(David Morrill) John Fullerton MacArthur Jr. (1939–2025) — pastor, teacher, author, and a stalwart defender of biblical truth — has entered the presence of his Lord and Savior at 6:17pm PT on July 14th, 2025 after a lifetime of faithful ministry. With profound sorrow yet deeper gratitude, we at Protestia mourn the earthly loss of a man whose legacy towers across the landscape not merely of conservative, reformed evangelicalism, but the universal church as a whole.
MacArthur served as the pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California for over 50 years, beginning in 1969. His long and faithful expositional ministry through every book of the Bible became a model of verse-by-verse preaching, setting a standard for generations of pastors. Under his leadership, Grace Church was not merely a local congregation but a beacon of doctrinal stability.
He was the president of The Master’s Seminary and The Master’s University, shaping thousands of men and women for ministry and scholarship grounded in the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture. Through Grace to You, his global radio and media ministry, MacArthur’s teaching reached tens of millions in over two dozen languages.