The Rev. John MacArthur, an influential and exacting evangelical preacher, died Monday at the age of 86.

For over fifty years, he served as the leader of Grace Community Church in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Sun Valley. His ministry confirmed his passing via social media. On Sunday, Tom Patton, one of the church’s pastors, informed the congregation that MacArthur had been hospitalized due to pneumonia.

MacArthur garnered attention during the COVID-19 pandemic for defying Los Angeles County’s health mandates by conducting indoor services for hundreds and neglecting to implement masking and social distancing protocols.

Long before these events, his influence extended far beyond Southern California, where he was raised and began leading his nondenominational congregation at the age of 29.

His Grace to You broadcast ministry circulated his theologically conservative teachings while his many books, including the popular MacArthur Study Bible, were translated into dozens of languages.

“His legacy as a pastor and teacher in the faith will continue to inspire many generations to come,” said Jonathan Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University, where MacArthur had given the convocation address.

Dressed in a suit and tie, he eschewed pop culture references and emotional appeals from the pulpit, even as they became mainstays of modern evangelicalism.

His followers lauded him for his expository preaching, in which he walked them through Scripture line by line. He wanted his sermons to be timeless explanations of the Bible as he interpreted it.

“He could get more out of a Bible verse than anyone I’ve ever known,” evangelical leader Franklin Graham wrote on social media. He called MacArthur one of “America’s great Bible teachers.”

He was “a lion of the pulpit,” wrote the Rev. Al Mohler, a Southern Baptist leader, for the evangelical World magazine. “He was a preacher God used to make other preachers better preachers.”

MacArthur was unafraid to stir controversy for the sake of his beliefs, even deriding fellow evangelicals for what he saw as incorrect teachings and theology, including the growing charismatic wing of Christianity.

He was an outspoken proponent of complementarianism – the belief that men and women have different roles and women should not be pastors. He publicly rebuked two influential evangelical women: the popular Bible teacher Beth Moore and the Rev. Paula White-Cain, a spiritual advisor to President Donald Trump.

During a packed, indoor Sunday morning service at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, MacArthur told applauding congregants that they were not meeting to be rebellious, but because “our Lord has commanded us to come together and worship him.”

The county and the church traded lawsuits, with the latter arguing the COVID-19 mandates violated their constitutional right to religious freedom. In August 2021, the county’s board of supervisors voted to pay $800,000 to Grace Community Church to settle the lawsuit — an outcome MacArthur hailed as a “monumental victory.”

The church has also weathered allegations related to its handling of abuse allegations and its treatment of women leaving abusive marriages.

MacArthur hailed from a long line of pastors, including his father. As part of his ministry, he helped train future church leaders through the Master’s University and the Master’s Seminary, both in Southern California.

He is survived by his wife, Patricia, and his four adult children, Matt, Marcy, Mark and Melinda, along with 15 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

MacArthur had suffered from health problems in recent years, including heart and lung procedures.

He spoke about his ill health in a video message to a church leadership conference earlier this year.

“I realize I’m on the last lap,” he said. “That takes on a new meaning when you know you’re on the short end of the candle. I am all thanks and praise to God for everything he’s allowed me to be a part of and everything he’s accomplished by his Word in these years of ministry.”