In that same sermon, MacArthur referenced the recent inauguration of President Joe Biden, referring to inaugurations as “a step-child of a coronation.” MacArthur then went on to describe the monarchies found in the Old and New Testaments as a “common grace.”
“Now it may shock you. The Bible doesn’t advocate democracy,” MacArthur said. “There is no country revealed in Scripture where it existed; it is never affirmed by God.”
“Was Israel a democracy? Never. What was it? It was a theocratic monarchy and God was King. Yahweh was their King. The covenant God was their King. The Lord Yahweh was Israel’s King forever,” MacArthur later said.
Recounting the story in 2 Samuel 6 where Uzzah died after touching the Ark of the Covenant, MacArthur drew a parallel to President Biden’s inauguration, saying “Let me say something: you’d better be careful when you put your hand on God. I thought of that in that inauguration.”
“God doesn’t want your respect; He wants your obedience,” MacArthur continued. “Don’t tell me you want to invite more Muslims in who represent a religion from hell and then put your hand on the throne of God. You can make any pledge you want; don’t mock God.”
In a sermon a few weeks later, MacArthur identified pragmatism as the root cause of many problems in the American church, saying, “Christians have been trying to help Jesus build His kingdom by striking deals with the devil. Every effort to advance the kingdom by means of any worldly scheme is doing the devil’s work.”
To illustrate what he meant by “deals with the devil,” MacArthur again turned his attention toward religious liberty.
“[Evangelicals are] looking for alliances with Satan that they think somehow can aid the kingdom. I told our congregation a few weeks ago that I could never really concern myself with religious freedom. I wouldn’t fight for religious freedom because I won’t fight for idolatry,” MacArthur said. “Why would I fight for the devil to have as many false religions as possible, and all of them available to everyone?”
“Well, people would say, ‘That’s a terrible thing to say. What about Christianity?’ Christianity advances whether there’s religious freedom or not,” MacArthur continued, again addressing the concern about what the loss of religious liberty in America might mean for Christians. “And there’ll always be religious freedom for all the lies. Every false religion is going to be free because it’s linked to the kingdom of darkness that operates in the world.”
Throughout the sermon, MacArthur emphasized the need for Christians to “separate themselves from the world foundationally, in terms of their identity.”
