All My Christian Heroes Are Now Dead… Or Dead To Me

John MacArthur is dead. And with him, the last of my heroes.

I became a believer in 2000 as a freshman in college and immediately went deep into theology. I looked for, and found, many voices I could reliably listen to for content to take me deeper into my faith. I quickly found guys like John Piper, Louie Giglio, Mark Dever, Al Mohler, R. C. Sproul, Tim Keller, Alistair Begg, and of course, John MacArthur.

As a young man, I had the great opportunity to attend the Together For The Gospel Conference (T4G) in 2008 and again in 2010. I got to sit under the teaching of many of the men mentioned above and other rising stars in Evangelicalism such as Matt Chandler, Thabiti Anyabwile, David Platt, and Kevin DeYoung. To say I was awestruck and felt like a big-time fan boy would be an understatement.

For years, I read their books, followed their podcasts, and attended several other conferences that featured these speakers and others like them. I was completely hooked on what material they were putting out for believers like me, and I was growing spiritually at an amazing pace. I felt like there was a group of men (and some women) that I could trust and learn from in addition to my pastor and local church.

But then, one by one, these heroes began to fall. They began to say and do things that did not line up with what Scripture teaches. One watershed moment for me was listening to David Platt’s main session message during the T4G 2018 conference where he blames the church for not alleviating racism, but deepening it in America. What in the world?

On the other hand, precious few held the line and finished well. R. C. Sproul and John MacArthur were among the few who did not waver. They stood strong while other men gave in to “the spirit of the age.” They were unwavering in their convictions, even when they took “friendly fire” from other Evangelical leaders.

In the last 10 years, I have watched men I once respected begin to affirm the LGBTQ lifestyle, confess some kind of “privilege” based on their skin color, obey governments that told them to disobey the Lord, twist Scripture around to say what it does not actually say, platform speakers who preach heresy instead of the Gospel, hire other leaders based on racial quotas, and take gifts to weddings for homosexuals. And, when called out, these leaders simply reply to “judge not…”

I was left scratching my head and wondering to myself, who is still out there that I can trust? It seems like all of my heroes are dead or woke!

If you remember the story of Elijah’s victory over the prophets of Baal, afterwards he finds himself sullen and depressed. Elijah believed he was the last man standing against all the evil in the world and is worried he’ll be killed by the Israelites who still won’t follow the Lord. The Lord reassures Elijah in 1 Kings 19:18:

“Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

In other words, the Lord tells him there’s still a remnant of those who are faithful to him.

As I watch all my heroes either literally die or go woke, I am reminded that God is not finished and there are faithful men and women still out there.

Maybe you are one of these faithful men or women. Maybe you are scratching your head, wondering what happened to these big names in Christianity? Maybe you are thinking whom can I trust now? Maybe you are concerned if your church is still following the Way, the Truth, and the Life?

Unfortunately, answers to these questions can be hard to find and difficult to work through. It may mean cleaning up your own theology. It may mean stopping listening to voices that are no longer reliable. It may even mean finding a new church home for your family.

So… what am I doing now? What have I found to be helpful to navigate these challenging issues when there are no (or not a lot of) reliable voices to give me guidance? Two main things.

I have found I am reading the Bible more. As Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!” (John 6:68) It is impossible to know whom to trust if you don’t know the Word yourself. Get in the word: read it daily, journal daily, listen to an audio podcast of it daily. JUST. GET. IN. THE. WORD!

I’m more vigilant on, well, just about everything. I have four kids at home, aged 11-17, and if there was ever a time where parents need to step up to be a godly filter for their children, it is definitely now. We have parental controls on their electronics, but we also need to have parental controls on what our children hear at church. If we are not solid enough in our theology, we can be tossed around easily by things that sound good from our pastor’s pulpit, but are actually harmful to us and especially our kids.

I am thankful that God is raising up a new generation of faithful leaders, many of whom you can find at Clear Truth media. In the meantime, it is important that we all stick together guiding each other to truth and taking Paul’s warning seriously:

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)

For the time being, I’ll keep reading my Bible and thank God for faithful men like John MacArthur.