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John MacArthur

John MacArthur

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Aug 13, 2025

About

John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, as well as an author, conference speaker, president of The Master’s College and Seminary, and featured teacher with the Grace to You media ministry.


In 1969, after graduating from Talbot Theological Seminary, John came to Grace Community Church. The emphasis of his pulpit ministry is the careful study and verse-by-verse exposition of the Bible, with special attention devoted to the historical and grammatical background behind each passage. Under John’s leadership, Grace Community Church's two morning worship services fill the 3,500-seat auditorium to capacity. Several thousand members participate every week in dozens of fellowship groups and training programs, most led by lay leaders and each dedicated to equipping members for ministry on local, national, and international levels.


In 1985, John became president of The Master's College (formerly Los Angeles Baptist College), an accredited, four-year liberal arts Christian college in Santa Clarita, California. In 1986, John founded The Master's Seminary, a graduate school dedicated to training men for full-time pastoral roles and missionary work.


John is also president and featured teacher with Grace to You. Founded in 1969, Grace to You is the nonprofit organization responsible for developing, producing, and distributing John’s books, audio resources, and the “Grace to You” radio and television programs. “Grace to You” radio airs more than 1,000 times daily throughout the English-speaking world, reaching major population centers with biblical truth. It also airs nearly 1,000 times daily in Spanish, reaching 23 countries across Europe and Latin America. “Grace to You” television airs weekly on DirecTV in the United States, and is available for free on the Internet worldwide. All of John’s 3,500 sermons, spanning more than four decades of ministry, are available for free on this website.


Since completing his first best-selling book The Gospel According to Jesus in 1988, John has written nearly 400 books and study guides, including Our Sufficiency in Christ, Strange Fire, Ashamed of the Gospel, The Murder of Jesus, A Tale of Two Sons, Twelve Ordinary Men, The Truth War, The Jesus You Can’t Ignore, Slave, One Perfect Life, and The MacArthur New Testament Commentary series. John's titles have been translated into more than two dozen languages. 


The MacArthur Study Bible, the cornerstone resource of his ministry, is available in English (NKJ, NAS, ESV), Spanish, Russian, German, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Chinese.


In 2015 The MacArthur New Testament Commentary series was completed. In its thirty-three volumes, John takes you detail by detail, verse by verse, through the entire New Testament.


John and his wife, Patricia, live in Southern California and have four married children: Matt, Marcy, Mark, and Melinda. They also enjoy the enthusiastic company of their fifteen grandchildren.

Posts (26)

Mar 25, 2025 ∙ 4 min
Should Fallen Pastors Be Restored?
It always saddens me to watch church leaders bring reproach on the church of Jesus Christ. What’s perhaps most shocking to me is how frequently Christian leaders sin grossly, then step back into leadership almost as soon as the publicity dies away. It seems like Christians don’t expect much of their leaders anymore. Some time ago I received a tape of a recommissioning service for a pastor who had made national news by confessing to an adulterous affair. It disturbed me. After little more than...
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Apr 18, 2024 ∙ 2 min
Why Should I Keep My Heart Pure?
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" ( Matt. 5:8 ). There are basically only two kinds of religion in the world: those based on human achievement and those based on divine accomplishment. Religion comes in many forms. Almost every conceivable belief or behavior has been incorporated into some religious system at some point in time. But really there are only two kinds of religion: one says you can earn your way to heaven; the other says you must trust in Jesus Christ alone....
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Oct 6, 2023 ∙ 2 min
Prepare for Spiritual Service
"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable . . . that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work" ( 2 Tim. 3:16-17 ). Scripture equips you for spiritual service. Each week I have the privilege of interacting with more than one hundred students at The Master's Seminary. One of my greatest joys is seeing their determination to do God's work in God's way. That attitude is the key to success in ministry, as Joshua learned when he assumed leadership over the Israelites...
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Sep 23, 2023 ∙ 5 min
Rahab and the Scarlet Thread
The ancient city of Jericho was a hotbed of wicked Amorite culture. It was heavily fortified with imposing walls. It was also Israel’s entry point into the Promised Land. Conquest of Jericho was the necessary first phase of Israel’s military campaign to claim the land God had promised to Abraham centuries earlier ( Genesis 15:7–16 ). Joshua, Israel’s general, sent spies to carry out a dangerous reconnaissance mission to study Jericho’s defenses. Fear Motivates Faith That the spies would...
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Jun 29, 2023 ∙ 2 min
Integrity Draws You to God
“Then Darius the king wrote to all the peoples, nations, and men of every language who were living in all the land: ‘May your peace abound! I make a decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom men are to fear and tremble before the God of Daniel; for He is the living God and enduring forever, and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed, and His dominion will be forever. He delivers and rescues and performs signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, who has also delivered Daniel from...
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Jun 29, 2023 ∙ 2 min
You are a Friend of God
"Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, 'And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,' and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone" ( James 2:21-24 ). You are a friend of God if you love Him and obey His Word. Can...
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May 30, 2023 ∙ 3 min
A Christian's Job Description
Years ago, a mundane event turned into one of the more interesting and memorable moments of my life. I was flying from Los Angeles to El Paso, Texas, to speak at a men’s conference. I was seated in the dreaded middle seat, slowly progressing toward El Paso. The man in the window seat next to me was a Muslim from the Middle East. His presence was distinguished and palpable—he was in traditional dress and had a quiet demeanor. About thirty minutes into the flight, he looked over at me. I had my...
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Jan 13, 2023 ∙ 6 min
Eli: The Passive Parent
Cameron Buettel is an author partnering with Pastor John MacArthur at www.gracetoyou.org. Here are his powerful insights. Parenting is never easy. Nobody in this fallen world has mastered it. And when it comes to raising children in the fear of the Lord, fathers shoulder the greatest biblical responsibility—being accountable to God as the heads of their homes ( Ephesians 6:4 ;  1 Timothy 3:4–5 ). The need to learn and grow in the role of fatherhood never ceases, and Scripture is our...
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Jan 6, 2023 ∙ 14 min
Why is Christ's Imminent Return So Important?
Why Is Christ’s Imminent Return So Important? Why is it so important to believe that Christ could come at any moment? Because the hope of Christ’s imminent coming has a powerful sanctifying and purifying effect on us. “Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” ( 1 John 3:3 ). The knowledge that Christ’s coming is drawing closer should motivate us to prepare, to pursue Christlikeness, and to put off all the things that pertain to our former lives without Christ. ...
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