Pastor John MacArthur criticized the ministers who plagiarize other preachers' sermons, saying that they are "not true messenger[s] from the LORD."
Speaking to Austin Duncan during The Master's Seminary Day 2021, MacArthur, senior pastor of Grace Community Church in California, addressed the issue of plagiarism among church leaders, the Christian Headlines reported.
"He's lazy and incompetent... and unsanctified," he said in a video clip, referring to a pastor who plagiarizes.
The minister explained that a pastor is being sanctified by studying the Bible and copying others' sermons is a "fraud."
"I think you become a showman at that point. You're an actor. You're playing a part, playing a role... The one thing that expository preaching does.... it sanctifies the pastor. The relentless study of the Word of God is how God sanctifies and protects the pastor," he said.
"So, when you're just opening your iPad and reading somebody else's sermon, you've never been exposed to the sanctifying work of the Word. To say nothing about the fact that you're playing a role and you're an actor, you're not a true messenger from the LORD... There's no honesty in a man who does that. No honesty. That's fraud. Ministerial fraud," MacArthur added.
He also pointed out that a minister misses the impact of God's Word if he does not study about it and merely copies a preaching from another pastor.
"It's when a pastor's sentences are 'exactly verbatim' of another pastor that they've bypassed the spiritual impact of God's Word, and what the divine work the Lord would be doing in their heart because the truth wasn't studied like it should have been."
Further, the pastor emphasized that a passage's "implications and applications" must be based on the audience of a preaching, as well as the change in society.
John MacArthur on pastors who plagiarize sermons: pic.twitter.com/mCxxEQNAId
"” Phil Johnson (@Phil_Johnson_) October 28, 2021
Scot McKnight, a professor at the Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, echoed this sentiment in his statement with the Religion News Service.
McKnight stressed that a sermon is an "encounter with God" and not "just another speech." He also stated that a preacher hears from God by "reading, prayer and study," then passes on the learning to the congregation. But when a pastor plagiarizes, he "short-circuits" the process, which he said is an "act of betrayal."
The professor believes that pastors who plagiarize build "a web of deceit and shame" in their lives, living in fear of being discovered.
Plagiarism of sermons became a controversial issue following an allegation that Pastor Ed Litton, the current president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), committed such with J.D. Greear's preaching.
Litton admitted that he used some points from Greear's sermons, with the latter's permission, but apologized that he did not give him credit.
Greear then accepted Litton's apology. He also confessed that the sermon, which he delivered in 2019 and later shared with the SBC president, was actually inspired by another minister, Pastor Paul Tripp.
Though some critics denounced Litton for the action, others defended him. A commenter said that he did nothing wrong since he asked for permission and that his purpose is "all God's."
