A Double-Fisted Gut Punch

They died 38 days apart and their twin passings felt like a double-fisted gut punch, a one-two haymaker delivered directly to the solar plexus of modern-day Christendom.

Dr. John MacArthur, who went home to be with the Lord on July 14th, was not only one of the most influential conservative theologians of the past 50 years, but a gifted author who wrote or edited more than 150 books and published the popular MacArthur Study Bible, which sold more than 1 million copies. In a day and age when the average pastor serves less than five years before changing churches, Dr. MacArthur served as senior pastor or Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California for 56 years. His dedication to expository (explaining verse by verse) preaching was unwavering and virtually unparalleled.

MacArthur also hosted a nationally syndicated radio and television Bible teaching program, Grace to You, which broadcast his sermons to untold millions of faithful listeners. He also founded the Master’s University and the Master’s Seminary in Santa Clara, serving as chancellor emeritus of both institutions until his death.

What I appreciated – and will remember – most about “Johnny Mac” (as some of his more rabid followers affectionately referred to him) was his fighting spirit. Simply put, the word “compromise” was not in John MacArthur’s vocabulary. Not when it came to matters of faith and biblical truth. And not when it came to Calvinism, the cross, and today’s increasingly decadent culture.

Dr. MacArthur left behind his wife of 62 years, Pat, a powerful legacy, and a grieving yet rejoicing body of Christ.

While the Christian community was still reeling and recovering from MacArthur’s loss, another evangelical giant was similarly called home to his heavenly reward. Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, and the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute was one of the most powerful and politically polarizing religious figures of the last half-century.

At the height of his ministry, the Focus on the Family radio program was carried by over 7,000 stations worldwide and reportedly heard daily by more than 220 million people in 164 different countries. Dr. Dobson’s message was always the same, as he vigorously defended the traditional family structure featuring a breadwinning father and a caregiving mother. He was also staunchly pro-life and fought to preserve the biblical definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman for life, backing up his beliefs with his own 65-year marriage to his wife, Shirley.

A prolific author, Dobson’s best-known works include his groundbreaking Dare to Discipline (1970), What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew About Women (1975), The Strong-Willed Child (1992), Straight Talk to Men (2000), Life on the Edge (2000), When God Doesn’t Make Sense (2001), and Love for a Lifetime (2004).

Like John MacArthur, the soft-spoken Dobson never backed down from a fight. At one time, The New York Times called him "the nation's most influential evangelical leader" and Dobson used that influence to promote traditional values such as two-parent homes, heterosexuality, and corporal punishment. Because he believed in conversion therapy – that people immersed in the homosexual lifestyle could be set free from it through Bible-based counseling – Dobson and his “Love Won Out” conferences became a lightning rod for LGBTQ hatred, protests, and boycotts… and yet, he stood firm in his biblical beliefs and convictions.

In his later years, Dobson broke with Focus on the Family and established Family Talk, a popular radio program in its own right.

Today, the airwaves that once carried the soothing, yet inspiring voices of John MacArthur and James Dobson seem eerily silent. It remains to be seen who will take up their torch and carry their banner.

However, two things are certain. God will raise up the right men at the right time… and they had better have thick skin, because the battle is getting tougher by the minute.