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Book Review- The Truth War

I received a copy of The Truth War last March while attending The Shepherds’ Conference. I had heard some of MacArthur’s sermons on Jude and really enjoyed them. However, I did not get to the book right away, and before I knew it I was hearing all kinds of rumblings about how imbalanced the book was and how MacArthur is overreacting. And I must confess, I am a big John MacArthur guy, I am solidly in his corner. So, as a result of the chatter and my loyalty, I shelved the book with the intention of reading it at a later date. Honestly, part of my motivation was that I did not want to read a book by John that could have been out of balance.

Well last week I was to preach on a passage in the book of Jude. So I picked up the book and jammed through it to help encourage my thinking as I interact with the passage. My overall appraisal is that it is a good book. I enjoyed reading it. MacArthur interacts with both the contemporary challenges (of doctrine) facing the church as well as the historical. In both cases he is faithful to name names and quote primary sources. Some folks have balked at MacArthur’s quotes from Brian McLaren or Rob Bell, but at the end of the day, they did say (or write) these things. So while these statements may be ‘red meat’ for fundamentalist Calvinists they are none the less the sentiment and practice that MacArthur is going after in his book.

In this vein, I was disappointed that he went after Mark Driscoll in his chapter on apostasy. MacArthur quotes from Blue Like Jazz where the author references “Mark the cussing pastor.” MacArthur rails against this type of conduct in the life of a Christian in general and a pastor in particular. The only issue is that Mark Driscoll would seem to agree. He has said publicly that foul language is inappropriate. Furthermore, it would seem that in the past few years Driscoll has demonstrated that he is sensitive towards pursuing humility and doctrinal faithfulness. In my view, these two items at least should have warranted his exclusion from a chapter dealing with apostates.

The books strong points are MacArthur’s interaction with the book of Jude and his discussion of heresy’s in the early church. What we have come to appreciate about MacArthur is his steady, faithful interaction with the text; he makes the Scriptures clear to us. He does this repeatedly in The Truth War. Furthermore, in reading the book you find yourself convicted and compelled. You are convicted because of apathy in contending for the faith and compelled to do so more fervently.

I recommend the book as required reading for pastors and elders (or would be pastors and elders), but also would encourage it for others as well.

(note: the book is not a verse by verse study of Jude, though he does set his anchor down there. He has written a helpful commentary on Jude, which is available separately)

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