The following excerpt is from the book, Biographies of Restoration Pioneers, Volume 1. It describes how tragedy led “Raccoon” John Smith (1784-1868) to leave “Calvinism of the purest sort” and begin preaching the truth.
John Smith received the typical one room school education of those days, and armed with that and his faith he began to preach “Calvinism of the purest sort.” He continued among the Baptists for about twenty years. On January 7, 1815 his wife was at a neighbor’s caring for a sick one. At around 10:00 she heard screams coming from her cabin as she saw it burst into flame. Her brother who was watching her 3 children, could be seen standing outside holding on to but one of them. The older two perished in that horrible blaze. And, to add misery to misery, his wife died from a broken heart but a few days afterward and Smith buried her by the ashes of his children. Smith also soon became sick and hovered between life and death for several days. After that he slowly recovered. His illness went from April until July when he slowly returned to the land of the living.
Because of great afflictions in his life and what were obvious injustices in his Calvinistic religion, Smith slowly turned from the doctrines that he had followed for so long. In the death of his children, he could not see some as elect, some reprobate. He wrestled with that doctrine but could not fit it to the God of the Bible and his son who paid the price for our sins. The change was gradually made but was debated in his mind until he ultimately could not make it fit and decided upon a change. He tried Fullerism to soften the harshness of Calvinism but still no rest. He continued thus until the beginning of the year 1824, when he heard of the publication of the “Christian Baptist,” by Alexander Campbell, to which he immediately subscribed and became a regular reader. He says: “I shall be thankful to my Heavenly Father, as long as I live, that I ever became acquainted with Alexander Campbell and his writings; for, in my bewildered state, he held up a light that I could see to go by.” With his mind thus enlightened, he preached the primitive Gospel, as he then understood it, from the year 1825 to 1828, being in full communion with the Regular Baptist organizations. During these four years he was engaged earnestly and zealously infusing the new spirit into the minds of his brethren and the world.
John Smith kept no journal until he had reviewed some notes that had been kept. He realized that he had baptized 700 sinners and “capsized fifteen hundred Baptists!”