Editorial: Is religious freedom wrong?

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A sermon John MacArthur preached Jan. 17, 2021, is back in the news. That’s the same John MacArthur of Beth Moore fame.

MacArthur framed his hour-long sermon around the idea that “20/20 always signifies clarity.” One of the things he claimed God made clear in 2020 is the wrongness of religious freedom.

Have Baptists been wrong about religious freedom all this time? Centuries, even?

What did MacArthur say?

MacArthur gained clarity in 2020 about several things. He began his sermon naming all the reasons he loves his church. He read from 1 Thessalonians 1, saying Paul’s description of the church in Thessalonica also describes MacArthur’s own. May all churches be described so.

He then turned to leadership. He described the lack of control in 2020 as being “the closest thing to the experience of the church in war.” His church was “under a massive assault,” he said, with “all kinds of people … telling us what to do, what we could do and couldn’t do.”

MacArthur spent almost half an hour detailing how he and Grace Community Church responded to that “massive assault” through ministries, with much celebration of the kinds of ministry any church would celebrate.

He then declared his church to be “the people of the truth” and “all about the truth” in keeping with 2 Corinthians 13:8.

At this point, MacArthur turned on what he called a “superficial, shallow, false form of Christianity.” He described much of his ministry, what has driven him, as calling “the people who say they are Christians to act like Christians, to follow the word of God, to be faithful.”

“Superficial Christianity made a lot of money,” he contended. “The biggest churches in America are part of it,” he said, labeling them and their leaders as “corrupt,” “phonies,” “liars, frauds and conmen.”


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At just past 44 minutes into his sermon, MacArthur seemed to change the subject, saying, “And, oh, by the way,” before launching into a critique of religious freedom.

When questioning “the new administration[’s]” upholding religious freedom, MacArthur put up his hands and stated, “I don’t even support religious freedom.”

“Religious freedom is what sends people to hell,” he continued. “To say I support religious freedom is to say I support idolatry. It’s to say I support lies, I support hell, I support the kingdom of darkness.

“You can’t say that. No Christian with half a brain would say, ‘We support religious freedom.’ We support the truth.”

Put another way, John MacArthur contends Baptists are not people of the truth, but that we support idolatry, lies, hell, the kingdom of darkness, and that we have no more than half a brain.

Is this true? No.

He went on to assert government support of religious freedom will result in an increase of religious persecution, because such freedom aligns with “the devil’s lies” and not “the truth of Scripture.” His and his church’s role is to “expose all those lies as lies.”

What do Baptists believe about religious freedom?

Baptists, who view the Bible as “the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried” (Baptist Faith and Message, 1963, 2000), base their view of religious freedom on none other than the Bible.

The Baptist Faith and Message lists as biblical support for the Southern Baptist view of religious freedom the following Scripture references: “Genesis 1:27; 2:7; Matthew 6:6-7, 24; 16:26; 22:21; John 8:36; Acts 4:19-20; Romans 6:1-2; 13:1-7; Galatians 5:1, 13; Philippians 3:20; 1 Timothy 2:1-2; James 4:12; 1 Peter 2:12-17; 3:11-17; 4:12-19.”

The section on religious liberty begins and ends with: “God alone is Lord of the conscience, and He has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are contrary to His Word or not contained in it. … A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal, and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to God on the part of all [people], and the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion without interference by the civil power.”

Herschel Hobbs, in his commentary on the Baptist Faith and Message, states: “Religious liberty is the mother of all true freedom. It [and freedom in general] is rooted in the very nature of both God and man created in God’s likeness (Gen. 1:27).”

Religious freedom is not created by the state, Hobbs asserts, but exists prior to the state, within the nature of God and humans’ God-created nature.

As such, human beings are free—without the coercion of government or any other—to worship or not worship God according to conscience. As Hobbs’ commentary makes clear, such freedom entails “responsibility and demands inner and personal controls.” It is not mere tolerance.

Baptists who disagree at several points—such as Albert Mohler, Russell Moore and the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Adam Greenway, Karen Swallow Prior, Elijah Brown and the Baptist World Alliance, and Amanda Tyler and the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty—agree on the importance of religious freedom.

Why Baptists support religious freedom

Baptists are not ignorant of or naïve to the kind of persecution MacArthur spent so much time talking about through the remainder of his sermon. Nor are Baptists unaware of Jesus’ teaching about the connection between following Jesus and being persecuted.

On the contrary, Baptists have championed religious freedom more than 400 years, because they have sought to follow Jesus faithfully. And they have seen and experienced throughout those centuries—right up to the present—the persecution that comes when only one form of worship or no worship at all is permitted by law.

A Baptist might wonder, if MacArthur doesn’t support religious freedom, does he then support religious persecution? Does he support the imposition of one and only one legal form of worship or legal prohibition of all worship? Does he support that?

This is a question of import at present for several reasons, not least of which is the simple fact there are Christians who would love to enforce a single strand of belief on the American populace—Christianity as they define it. Christ never compelled such allegiance.

History demonstrates any time only a single strand of thought or religious belief is allowed, those who define what religion is approved also find it easier and easier to whittle the ranks of supposed adherents.

Human claiming to speak the truth all too often are a prelude to just this kind of will to purification. All the more reason for those who claim to follow Jesus to be very familiar with Jesus’ teaching.

How many times did Jesus watch as people turned him down, as even his closest friends abandoned him? And he let them go, yes, even when it meant their destruction.

Is religious freedom wrong? Ask Jesus.

Eric Black is the executive director, publisher and editor of the Baptist Standard. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @EricBlackBSP. The views expressed are those solely of the author.


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