Murray on MacArthur's Trials in the Ministry

I am finishing up reading the new Iain Murray biography John MacArthur: Servant of the Word and Flock (Banner of Truth, 2011). I plan to do a full review in the next issue of the RB Trumpet.

In a chapter titled “Threatening Reversals” (pp. 43-56) Murray describes various struggles that MacArthur encountered in his ministry, including a painful rebellion by his staff (“Black Tuesday”) and a 1980 lawsuit brought against MacArthur charging “clergy malpractice” after the suicide of a church member.

Murray begins his summary of this section (p. 53):

The trials I have sought to describe undoubtedly strengthened his understanding of the nature of the Christian warfare and of the only effective response. Of course, critical men and women do not know that they are being used by the powers of evil. The weapons those employ

consist of lies of all kind—elaborate lies, massive philosophical lies, evil lies that appeal to humanity’s fallen sinfulness, lies that inflate human pride, and lies that closely resemble the truth. Our weapon is the simple truth of Christ as revealed in His Word (the latter paragraph is a quote from MacArthur’s The Truth War, p. 49).

JTR