With the passing of our dear brother, Dr. John MacArthur, I was compelled to go to Grace To You’s YouTube channel to binge some more of his teaching. I remembered that Ligonier Ministries did a week-long livestream of Dr. Sproul’s teaching when he met the Lord, and I was hoping for the same thing on Grace to You (I don’t know why, because they were friends or something). Upon my searching, I found Pastor MacArthur’s old Larry King Live episodes and decided to devour them instead. All of them. In one night. It had been a while. 

One episode that stuck out to me was this one. I had forgotten about this. I had seen it for the first time a few years ago. 

The context of the Larry King episode was the legalization of ‘gay marriage’. Which is a nonsense term. God created marriage and therefore, defines it.

Marriage is a covenant made with God, between one man and one woman. Better stated— the episode was about gay mirage, and whether society would be obliged to play pretend with a couple of fellas who are playing house together.

As I listened to MacArthur unashamedly, without mixture of fear or hesitation, defend God’s Word on national television, I was brought back to a simpler time in America. I would’ve just been a young boy at this time, blissfully ignorant of the cancer that was to plague the American culture and evangelical church in the next couple of decades. 

Jmac did not employ an ounce of winsome-nuance to make the pill easier to swallow. He did not blur definitions. He did not sacrifice truth on the altar of “kindness”. He was however respectful, he was loving, and he did the most loving thing on this earth, which is communicate the truth of Scripture to a culture that was progressively moving away from it. 

I heard a brother say on a podcast the other day;

“The passing of John MacArthur feels like one of the last adults left the room”.

I concur.

The thing that struck me the most about this episode was how quickly society has deteriorated just in my own short life time, and the pivotal moment culturally and for the evangelical church, I believe, was the legalization of gay marriage. 

It was the clich’e at the time—“where does it end?”. The next thing you know, people will be trying to change their genders, marrying inanimate objects, and pushing this stuff on kids. They were crazy for thinking that just 20 years ago. But oh, how their prophecies came to pass. 

This “progress” in American society is the world I grew up in. The first presidential election I was aware enough or cared enough to pay attention to was Barack Obama’s first run. 

Barack Hussein Obama, ran as a democrat who opposed gay marriage in 2008. Can you fathom someone doing that today? Of course not, they would be ousted as a “right-wing extremist” before you could say “Sodom and Gomorrah”. 

In 2008, according to Pew Research, only 49-52% of Democrats supported gay marriage, compared to roughly 88% today. That same year, only 19-22% of Republicans supported it, compared to 41% today. 

In just 17 years, Republicans find themselves almost as liberal on homosexual “marriage” as Democrats were in Obama’s first presidential election. The Red party today is more accepting of sodomy than Barack Obama was in his first term, at least on paper. 

Donald Trump, who is portrayed as the poster boy for “extreme conservatism”, is to the left of any Christian who watched this Larry King episode when it aired (save the wolves lurking in the shadows, salivating over Gavin Newsom’s insight). You will be hard-pressed to find a big-name person on “the right” today who is more conservative on abortion and gay marriage than Obama was in 2008. 

There is not a single cultural topic that Trump is as conservative on as a normal conservative Christian who just stuck to their guns when I was in elementary school. But today, he is the standard of conservatism, and just normal Christians are “extreme”.

But so what? Christianity is not Republicanism, and praise God for that. But let’s face it, that’s where the church has been politically for decades now.

The left kept moving further left, and the right conceded little by little, ending up where the left was twenty years ago. They have to get those votes. And the evangelicals followed right along to save face and maintain their power as a voting block. What are we ‘conserving’ now?

As the culture became more “loving”, the Evan-jellyfish followed right along. After all, we need to love our neighbor and not judge, right? We’ve got to win these pagans to Christ! But as the old adage goes, what you win ‘em with is what you keep ‘em with. 

Little by little, each dividing line was crossed by the Republican identifying church—abortion, gay marriage, transgenderism, to name a few. 

And if a Christian man stands up and says: You know what? This is sick. Sodomy is abominable and shameful; God hates it. Marriage is between one man and one woman. Men are men, women are women, and you can’t change that. Abortion is murder.

Like saying it out loud, in public, like on an internationally broadcasted television show— like Jmac did. Not in your own little private corner of the internet where people agree with you. You are painted as an intolerant bigot, and you will NEVER win the pagan culture over to Jesus with that kind of “rhetoric”. You gotta woo them with sweet nothings and love ‘em into submission to a sovereign God.

We must be winsome to everyone except the Christians who just believe what all Christians believed like 10 minutes ago.

“Nuance left, punch right.”
— Jon Harris, Conversations That Matter

When Culture Impacts the Church

With this being the context in which we thirty-something guys were raised, we become pretty skeptical at any hint of wokeness. In God’s providence, I think it’s a good thing. Although it can also be a negative, where you are searching for leftism under every rock and crying wolf, delegitimizing actual problems when they arise. I think it’s a way that God will reign this nonsense back in, should He suffer our nation existing another 250 years.

The Christian bands some of us grew up with, others inherited, but were in our “era” of American Christianity, have pretty much all jumped ship and apostatized, after professing their loving-kindness toward sodomy under the “Christian” banner before they ditched it. Or they try to deconstruct into a form of progressive Christianity that is a mockery of any true orthodox faith (and then pretend we’re crazy, cuz everyone thought this already, you guys).

During Pastor MacArthur’s Larry King appearance, one of the big-name Christian bands was Caedmon’s Call. They were known to be theologically sound and rich, not that surface-level Christian music that just sprinkled in the name “Jesus” once in a while.

Fast-forward, lead singer Derek Webb released his hit song in womanface with the ‘Christian’ drag queen, known as “Flamy Grant”- Boys will be Girls

So loving. So tolerant.

(I hope Yzma from The Emperor’s New Groove doesn’t mind him stealing her look.)

Derek Webb is not alone. Think back to some good Christian bands you liked in the early 2000’s. DC Talk, maybe? I am new to the scene, guys. I was saved in 2020. I “discovered” DC Talk in like 2021, and my mind was blown. But I caught them just in time to have them ripped away from me.

Kevin Max, former lead singer, publicly voiced his support for homosexuality a few years ago as well. This was the beginning of his “deconstruction” stuff, which is just a nuanced way of saying “apostasy”. Let’s not get into Michael Tait’s recent scandal.

How about maybe Jars of Clay? Come on, not muh Clay Jars!? I am afraid so. Though this one isn’t as surprising, given Dan Haseltine’s seeming support for gay marriage in 2014. He posted a picture from the Franklin, Tennessee pride festival last year commending the reprobate mind and pacifying its seared conscience by assuring it, “Hey, I’m a generic Christian guy, don’t listen to those other bigots when they tell you this is bad.”

So what’s my point here? So what? Some old Christian bands, probably formerly with surface-level, boomer-con political leanings on camera, and a rudimentary knowledge, or at best concern with Scripture, have shown themselves to be wolves.

This is a sign of a greater cultural shift that has made its way into the church. These guys don’t just do this out of nowhere and someone has to buy their music. So, who’s buying the Christian music and following the Christian artist? It’s probably not the world on a large scale, at least, no matter how bad they may want that. It’s the church.

Side (B)lind Guides

As time marched on from the John MacArthur segment on Larry King Live, some ministries began to soften their stance on homosexuality, from what it was in the early 2000’s.

The shift toward Side B theology in the evangelical world didn’t happen overnight.

These Christian artists did not exist in a vacuum in the evangelical world. Someone is teaching them and discipling them in the ways of compromising, hand-holding with the world.

You can hold hands, just no kissing, you guys.

It started in the early 2000s with guys like Rob Bell. He didn’t come right out the gate affirming homosexuality—but he sure helped lay the tracks. By questioning the authority of Scripture and treating doctrine like a wax nose, it was only a matter of time before he openly affirmed same-sex marriage.

At the same time, Tim Keller was rising in influence. Now, Keller held to a traditional sexual ethic on paper, but let’s be honest—he wasn’t exactly clear about it. His winsome ambiguity often left more questions than answers, especially on LGBT issues. This hesitancy became a model for many.

Then came 2015. Obergefell.

The ruling didn’t just redefine marriage in the courts—it exposed a lack of backbone in the pulpits. Instead of responding with truth and love, many churches pivoted toward therapeutic language and cultural appeasement.

Enter the Revoice Conference and the rise of the so-called “gay Christian” identity—as long as it’s celibate, of course. This became known as Side B theology. No gay sex, just gay identity. You get to keep the label, just not the lifestyle.

Though The Gospel Coalition hasn’t come right out and endorsed Side B theology, they’ve certainly platformed those who do. You start seeing names like Rebecca McLaughlin, Sam Allberry and Preston Sprinkle pop up in the mix with TGC platform underfoot.

McLaughlin speaks warmly about same-sex attraction as an ongoing part of her story. Though she ‘affirms biblical marriage’, and is herself married to a man, she says in her book, ‘Confronting Christianity’: “I’ve chosen to marry a guy rather than a girl. I think, if I was not a Christian, most likely—I mean, who knows?—but most likely, I’d be married to a woman today instead of to a man.”

Then we have Preston Sprinkle, he’s practically the Side B spokesman at this point—hosting dialogues that blur the line between biblical clarity and cultural compromise. He is fine with using the term “gay Christian”, as long as we take 10 minutes to nuance the term into nothingness each time. I’m sure that’s how the world hears that, Preston.

The label “gay Christian” is no more valid than “stealing Christian”, or “drunkard Christian”, or “adulterous Christian”— which is what homosexuality is. These are oxymorons.

Sam Allberry is a “same-sex attracted” pastor who currently serves at Immanuel Church in Nashville, where he shepherds men such as Gavin Ortlund (Theologian-in-Residence) and Russell Moore (Minister-in-Residence). Allberry, though celibate, wears a wedding ring to signify that he is ‘taken by Jesus’—a gesture which muddles the biblical symbolism of marriage as a covenantal union between one man and one woman as a picture of Christ and His bride. Further bending and blurring of definitions.

Rather than offering a clear rebuke of such confusion, figures like Gavin Ortlund lend credibility to it by their continued ministerial partnership with Allberry. While Ortlund himself may not publicly teach these things, his alignment and silence contribute to the ongoing erosion of biblical clarity—particularly for young men already grappling with cultural distortions of identity and intimacy.

Same-sex attraction is no less sinful than any other disordered, lustful passion that wells up in the heart of man. The Apostle Paul speaks of freedom from such sin through the power of the Holy Spirit: “such were some of you” (1 Corinthians 6:11). The desires of the flesh give birth to sin, which gives birth to death (James 1:14–15). It is not loving to tell a homosexual that they may keep or coddle such ungodly desires. It is pastoral malpractice.

When Jesus said that lustful thoughts are adultery in the heart (Matthew 5:28), He showed that sinful desires—not just actions—violate God’s law. So, same-sex attraction isn’t neutral or harmless; it’s a disordered desire contrary to God’s design, and like all sinful desires, it must be repented of, not embraced or excused.

It is this very type of tolerance, silence, and legitimizing that we see with guys like Ortlund and ministries like TGC that make us skeptical of them.

Maybe you don’t come out and explicitly affirm this nonsense—and that’s part of the problem. You won’t say where you stand, but you’re perfectly comfortable partnering with those who do. And the dominoes keep falling. It shows either a lack of discernment—because you can’t recognize the error in those you minister alongside—or a lack of courage to say you don’t agree. Either way, you end up lumped in with them. And now, we don’t trust you.

And here we are.

Entire historic denominations completely overtaken by gay-affirming woke ideology, like the UMC, ELCA, and PCUSA, to name a few.

They are not heretics, you see, they adhere with complete fidelity to Sparkle Creed orthodoxy.

What used to be called compromise is now repackaged as compassion. In some cases, the doctrinal statements haven’t changed. But the tone, the language, the ministry strategy—it all signals and practices something different.

It didn’t start with Side B. It began with softness and silence, which led to surrender.

This is the Christian heritage of “evangelicalism” (whatever that means anymore), my generation inherited, and we are trying to raise a family in. We’re sick of nuance. We’re sick of blurred definitions. We’re sick of compromise.

.

Have All the Adults Left the Room?

John MacArthur was one of the big-name public Christian figures who took a stand—without compromise—and did so in a loving, respectful manner. But who will be the next to fill that void?

It seems today we have a problem on both sides of the spectrum: either Christians are drifting into a soft, woke, compromised form of Christianity, or they’re adopting a legitimately hateful—and equally unbiblical—version, with figures like Corey Mahler on the other end, out of a knee-jerk reaction to an obvious problem that they are painted as bigots for noticing.

Who will take a stand and be the adult in the room, like John MacArthur?

The Lord will provide and protect His Church. And maybe that means removing our nation and its poison from the equation.

Our culture, which has embraced things like castration drugs, homosexuality, and abortion, is rapidly approaching the edge of a cliff. It is a culture of death—and death cannot produce life; it can only recruit. A culture that embraces death hates God (Proverbs 8:36). And unless we, God’s people, take a bold stand, this darkness will continue creeping in, infiltrating our ranks with doctrines of demons and stripping away whatever saltiness remains.

Once the salt loses its saltiness, it cannot regain it. Its only use is to be trampled underfoot (Matthew 5:13).

We don’t deserve another Dr. John MacArthur. But let us solemnly beseech the Lord of glory and plead for His gracious, sustaining hand to move our culture back from the edge of the abyss—before we heed its ancient, morbid call to jump.

We don’t need ambiguity. We don’t need nuance. We don’t need compromise.
We need someone to stand up and speak the truth—God’s truth.

We need more John MacArthurs.

[32] Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Romans 1:32