By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor Monday, July 14, 2025
John MacArthur participates in an event for The Master’s Seminary on Aug. 15, 2024. | YouTube/The Master’s Seminary
John MacArthur, the 86-year-old longtime California pastor and broadcaster, has been admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. The announcement was made during Sunday worship, with a church leader telling the congregation he “may be in the presence of the Lord soon.”
The latest update was delivered by Tom Patton, a staff pastor at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, where MacArthur has served for over five decades.
Patton asked the congregation to pray for MacArthur and his family, saying the church was placing their pastor “at the feet of the glorious Savior whom he has served so faithfully for so many years and now awaits his final command to be in his presence forever.”
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MacArthur has not preached at the church this year and was absent for much of 2024 due to ongoing health challenges.
While he celebrated 56 years as pastor-teacher in February, his worsening condition prevented public appearances or preaching engagements.
The prayer led by Patton invoked support for MacArthur’s wife Patricia, his children and their spouses, as well as the couple’s 15 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
“Support them in this hour,” Patton said during the service, as he asked for “grace upon grace” for the family.
He described MacArthur as “your faithful servant and your trustworthy messenger” while asking God to “open up the floodgates of Heaven in blessing and joy and kindness to them.”
MacArthur had previously addressed his health in November 2024, speaking candidly to his congregation about the “stress” caused by surgeries and recovery. At the time, he said he remained thankful to God, stating, “I see the good and gracious and kind and providential hand of God in every vicissitude in my life, every hard experience, every challenge.”
In April 2024, MacArthur appeared in a video on Grace to You’s social media accounts, pushing back against rumors about his health and declaring he was ready to resume ministry.
“The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” he said in the recording, quoting Mark Twain. At the time, he said he was not experiencing any terminal illness, adding, “My heart is probably stronger now than it’s been in the last decade of my life.”
His earlier health decline began in January 2023 after he experienced breathing difficulties shortly after delivering a sermon. He was hospitalized and later underwent three heart surgeries and a lung procedure, resulting in a seven-week hospital stay.
“They put me in the hospital,” he explained in remarks later, “because I had a lung surgery and three heart procedures.”
MacArthur was released from the hospital in February 2024.
Phil Johnson, executive director of Grace to You and an elder at the church, clarified that he was recovering at home, amid inaccurate reports circulating about the pastor’s status during that period.
Despite his intention to return to the pulpit, MacArthur did not appear at the March Shepherds Conference, an annual event for church leaders hosted at Grace. His absence marked the second year in a row that he was unable to attend the gathering due to health reasons.
MacArthur has been a central figure in Evangelical Christianity for decades. He is the voice behind the Grace to You broadcast ministry, which reaches audiences internationally through radio and digital media, and has authored dozens of theological books and biblical commentaries.
Since becoming a pastor-teacher in 1969, he has preached more than 3,000 sermons.
Reflecting on aging and mortality in a previous interview in 2024, MacArthur said, “I realize I’m on the last lap. That takes on a new meaning when you know you’re on the short end of the candle.”
