This is not what he’s saying. Not at all. If you can’t see it, I can’t make you do so. If men we admire say things we cannot imagine any other father of the church in or outside Scripture would ever ever every ever say, that’s a clue. I have no authority. Full stop.
Then add that he believes he should not apply the text to this flock and we have a consistency that is clear.
If the only thing a pastor or elder could ever say in application of the Sixth Commandment was that a man should not shoot another man in cold blood, a vast number of the Larger Catechism’s Q&As would never have been written. Almost any pastoral counsel can be denounced as going beyond the text of Scripture.
I’m sorry, but I have no patience for your demurral. To suggest that Pastor MacArthur is simply saying he doesn’t have authority to tell a man where he and his family should live is beyond belief. To me at least. Calvin is right.
John MacArthur is wrong. Woefully so.
You disagree and I’m sad.
Love,
PS: One thing that might be instructive to you is to read and compare John Calvin’s sermons on a text to John MacArthur’s. It would blow your mind. It’s the difference between eating meat and eating good computer code.