Re: MacArthur and Tongues

Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Sat, 8 Nov 1997 07:46:58 -0600

At 4:05 AM -0600 11/8/97, Paul S. Dixon wrote:
>On Fri, 7 Nov 1997 13:30:23 -0600 "Perry L. Stepp" <plstepp@flash.net>
>writes:
>
>>For what it's worth:
>>
>>Eric, you were right the first time. MacArthur is a good preacher, very
>>good at application, one of the leading churchmen of our time. But
>>when it comes to Greek issues, he's only as good as the sources he uses.
> And
>>on this point, his sources ain't that good. Great preachers are often
>>not-so-great exegetes (see C. H. Spurgeon, Swindoll, Billy Graham, etc.,
>as
>>well as MacArthur.)
>
>This criticism of John MacArthur is unjust. If you don't agree with his
>interpretation, then explain why. That is the issue. We are not here to
>cast aspersions on his Greek expertise, especially on the basis of your
>disagreement with him on this single matter. If we do this with
>everybody, then we will end up belittling everybody else's Greek
>expertise, because doubtless we can find something with which to disagree
>with just about everybody.
>
>Let's not throw out the baby with the bathwash, whether the water is
>dirty or not.

I think Paul is quite right here on principle. List members may very well
disagree with each other about the competence of great preachers in Greek
(I would personally put a plug in for George Buttrick who struck me as
being both a great preacher and a very competent Hellenist when he was
Preacher to the University at Harvard), but I rather think that
generalizations like that above, whether or not one believes them to be
true, are best avoided in list exchanges on grounds that they tend by
nature toward ad hominem attacks upon individuals.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/