I’d encourage you to listen to this message. Other than a few quibbles, I think that pastor MacArthur gives us good reasons for separating from unbelievers when it comes to any kind of joint spiritual enterprise.

However, I do have one major question about this message: Was it Paul’s original intent to limit the application of this passage ONLY to joint spiritual enterprises with unbelievers? Was this kind of thing really a problem in Corinth in AD 56 or so?

To listen to MacArthur’s message, one might be led to think so. But I can’t imagine that Paul was addressing a situation where the Corinthians were actually joining hands with the local idolaters in some kind of joint religious services, can you? Why would they, newly saved out of idolatry, need that kind of instruction?

Pastor MacArthur makes a point of their recent conversions directly out of idolatry, and he is right. From there he goes on to make application to joint religious efforts with unbelievers. I believe that application is a correct one, but it seems that he wants to limit the passage to that application only.

The Corinthians may have had some problems with cooperating with unbelievers, but these unbelievers would have been posing as Christians, the false apostles Paul was also contending with in 2 Corinthians. I am  not sure that it is these false apostles Paul has in view in 2 Cor 6, though he does deal with them later.

The Corinthians definitely did have problems in their relations with idolaters, however. We can see this in 1 Cor 8-10, in the famous meat offered to idols passage. There are various interpretations of how this particular compromise took place. Gordon Fee suggests in his commentary on 1 Cor that the Corinthians were actually eating the meat offered to idols in the idol temples! I tend to agree with Fee’s interpretation here (somewhat reluctantly, because I disagree with Fee a lot).

In any case, it does seem to me that the problems Paul is addressing in 2 Cor 6 include subtle compromises with idolatry such as those addressed in 1 Cor 8-10. It is these subtle compromises that are so easily made that trip us up spiritually, and Paul is dealing with them in very stark language in 2 Cor 6.

So yes, I agree with MacArthur, we can have no cooperation with unbelievers in religious services. That’s absolutely right.

But the passage has a much broader application than that. Surely it would include bringing the music of idol worship into the church as well, would it not?

Oh, what subject? Read MacArthur

Here

and here

and here

and here

If you want to reference my complaints, please see my posts in the archives connected with the preacher in question. See also this post where I express my dismay about some who might be in a certain ecclesiastical camp.

I really have to applaud Dr. MacArthur on this issue. I highly recommend, no, urge and admonish you to read his posts if you have not already done so. They are very well done. Would that fundamentalists would be so strong. Worried that they are not and don’t see the need to be. I’ll give you MacArthur’s closing paragraphs after the jump…

Here they are:

It is past time for the issue to be dealt with publicly.

Finally, it seriously overstates the involvement of John Piper and C. J. Mahaney to say they are “discipling” Mark Driscoll. In the first place, the idea that a grown man already in public ministry and constantly in the national spotlight needs space to be “mentored” before it’s fair to subject his public actions to biblical scrutiny seems to put the whole process backward. These problems have been talked about in both public and private contexts for at least three or four years. At some point the plea that this is a maturity issue and Mark Driscoll just needs time to mature wears thin. In the meantime, the media is having a field day writing stories that suggest trashy talk is one of the hallmarks of the “New Calvinism;” and countless students whom I love and am personally acquainted with are being led into similar carnal behavior by imitating Mark Driscoll’s speech and lifestyle. Enough is enough.

Yes, I did inform John Piper and C. J. Mahaney of my concerns about this material several weeks ago. I itemized all of these issues in much more thorough detail than I have written about them here, and I expressly told them I was preparing this series of articles for the blog.

To those asking why pastors Piper and Mahaney (and others in positions of key leadership) haven’t publicly expressed similar concerns of their own, that is not a question for me. I hope you will write and ask them.

All I can say is, “Hear, hear!” Thank you, Dr. MacArthur.

for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

Something for you to ponder: do associations matter?

They matter in the political political world, do they not? Consider an analysis from Peter Wehner regarding the association of Barrack Obama and his pastor Jeremiah Wright.

But many seem to think that associations don’t matter at all in the religious political world.

Or do they?

Think again about my previous posts:

why are we surprised?

and

outrage is easy … or is it?

Do associations matter?

I think they do.

Because John MacArthur is going to preach at the Billy Graham Pastors Institute at the Cove in North Carolina. Bob is surprised, disappointed, but holds out some hope…

Will MacArthur’s visit be affirming to the BGEA? Of course. Unless, of course, John gets prophetic as he is sometimes known to do.

If God has written Ichabod over the door of a house, John, why enter it unless you’re going there to preach in such a way that you will be absolutely sure that you are never invited again?

If possible, I’ll order the recording just to see.

Don’t bother, Bob, if you’ll check the rest of the schedule, you’ll see your hopes are unlikely.

You see, the next three day’s following the Pastor’s Institute, MacA will be teaching a seminar on the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son at the Cove. Entitled “The Great Joy of Jesus” this seminar will give you “a fascinating look into the heart of the Good Shepherd” as the promo says.

Given that fact, how prophetic do you think MacA will be on the first day of his visit?

I wouldn’t be holding my breath for it, but then I am just a cynical and jaded narrow-minded bigot fundamentalist.