"Not My Daddy's Oldsmobile"

I made the comment the other day that my dad, as a lost man, had better Christian ethics than some believers today.  Dad would not do any work or shop on Sundays.  He would not let us go hunting or fishing on Sunday.  He would say that the Old Master rested and we would too.  Every time we sat down at the table, we had to take off our hats, put on a shirt, and had to say the blessing or grace.

Dad taught us to tell the truth, to protect the innocent and those that could not defend themselves.  We had to give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.  If we wanted something, we had to work and save for it.  Dad taught us independence and not to depend on Uncle Sam for anything.  Dad was concerned because the government could take control and tell you how to live and what you could and could not plant.  He taught us to avoid charity and be willing to work rather than receive a handout.

He taught us to say, “Yes sir and no Mam.  Thank you and you are welcome.” 

Granny Hopper, dad’s mother, taught her family good, basic Christian ethics.  The problem was, most of her children were not believers, but were unsaved children with good Christian principles.

Somewhere in dad’s life, I think after he served in the Second World War, someone told him that he could not be saved because of all the things he experienced and participated in as a teenager and serving in the war.  Dad would have that mindset until age fifty-eight.

Part of the reasoning for his inability to be saved may have rooted in the doctrine of the Hard Shell Baptist Church which dad was nurtured.  I do not know much about the “Hard Shell Baptist,” but I know that it was not Southern Baptist.  Hard Shell Baptists do not get along with Southern Baptist regarding them as too liberal.  Today most of the Hard Shell Baptists are Primitive Baptist Churches and adhere to the five tenets of Calvinism, but oppose the elements of John Calvin’s theology such as infant baptism.  It is an intense conservatism church and belief system.

The mindset the Hard Shell Baptists when dad was young is a good indication of why dad developed the attitude that he could not be saved.  I know this because dad would comment, “There is no need to invite people to church.  They know where it is.  If a “feller” wants to be saved, he knows where to go and God does not need our help.”  The biggest difference between the Hard Shell Baptists and the Southern Baptists was missions.  Hard Shell Baptists are anti-missions and teach against it.

As I think of dad for Father’s Day, I am thankful that it was not what daddy did that kept dad from becoming a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, but what Jesus did to save him.  One of the greatest tools in the Devil’s workshop is the tool of “we have to get right before God can save us.”  That belief is the big LIE.  Over and over, dad would say, “Son, you don’t know what all I have done.”  My reply was dad I don’t care what all you have done.  God will forgive you if you ask forgiveness.

Repeatedly, he would say, “You become and Christian, because I can’t.”  You go to church and live a good Christian life. 

Praise God, Dad did become a Christian at age fifty-eight.  He finally realized that it was not what he had done or what he could do, but what God had already done through Jesus Christ the Lord.



And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.  I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.  And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was (John 17:3-5 KJV).