The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by David Lee of Malaysia, from the tape GC 1301-N, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 16."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  ©1981. All Rights Reserved.

Questioner

[Note: This question was asked in the context that the Pope had just been shot earlier in the day (year 1981)]

Many of the Catholic priests were saying, all day long, "We have to keep communicating the Gospel of Love, and I was just wondering what they mean by that, is that the same gospel as ours or a different gospel? And if it is different, in what way?

John MacArthur's Answer

It's definitely different. The gospel of love is "hearts and flowers." It’s a substitute for the reality of the gospel and it’s a typical statement today--the gospel of love means...it's sort of a humanistic: "Let’s be kind, let’s be loving."

It’s amazing to me that when this thing came on the radio, people like Mayor Tom Browdy (sp?)said, “I’m praying for him”. And a Senator said, “I am praying...” Everybody is praying for him. All of the sudden in this irreligious, atheistic nation, where no one pays any attention to God, everyone is praying. And if I was in any of those interviews, I would have said to everyone of those people, “By the way, to whom are you praying…for him?” I would just be curious. It's amazing how there’s sort of a latent confidence in God, or belief in God in spite of all of our denials.

The gospel of love, that’s a term that substitutes, I think, for the true gospel, sort of a liberalized perspective. What they mean is we got to be loving and kind, and that’s really true. We are very ugly society because we are fallen. And we are always going to have those kinds of harebrained people that do things like that and that’s a terrible thing to do. But I wish I believed that the Roman Catholic system had the truth, but I am confident that it doesn’t, because I know, this church [Grace Community Church], is literally filled with the people who were in it for years and years and never knew the truth.

So, I don’t know what they mean by the "Gospel of Love" but it’s something shy of what the true gospel is.

By the way, I can just add a few footnotes. Let me do that before we go on. You need to understand that the Roman Catholic church is a highbred system. You will find in the Roman Catholic church just as much stuff taken from Babylonian cultism as you will taken from the Bible. For example "Lent", has absolutely nothing to do with the scripture, never appears in the scripture. "Forty days", where it does appear is…there was a false legend that Baal was killed by wild boar, and so Baal was the son of Ashteroth, who was the Queen Mother of the Babylonian cults--you know, that built the tower of Babel, and all the mystery religions in the occult and so forth and so forth. When Baal was killed they mourned for forty days and then he was raised from the dead. And the forty days of mourning for Baal got amalgamated into Christianity and that’s where Lent came from--it has absolutely nothing to do with the Bible.

The term Queen of Heaven, you know the term they use for Mary? That term is in the Book of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, and it refers to Ashteroth, the mother of Baal. It refers to the false pagan cult and they are forbidden to worship the Queen of Heaven. In fact, in Ezekiel, God came in and destroys the temple because the people there worshipping the Queen of Heaven. And the mother-child cult of Mariolatry, and the mother and the baby, are not really truly representative of Mary and Jesus but they are the Queen of Heaven, they are Ashteroth and Baal dragged over into Christianity. And it dragged its way through all of the pagan religions.

Did you know that for example the official shield of the pope has in the middle of it the goat’s head, which is the symbol of all the occult. It’s a very strange conglomeration of stuff, blending together Christianity and paganism and has been that way throughout the years.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
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Email: tony@biblebb.com
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