I believe two things that may seem contradictory: John MacArthur is in hell today. And he will also spend eternity in heaven. Let me explain.
Before I begin, John MacArthur was an American fundamentalist mega-preacher, followed by millions, famous for railing against COVID church shutdowns, infamous for publicly shaming women in his church for escaping sexually and physically abusive spouses, popular among his followers for deeply racist and misogynist teachings. He died this week.
As a progressive Christian, I strongly believe that JMac’s legacy is deeply harmful to many millions of people, some in general, but also very specifically harmful to several. He was unrepentant about that harm, insisting it was Biblical. In my sense, he has much for which he needs to be called to account in the afterlife.
In some sense, I don’t think that JMac is unlike any other human: we harm people, sometimes with good intentions, sometimes unintentionally, sometimes intentionally. We all die unrefined at some level; none of us achieve perfection before we die. So all of us have things for which we must be called to account, things that must be refined out of us.
Some Christians believe the answer is simple: unrefined people spend eternity paying for their temporal sins. But in this view, calling on Jesus’ name while we’re still alive gives us a free get-out-of-hell card. This was JMac’s brand of individual eschatology: “eternal conscious torment.”
Other Christians believe that unrefined people simply cease to exist, either after a period of torment or immediately: this is called “annihilationism.”
After a lot of personal study, I rejected both of those understandings of the Bible’s teachings, even though both of them exhibit some support from scripture. But I found that the understanding that is best supported by the largest number of verses, and is most supportable by an understanding of God’s character as presented across the entire Bible, is often called “universal reconciliation” or “Christian universalism” – the idea that God is unwilling that any – ANY – should perish, but that all – ALL should inherit eternal life.
Most Christians rebel against that idea: they cannot believe in a God that accepts unrepentant sinners into heaven.
In my mind, this comes from an all-too-human need for justice, if not revenge: bad people who get away with their evil while on earth deserve punishment in the afterlife. I get it; I really do believe this too. God self-identifies over and over in the Bible as a God of justice and righteousness. God is clearly unwilling – explicitly so – to allow impure, imperfect humans into God’s presence.
But that is where hell comes in. While I think that “hell” in our modern evangelical-influenced culture has been improperly corrupted by the imagery of Dante’s Inferno, I still do believe that the Bible teaches the reality of a place of torment in the afterlife.
I just don’t believe that hell is eternal.
Because I don’t believe God is retributive; I believe that God is restorative. Story after story in the Bible deals with God’s restoration of relationship. Yes, there are retributive stories, but I don’t think they reflect God accurately; they’re true stories of human fantasies about God’s wrath satisfying their human need for justice, unable to conceive of a God that actually forgives sin and is so determined to restore humans that their Creator would willingly submit to suffering and identifying with them.
Most of the descriptions of fire in the Bible, in connection with afterlife, use the terminology of refining. One does not put something in a refining fire to consume or destroy it: the refiner’s fire is meant to purify.
And for those who find themselves in that fire, it will definitely be painful. But that fire is not eternal; it’s designed to last exactly as long as necessary to refine the gold to purity.
And the more impure the human, the more refining fire will be necessary. The “punishment” will fit the crime, in that sense. It’s purifying, but it will feel like punishment for those who don’t understand its purpose.
This is one reason that I have chosen “Crucible” as my online identity, and my related imagery is of gold refining. I deeply resonate with the image of God as bringing things to purity. Even before I rethought my understanding of hell and punishment, I still understood God as desiring to purify us.
So back to JMac:
The man was very deeply flawed, in my view. If you want a simple and unflinching accounting, read Rick Pidcock’s piece in Baptist News Global. I am deeply aware of the harm he did to many, and the lasting, ongoing legacy of harm that will result from the many books and teachings he promulgated.
I imagine – and it’s only my imagination – that he spent much of yesterday (if we perceive time in the afterlife anything like we do here on earth) discovering just how wrong he was.
I imagine, also, that this discovery itself must be raw, unmitigated torment. To be confronted with the unmistakable truth of how we hurt people is always painful, and to stand in the presence of an infinitely pure God and learn the raw truth of these harms must be almost infinitely painful. It’s hard enough to discover that what we thought was pure truth was filthy lies, but to then know that we taught that filth to millions around the world and unleashed harm on generations after generations must be unbearable. This is why the Bible is careful to tell us that those who teach are even more accountable.
So in that very real sense, JMac is in hell right now. And that hell isn’t the result of being cast eternally away from God’s presence; it’s the result of being welcomed into God’s presence, where only truth can remain.
In that sense, annihiliationism would be the merciful option – a burst of pain at seeing the truth, followed by blissful nothingness. But I don’t believe that’s God’s desire; God breathed the holy spirit into JMac 86 years ago, and God eternally values that presence of Godself within each human, and is determined to restore and recover every soul.
So JMac, just like you and I, will need to suffer and be refined from that impurity.
And in eternity, I firmly believe that all the passion and grit and determination and leadership skills that JMac exhibited as a human – the good parts of his character – will be put on display, but then with the real truth of God that he missed in his time here on earth. God won’t lose all the goodness of God in JMac, just because his theology was flawed on the first round as a mortal human. He will be a powerful teacher of the REAL goodness of God, and I imagine just like Paul wrote that “I was the chief among sinners” JMac’s new testimony will be deeply compelling in that eternal kingdom.
Because ultimately, God told us that the heavens and the earth will be renewed and will be ours to rule and reign forever, and God will only allow refined humans into that eternal kingdom. JMac will be right there with Mother Theresa and others who understood love and peace and justice, and they’ll all bring their crowns – refined pure golden crowns – to bring glory and honor into that kingdom.
So JMac is certainly in some kind of hell today, mostly of his own making, but he won’t stay there forever, and neither will any other human. We can all trust in God’s deep and abiding and very capable love, to refine each of us exactly as much as needed to put God’s glory on display to the universe.
If you want a more detailed discussion of the different ideas about the afterlife, and why I believe in universal reconciliation, with detailed discussion of the scriptural basis, you can find an extensive treatment on my blog, and a four-part presentation on my YouTube channel.
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