Gosh I wish it were this easy to refute Calvinism. Here is a story I heard when I was growing up.
The two preachers had agreed to exchange churches one day. Lyman Beecher, father of the famous Henry Ward Beecher, was to speak in a fellow-minister’s church, and the other minister was to speak in Beecher’s church. The other minister was a stanch believer in predestination. The day came when they were to exchange pulpits, and each set out for the other’s church. Midway they met.
They stopped to pass the time of day, and as Lyman Beecher began to move on, the other Preacher,
unwilling to let such an opportunity pass, said, “Dr. Beecher, I wish to call your attention to the fact that before creation God ordained that you were to preach in my church, and I in yours, on this particular day.”
“Is that so?” glared Dr. Beecher, “Then I won’t preach in your church today,” and spinning his horse
around, he rode to his own church and preached in it that morning. He believed that man has the power of choice and though God foreknows He does not force anyone.
4 comments:
It happened just as God predestined. God is not surprised by the switch in the story. Beecher's companion was insolent to think that he knew God's plan. Beecher was foolish to think he changed it.
Bob prokop writing:
"It is impossible to love God if one regards God as responsible for everything." Simone Weil
I was thinking Beecher was going to show up and give a sermon refuting Calvinism, winning his companion's whole congregation.
Haha, loved the story. :)
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