"There's no such thing as predestination"
Stories about Calvinism from a high school Southern Gospel DJ
In high school, I was a DJ at WVHM, our local Southern Gospel station in Hardin, Kentucky—“The Voice of Heartland Ministries Radio”—and every week, during my Saturday afternoon shift, I was scheduled to play that week’s sermon from a charismatic church in Paducah, Kentucky.
The pastor’s sermons were always interesting, to say the least, and quite a departure from the expositional preaching I had grown up with in my home church.
It was the eve of the Iraq War. I remember him some how getting the fact that we should invade from Jeremiah 49:19–22. The text talks about Bozrah, which he equated with Basrah, Iraq—one of the first cities on the invasion path. The lion in the passage was quite obviously the United Kingdom while the eagle was the United States. Thus, we should invade Iraq. Like I said, he was always very interesting.
On one particular Saturday when I put the cassette tape in the deck, I remember him reading either Romans 8 or Ephesians 1, and then spending the rest of his sermon saying,
“There’s no such thing as predestination! Don’t believe for a second that God predestined you! Predestination is not in the Bible! God gave you free will!”
He ranted like this for thirty minutes or more, all while ignoring the fact that the word “predestined” was in the biblical text he had just read.
It was like living in a parody sketch. I couldn’t believe the sermon I was listening to had really happened.
Several years later, I had a friend who was fired as a pastor of a rural Kentucky Baptist church. In a particularly tense business meeting during which various members were airing their complaints against the pastor, one man stood up and complained about my friend’s Calvinism. While my friend is in fact quite Calvinistic, he had not taught on election during his tenure because he knew the church was not ready to study such a potentially divisive topic.
When this enraged member brought up his objections to my friend’s Calvinist teachings, my friend pointed out that he had not in fact taught on the subject during his time in the church.
The church member countered back, “Yeah, but you read it once!”
At this point, my friend clarified, “Are you talking about the time I read Romans 8:28–29?” He proceeded to read the verses for clarity’s sake.
“Yes! That’s it. You read that before, and that’s Calvinist. We aren’t Calvinists!” countered the church member.
So my friend was removed as the pastor because he read verses in the Bible that members objected to.
I grew up in a church that was pejoratively called “Predestination Station” by some people in the community. After the time I first wrestled with them as a teenager, I’ve been quite comfortable with the doctrines of grace.
Nevertheless, let these stories be our reminder that you don’t have to be a Calvinist to believe in election and predestination. Both are biblical words that every Christian ought to believe in.
Christians are not separated by whether or not they believe in election. Election is in the Bible. We disagree rather on the nature and basis of election. Whether one believes in election conditioned upon God’s foreknowledge of a person’s faith, election of a corporate body rather than individuals, or unconditional election on the basis of God’s sovereign choice alone, if you believe in the Bible, you believe in election.
I'll paraphrase how the esteemed R.C. Sproul put it: There is nothing in Calvin's doctrine of predestination that wasn't in Luther's doctrine of predestination. And there's nothing in Luther's doctrine of predestination that wasn't in Augustine's doctrine of predestination. And there's nothing in Augustine's doctrine of predestination that wasn't in Paul's doctrine of predestination!
Thanks for this entertaining info! Have a great day!