John MacArthur

Plenary verbal inspiration, inerrancy in the original documents, and a literal-grammatical-historical hermeneutic, argued as necessarily following from inspiration itself.

"We teach that the Bible constitutes the only infallible rule of faith and practice and is true and reliable in all the matters it addresses."Grace Community Church Doctrinal Statement, "The Holy Scriptures"

66 books, stated as directly and plainly as any entry in this whole project.

WORTH CORRECTINGThe statement never mentions the Apocrypha at all — the 66-book count is stated positively, but there's no explicit rejection of the deuterocanonical books to point to, unlike Jerome or the Reformation confessions elsewhere in this map. Worth not overstating: this is a clear positive claim, not a stated engagement with the wider-canon alternative.

"the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, given by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, constitute the Word of God."Doctrinal Statement, "The Holy Scriptures"

One essence, three coequal and consubstantial persons, each uncreated and distinct and each equally deserving worship. States eternal generation of the Son and, notably, double procession of the Spirit from both Father and Son — the Western/filioque position, unlike the 381 creed already in this map, which reads "who proceeds from the Father" alone.

WORTH CORRECTINGWorth cross-referencing against the Constantinopolitan Creed entry — same map, two different answers on procession, a live East/West fault line rather than a settled question.

"this God is one in essence (having one mind, one will, and one power), eternally existing in three coequal and consubstantial Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit... each uncreated and distinct, and each equally deserving worship and obedience."Doctrinal Statement, "God"

Textbook Chalcedonian formula, restated in language that echoes the Definition's own four negatives almost word for word — unconfused, unchanged, undivided, unseparated — fifteen centuries later.

"two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the divine and the human, were joined together in one person, without confusion, change, division, or separation. He is therefore very God and very man, yet one Christ..."Doctrinal Statement, "God the Son"

Total depravity with explicit federal headship: humanity was united with Adam as its representative, so both the guilt of his sin and a corrupted nature are transmitted to every subsequent person. The corruption is total enough that man has "no recuperative powers to enable him to recover himself."

"man lost his innocence, incurred the penalty of spiritual and physical death, became subject to the wrath of God, and became inherently corrupt and utterly incapable of choosing or doing that which is acceptable to God apart from divine grace. With no recuperative powers to enable him to recover himself, man is hopelessly lost."Doctrinal Statement, "Man"

Unconditional, grounded solely in God's sovereign will — explicitly not in foreseen faith or anticipated human response. Paired directly with an affirmation that election doesn't remove human responsibility to repent and believe; the statement holds both without resolving the tension philosophically.

"God's election of totally depraved sinners is unconditional, grounded only in the sovereign freedom of God's own will... It is not grounded in God's anticipation of what sinners might do by their own will, nor even in response to their foreseen faith."Doctrinal Statement, "Election"

Faith as trust that turns to Christ and confesses him as sovereign Lord — the signature move of his "lordship salvation" position, where faith isn't framed as bare intellectual assent but as inseparable from submission to Christ's lordship.

WORTH CORRECTINGNeither `triad` nor `fiducia` names the lordship-salvation emphasis precisely; `fiducia` is the closer fit of the two available stances, but the "confess Him as sovereign Lord" clause is doing real, distinguishing work that a bare trust category doesn't capture.

"[Justification is] the act of God... in which He declares righteous those who, by His irresistible grace, repent of their sins, turn to Christ in faith, and confess Him as sovereign Lord."Doctrinal Statement, "Justification"

Forensic imputation, stated with a direct, explicit denial of the infused-righteousness alternative: not a virtue infused into the believer, but a legal declaration built on the double imputation of the believer's sin to Christ and Christ's righteousness to the believer.

"The righteousness of justification is not infused into the believer, nor is it attained by any virtue or work of man... it is the legal declaration of right standing with God... justification consists in the imputation of our sins to Christ and the imputation of Christ's righteousness to us... through faith alone apart from works."Doctrinal Statement, "Justification"

Definite atonement — Christ's death purchases and secures salvation specifically for those the Father gave him, not a provision made merely possible for all.

"[Christ] purchased an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven... for all those the Father has given to Him."Doctrinal Statement, "Atonement"

Eternal security, joined directly to the lordship-salvation reading of apparent apostasy: someone who professes faith and later denies Christ demonstrates by that denial that they were never genuinely saved, rather than a true believer actually losing salvation.

"All the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God's power and are thus secure in Christ forever... Those who once professed faith and subsequently deny the Lord demonstrate by their going out from us that they were never truly saved in the first place."Doctrinal Statement, "Security"

Indwelling is ordinary, permanent, and true of every believer at all times — stated directly in the doctrinal statement and used there to explain the sense in which the Lord's Supper is 'an actual communion with the risen Christ.' The timing follows his monergistic account of regeneration and his rejection of baptismal regeneration as a Baptist.

WORTH CORRECTINGThe permanence-and-universality-among-believers claim is researched from the Grace Community Church doctrinal statement; the placement before conscious faith is inferred from his regeneration section.

Believer's baptism by immersion — a testimony of faith already possessed, not a means of receiving it, and a sign of identification with the visible body of Christ.

"Christian baptism by immersion is the solemn and beautiful testimony of a believer showing forth his faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior..."Doctrinal Statement, "The Church"

Primarily commemorative — "the commemoration and proclamation of His death until He comes" — and the elements are explicitly "only representative" of Christ's flesh and blood, ruling out transubstantiation and Lutheran real-bodily presence. Genuinely complicated by one clause, though: the statement adds that participation is "nevertheless an actual communion with the risen Christ... present, fellowshipping with His people."

WORTH CORRECTINGThis map's prior tag was `memorial`, unverified. It survives a primary-source check, but not cleanly — the "actual communion... present" language is real and keeps this from being pure Zwinglianism. On a close read, though, that "presence" is explicitly grounded in the Spirit's ordinary, permanent indwelling of every believer (stated elsewhere in the same document), not something specific to the sacrament in the way Calvin's classical `spiritual`-presence view means it — so `memorial` remains the better-fitting stance, with this tension flagged rather than smoothed over.

"Whereas the elements of communion are only representative of the flesh and blood of Christ, participation in the Lord's Supper is nevertheless an actual communion with the risen Christ, who indwells every believer, and so is present, fellowshipping with His people."Doctrinal Statement, "The Church"

Hard cessationism, stated as official church doctrine rather than only argued at book length in Strange Fire (still the fuller popular treatment, but not the primary source used here). Tongues and sign miracles authenticated the apostles and ceased once that purpose was fulfilled; healing is not a gift anyone possesses today, though God still answers prayer for healing according to his will.

WORTH CORRECTINGSharper than a bland "gifts ceased" claim: the statement explicitly warns that miraculous gifts "can even be counterfeited by Satan so as to deceive even believers."

"Speaking in tongues and the working of sign miracles in the beginning days of the church have now ceased... having fulfilled their purpose of pointing to and authenticating the apostles as revealers of divine truth."Doctrinal Statement, "God the Holy Spirit"

Eternal conscious punishment in the lake of fire, following a physical, bodily resurrection of the unsaved specifically for judgment.

"The resurrection of the unsaved dead to judgment will be a physical, bodily resurrection... in which they will be committed to eternal conscious punishment in the lake of fire."Doctrinal Statement, "Last Things: The Judgment of the Lost"

Dispensational premillennialism: a pretribulational rapture removes the church before a seven-year tribulation, followed by Christ's return to establish a literal thousand-year earthly reign fulfilling God's land and kingdom promises to Israel specifically — with the church and Israel kept explicitly distinct throughout, not collapsed into one people of God.

"We teach the personal, bodily appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ before the seven-year tribulation... to translate His church from this earth."Doctrinal Statement, "The Rapture of the Church"