(Photo: Lukas VanDyke)
John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif., addresses thousands of pastors at the March 3-7, 2010, Shepherds’ Conference.
By Nicola Menzie , Christian Post Reporter
John MacArthur, influential author, pastor and seminary president, has organized what has already proven to be a controversial conference, as he and several other evangelical Christian ministers will gather in October at his Sun Valley, Calif., church to take a corrective stance against what he describes as “strange fire” practices in the charismatic movement.
“There is a dramatic account of God’s judgment in Leviticus 9 and 10. The people had been ready to worship. They now had priests. They had standards by which they were to come before God and offer Him their worship,” explains MacArthur in one of many promotional videos highlighting areas the conference will touch on. “In the ninth chapter, they came according to God’s law, a sacrifice was offered, and God sent down miraculous fire and consumed the sacrifice. In chapter 10 (verses 1-3), however, another sacrifice was offered, and God consumed the offerers because they violated His standard and offered strange fire.”
MacArthur adds, “But it’s in the context of Leviticus 9 and 10 that I want to direct your attention toward strange fire that’s being offered to God today, and it could well bring His judgment.
“What I’m talking about is the charismatic movement that offers to God unacceptable worship, distorted worship. It blasphemes the Holy Spirit. It attributes to the Holy Spirit even the work of Satan. People are caught up in it, deceived, led astray.”
MacArthur, who has long been an outspoken advocate of weighing the claims and activities of those in the charismatic movement against Scripture, insists in the promotional video that the Strange Fire conference will focus on “the false worship” coming from the movement, and is not about worship styles or preferences.
“This is about honoring the Holy Spirit, rather than blaspheming him,” says the 73-year-old Calvinist minister, who adds that the message of Leviticus 9 and 10 for today’s Christians is that “worship is a very serious matter. How you come before a Holy God is the most important thing you will ever do.”
