The Rev. John MacArthur, a nationally influential conservative evangelical preacher, head of a media ministry, and author of scores of books and Bible studies that sold by the millions, died on Monday in Santa Clarita, Calif. He was 86. R. Albert Mohler Jr., the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, once described MacArthur, who was based for 56 years at Grace Community Church in southern California, to the New York Times as driving "the most influential pulpit in evangelical Christianity for more than half a century."

Christianity Today highlighted his hugely successful MacArthur Study Bible (Thomas Nelson, 1997), which offered "20,000 notes on specific verses, as well as an index of important doctrines, introductions to each book of the Bible, and suggested Bible-reading plans." Harper Collins Christian Publishing's Thomas Nelson division published this as part of a suite of titles with the MacArthur Bible Commentary and The Gospel According to Jesus, which sold more than 3 milliion uniits collectively.

Mark Schoenwald, President and CEO of HCCP, said in a statement Tuesday, “We are profoundly grateful for the life and ministry of John MacArthur. His clarity in teaching Scripture, unwavering conviction, and ministerial leadership shaped the faith of millions."

MacArthur's New Testament Commentary—a 34-volume series released by Moody Publishers over 31 years—sold more than 1 million copies. Mark Jobe, president of Moody Bible Institute, said in a statement, “Pastor John MacArthur was a man of unwavering conviction and profound dedication to the clear and faithful exposition of God’s Word."

As a preacher, MaArthur took some controversial stands. He was known as a culture warrior who refused to shutter indoor worship during the height of the pandemic; denounced same-sex marriage; held that women should not preach, teach, or lead in the church; and counseled Christians not to vote for Democrats. In 2022, after he insisted that wives should stand by husbands who had sexually molested their children, Thomas Nelson canceled his book contract for a title about endangered children.

MacArthur also saw enemies cloaked under a Christian label. His obituary in the New York Times notes he preached on the "errors" he saw in Roman Catholicism, charismatic theology, and the prosperity gospel, and deployed Bible quotations to critique popular evangelicals such as Bible teacher Beth Moore and televangelist Joel Osteen. According to Christianity Today, he also held that "many professing followers of Christ with testimonies of being born again were, in fact, 'seriously wrong about the most basic of Christian truths.' "