Legendary evangelical pastor and author John MacArthur, 86, has been hospitalized with pneumonia and may sadly be on his last leg, according to his colleagues at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California.
“This week Pastor John contracted pneumonia. He was admitted into the hospital and may be in the presence of the Lord soon,” staff pastor Tom Patton announced Sunday.
“I know that you’ll want to be in prayer for the family — for John, his wife Patricia, for his adult children and their spouses … plus John and Patricia’s 15 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren,” he added.
— Manuel Brambila (@mbrambila) July 13, 2025
The announcement didn’t necessarily come as a shocker. Due to health complications, MacArthur hasn’t preached at all this year and didn’t preach for much of 2024, according to The Christian Post.
“While he celebrated 56 years as pastor-teacher in February, his worsening condition prevented public appearances or preaching engagements,” the Christian outlet noted.
MacArthur last spoke up in April, when he dismissed rumors about his health while speaking in a video for Grace To You, his media ministry.
“The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” he said. “My heart is probably stronger now than it’s been in the last decade of my life.”
Have you ever heard one of John MacArthur’s sermons or read one of his books?
Prior to this, last November he told his congregation about the “stress” he’d faced because of surgeries. Despite this stress, he remained thankful to God.
“I see the good and gracious and kind and providential hand of God in every vicissitude in my life, every hard experience, every challenge,” he said at the time.
The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. 🤓 So thankful to the Lord for your prayers as I continue to recover. pic.twitter.com/rRCz3ebAIM
— John MacArthur (@johnmacarthur) April 16, 2025
His health problems reportedly first cropped up in January 2023 after he experienced breathing difficulties after delivering a sermon.
“He was hospitalized and later underwent three heart surgeries and a lung procedure, resulting in a seven-week hospital stay,” the Post noted.
“They put me in the hospital because I had a lung surgery and three heart procedures,” he later confirmed.
Were MacArthur to die, it’d mark the loss of one of the most central figures in evangelicalism in recent history.
Born in 1939 to a Baptist preacher, MacArthur turned to religion after a horrible 1957 car crash almost left him dead.
🧵 1. Born Into a Preacher’s Home (1939)
John Fullerton MacArthur Jr. was born June 19, 1939, in Los Angeles, CA. His father, Jack MacArthur, was a Baptist pastor, radio preacher, and conference speaker.
John grew up steeped in Scripture, Christian radio, and ministry life. But… pic.twitter.com/DFDlfIxpRa
— Josh Barzon (@JoshuaBarzon) July 13, 2025
🧵 2. A Car Crash That Changed Everything (1957)
At 18 years old, John was involved in a horrific car crash on Route 66. He was ejected from the vehicle, flipped through the air, and landed 100 feet away. Miraculously, he lived.
He spent months recovering. But that season… pic.twitter.com/uwLq4lMVHV
— Josh Barzon (@JoshuaBarzon) July 13, 2025
“God basically put me in a hospital bed and said, “Are you ready to listen now?’” the pastor later recalled.
He went on to become of the most famous pastors on Earth courtesy of his powerful preaching.
🧵 5. The Voice of the Expositor
MacArthur didn’t want to be clever or trendy. He wanted to be clear. Every sermon was saturated with exposition, theology, and direct application.
By the early 1980s, he was preaching to thousands in person and millions by radio. In 1997, he… pic.twitter.com/ccHzQxbCC0
— Josh Barzon (@JoshuaBarzon) July 13, 2025
Later during the COVID pandemic, MacArthur became one of the few pastors to stand up to blue government diktats and win.
“A judge in California [has] allowed a prominent pastor in Los Angeles to hold indoor in-person services despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s coronavirus restrictions, including banning singing in houses of worship,” Fox News reported in August of 2020.
“Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church expressed his gratitude to Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant whose order requires congregants wear masks and practice social distancing,” the report continued.
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