emotional manipulation, acceptance of sin and sinners, is to cross over into the devil’s work.”
