Why John MacArthur was right to say “Go Home” about Beth Moore

By Elizabeth Prata

In 2019 John MacArthur hosted the Truth Matters conference at Grace Community Church. 2019 marked the 50th year he has been pastoring and teaching at that same church, a remarkable achievement for which we have the Holy Spirit to thank.

At the conference there was a Question and Answer session, as there usually is at these things. Todd Friel of Wretched Radio moderated. He explained at one point near the end he was going to have the men on the panel enter a sort of lightning round, requesting one or two word answers to the names Friel would utter.

Seven years earlier, Phil Johnson did the same with MacArthur at the 2012 Shepherds’ Conference. Johnson had asked MacArthur to answer with one word, and when Johnson presented the name Steven Furtick to him, MacArthur sighed, thought about it, then said “Unqualified.” That was John MacArthur‘s one-word assessment of Steven Furtick during a Q&A session at the 2012 Shepherds’ Conference. Furtick didn’t like MacArthur’s assessment, and he wrote a book about it.

So the 2019 lightning round type event wasn’t unfamiliar. Friel said to MacArthur: “Beth Moore”.

MacArthur replied, “Go home.”

The audience whooped and laughed, but it was not a mocking laugh. It was more of a laugh of relief and a joy that finally, finally, someone was addressing the elephant in the room. The elephant is that Moore has been allowed unchecked, promoted even, by an entire publishing house and an entire denomination, to publicly sin. Beth Moore is and always has been a usurping woman, preaching to men. She herself does not consider this a sin. God does.

In 40 years of her teaching, no one in authority over her that I know of has come out and said, ‘Stop it!’ No one has said, ‘Your preaching violates one of the foundational precepts of our denomination, the Baptist Faith & Message, that women shall not function in the office of pastor.’ No one close to her publicly has said, ‘The Bible forbids women to preach, (1 Timothy 2:12).’ Her husband has been silently complicit in Beth’s sin.

Her career hasn’t been the shining example of a Proverbs 31 woman, but more of a Jezebel, prophesying falsely and worshiping other gods. Yet not a peep from her pastors, her leaders in the denomination, nor her husband. For 40 years. Her sin has been an almost daily and a blasé poking of God’s eye. So at the Truth matters Conference, when Friel said “Beth Moore” and MacArthur finally addressed the elephant in the room, there was a massive sign of relief and joy from the audience that the Lord’s precepts were being up held in regards to this woman.

At the Truth Matters conference, Phil Johnson also replied, and then MacArthur jumped back in to further explain his reasoning. The “Beth Moore issue” is an important one for the larger body of believers globally. Here’s why:

Feminists want to usurp places of power in whatever power structure they occupy. For the evangelical church, the highest place of (perceived) power is the pastorate, or the pulpit for preaching if not a pastor. The issue is that when the church caves in to feminists, the feminists have won.

‘Go home’ was not the only thing John MacArthur said in regards to this issue. He said in his longer explanation at the Truth Matters Q&A, “They [feminists] want power, not equality. And this is the highest location they can ascend to that power in the evangelical church and overturn what is clearly scriptural.”

Now, years later, Beth Moore is surprised that no one has contacted her to apologize. She said that John MacArthur’s mouth got away from him and that she had rehearsed what to say to him when he would call to apologize, that she forgives him.

There, right there, is the arrogance of the feminist. There is no reference to scripture, no introspection that perhaps she needs to repent of something. No idea that a man of God said something negative about her ministry and that perhaps just perhaps, she should take a look. Instead, she gives MacArthur free rent in her head, rehearsing over and over the apology response she expects would be forthcoming and will deign to forgive him when he calls…

As of this past February, she is still waiting for that apology. She will wait a long time. It’s not coming. There is nothing to apologize for.

There is indeed a global issue in the body when women are allowed unchecked or unrebuked to sally forth in violation of scriptures. It is a tragedy when the years-long model of a career woman instead of home-oriented wife and mother is given precedence and affirmation.

It’s been two and a half years since the “Go home” statement was made and it caused a lot of fire and heat when it was uttered and it’s still reverberating today. Why? The Bible is clear that a wife and mother’s primary orientation IS the home. What is wrong about saying ‘go home’ when that is the exact place the Lord desires a woman to be? (if possible?)

for indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake. (1 Corinthians 11:9)

The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. (Genesis 2:22)

The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.” (Genesis 2:23)

Therefore, I want younger widows to get married, have children, manage their households, and give the enemy no opportunity for reproach; for some have already turned away to follow Satan. (1 Timothy 5:14-15).

Why the heat and anger and impacts of his statement two years later? It is because some feminists who call themselves Christians get so angry about the sweetness of homemaking and raising children instead of making a career out of a ministry? Perhaps because they don’t want to submit. Perhaps because they want power, notice, fame, and celebrity. Whatever lusts and sinful desires a woman wants is what she wants, Bible cast aside in preference for feelings and lusts.

What DOES God expect for women? Ignore the unbiblical example of Moore, Christine Caine, Joanna Gaines, Jennie Allen, Jackie Hill Perry, and others and turn to God’s word:

Therefore, I want younger widows to get married, have children, manage their households, and give the enemy no opportunity for reproach; (1 Timothy 5:14)

Paul is speaking mainly of younger widows, women single a second time, but this time, not living under the guidance of their father as virgins pre-marriage, but women who have been widowed early and would have a tendency to fall into the temptations and snares of the devil. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary says of that verse,

Here remarriage is recommended as an antidote to sexual passion, idleness, and the other evils noted in 1Ti 5:11-13. Of course, where there was no tendency to these evils, marriage again would not be so requisite; Paul speaks of what is generally desirable,

Paul lauds women who have been widowed by their having maintained the biblical precepts for their life:

having been the wife of one man, having a reputation for good works; and if she has brought up children, if she has shown hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has assisted those in distress, and if she has devoted herself to every good work. (1 Timothy 5:10).

Paul warns against women/widows who have violated the biblical standards for their life, and what kinds of things they tend to get into when they ignore the Lord’s role for them:

At the same time they also learn to be idle, as they go around from house to house; and not merely idle, but also they become gossips and busybodies, talking about things not proper to mention. (1 Timothy 5:13).

Obviously if they are going house to house being busybodies, they are not at home raising children, as the Bible says women gifted with children should be busy doing. (1 Timothy 5:10, 14.

The problem when women step outside of their role as wife, mother, single women or widow doing good works…they are usurpers, as Genesis 2:15 shows. But the problem is not laid at just the female, but also the male. In the garden, the problem was two-fold. Eve ate. But the man also ate, passively succumbing to his wife’s error. Then as a coward, he blamed the woman.

God didn’t institute marriage the way He did, and set up women’s roles in life and marriage in order to be mean. He didn’t do it because He likes the man more. He didn’t do it to restrict us. He did it so we would help the man. In marriage, man and woman are two cogs that fit together and the institution would then work well. He did it so women could be cared for, safe in the house of our father or husband, under the authority of our pastors. He did it because he knows that is best for us. He is not a mean God but a merciful and wise God.

A year ago, Moore came out against complementarianism, a biblical doctrine that champions male headship and female submission. She said it was a doctrine of man, and repented of having ‘submitted to it and taught it.’ [In fact, Moore never submitted to it, she just pretended like she did]. See? Backsliding rarely ever reverts but goes on to an inevitable sad end.

I pray that you, dear sister, are content at home. It isn’t the wide world, with notice and fame and accolades. You get no educational certificates for cleaning a diaper. You get no trophies for putting the dishes away. You get no salary for vacuuming. Yet every profession has its mundane portions, and every profession has its fulfillments. In the profession the Lord set out for us, our satisfactions come when a child finally makes a moral decision, when a husband is relaxed and content ready to face the next day in the world, when your baby grows into a strong man and a Christian, when your family gracefully withstands an illness relying on Jesus…these are the accolades in which the Holy Spirit has surrounded you. And those are eternal!

Here is the transcript of the actual ‘Go home’ comment. Below that is the actual video of the moment in the Truth Matters conference. Below that is an interview with Justin Peters and Susan Heck about the issue of Beth Moore and her ilk within the church.

This is the transcript of the full comment, lightly edited for clarity and flow. TF = Todd Friel. PJ = Phil Johnson. JM = John MacArthur.

JM: There’s no case that can be made biblically for a woman preacher. Period paragraph end of discussion.

TF: So let me see if I can get a clarification on that one, Phil, anything to add?

PJ: The word that comes to my mind is narcissistic. I think the first time I saw her I thought she is … this is a going back to the last session of what Mike [Riccardi] said this is what it looks like to preach yourself rather than Christ. And she in fact she has said that. She said ‘I read the Bible and I try to find myself in the narrative. I put myself in the narrative.’ That that is exactly what she does.

TF: All right one more and then we will get into our video clips…

JM: I would just add one thing. Just because you have the skill to sell jewelry on the tv sales channel doesn’t mean you should be preaching. There are people who have a certain hawking skills, natural abilities to sell. They have energy and personality and all of that, but that doesn’t qualify you to preach.

TF: Dr. MacArthur we’ve done this a number of times and I’ve asked you a number of questions on pretty broad ranging issues. I’m perceiving this is actually troubling you.

JM: It’s profoundly troubled me because I think the church is caving into women preachers. Just the other day the same thing happened with Paula White. A whole bunch of leading evangelicals endorsed her new book. She’s a heretic and a prosperity preacher, three times married and what are they thinking? The ‘me too’ movement again, is the culture reclaiming ground in the church.

JM: When the leaders of evangelicalism roll over for women preachers the feminists have really won the battle. The primary effort in feminism is not equality. It’s not. They don’t want equality. That’s why 99% of plumbers are men. They don’t want equal power to be a plumber. They want to be senators, preachers, congressmen, president, the power structure in a university. They want power, not equality. And this is the highest location they can ascend to that power in the evangelical church and overturn what is clearly scriptural.

JM: So I think this is feminism gone to church this is why we can’t let the culture exegete the Bible. I need to add a footnote. When the Southern Baptist met in June and they passed Resolution Nine and they said intersectionality and critical theory are useful tools in interpreting the Bible that was a watershed moment for that entire movement, because if the culture has the right to interpret the Bible they will interpret the Bible and liberalism will take over.

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JM: So, I mean this is this is not a minor issue when you literally overturn the clear teaching of scripture to empower people who want power, you have given up biblical authority. This is not a small issue.

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JM: When you decide that the culture can interpret the scripture and you need cultural cues to translate the Bible the horse is out of the barn.