Grace Community Church Pastor John MacArthur drew concern after he was absent from the Sun Valley, California, church's second service on Sunday due to an unspecified illness.
"Many of you are praying for Pastor John's health due to his absence from the pulpit during the second service. We are pleased to report that he is doing well. He saw a doctor on Sunday afternoon, and he is in good health and just needs rest from a busy holiday week," the church said in a statement published on Monday.
"Thank you for your continued prayers for Pastor John."
According to Protestia, a polemic news website, a Grace Community Church elder reportedly told worshippers that MacArthur had been under the weather over the past week.
"Just so you know, Pastor John had a bug this week and preached our first hour but asked if he might be able to take a break for the second hour. So Mike Riccardi is going to be answering the call. It's pretty amazing we have guys with sermons in their Bibles wherever you go, and so Mike's going to be here," the GCC elder said.
MacArthur, who has been pastoring at GCC for 53 years, made headlines in recent years for pushing back against California's COVID-19 restrictions on in-person worship services. As a result, he was fined and faced threats of arrest if the church continued to hold services.
As reported by The Christian Post, Los Angeles County and the state of California agreed to pay $800,000 in legal fees to GCC to end the lawsuit MacArthur and his attorneys had filed in response to the mandates.
Last year, MacArthur sent an open letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom after he launched an abortion billboard campaign in several pro-life states. The billboard used a Bible verse to attempt to justify the procedure.
"You revealed to the entire nation how thoroughly rebellious against God you are when you sponsored billboards across America promoting the slaughter of children, whom He creates in the womb," MacArthur wrote to Newsom.
"You further compounded the wickedness of that murderous campaign with a reprehensible act of gross blasphemy, quoting the very words of Jesus from Mark 12:31 as if you could somehow twist His meaning and arrogate His name in favor of butchering unborn infants."
Photo courtesy: Public Domain
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
