Jonathan Nadeau Interview (Part 1)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the apostle Paul said, "'But we did not yield in subjection to them "'for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel "'would remain with you.'".

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her king.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Host Introduction and Jonathan Nadeau's Background

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and I am thankful to be your host. We have a theme around here, and that theme that you probably know is always biblical, always provocative, and always in that order.

Ray Johnson came up with another theme, and he likes to say on his emails, as he writes answers for emailers, he likes to say, no co-a-day keeps the confusion away. So I kind of like that. Once in a while, I have guests actually in the studio whose name is not Steve Cooley, and that is true for today.

I've got somebody in the studio today that you are going to love to hear from as he talks about Jesus Christ and what Christ did in his life. Jonathan Nadu, welcome to No Compromise Radio station.

Thanks for having me, Pastor Mike. It's an honor and privilege to be here today.

Now, sometimes I interview people who don't listen to the show, but are you a faithful listener, Jonathan? Absolutely. I have to admit, though, I haven't listened to the last one that's come out yet, though.

Wow, that's pretty good. I have only missed the last one. Shame on you. Ha ha ha ha ha. Jonathan, did I pronounce your name right? Yeah. Tell me how you pronounce it, though. I always call you Nadu, but you always answer to that.

Yeah, well, I've answered to the worst, but I say Nado. Nado, okay. Well, see, as your pastor and as your friend, I should already have known that.

Well, there's a big debate with some of the people in church. Is it, you know, Nadu, Nado, and, you know, answer to either one. It's fine by me.

All right, now, you are a member of Bethlehem Bible Church, and you're a husband, and you're a father. Tell me how many kids you have now. Three. Three. So far. So far, all right, I like that. And, Jonathan, I've asked you to come to talk to our listeners today, because every Christian, of course, has a story about how God saved them.

Every Christian has a testimony. And, of course, let's say for a men's breakfast, we get up and tell people, these are the great things God has done for me in a testimony. Don't you find that encouraging when men get up and do that at a men's breakfast or Bible study?

Absolutely, it's amazing to see how God works, and everyone's individual life.

And, of course, we realize that we're sinful. Jesus is sinless, substitutionary atonement, resurrection, and how God makes people born again. He makes them alive. But he does it in very unique circumstances.

So if you're listening today, you're going to be amazed at the providence of God in the life of a man, and then in the life of a family. And so, Jonathan, here's what I'd ask you to do. Give us an overview of what your life was like and what it was characterized before you were a Christian, because you weren't necessarily a Satanist, Anton LaVey, you know, satanic Bible reader, but you were pretty close, weren't you?

I might as well have been, yeah. Tell me a little bit about your background.

Well, when I was growing up, my parents had me go to catechism and stuff, and I ended up not going anymore. Because at that point, I might have been eight or 10, and I said, you know what? I'll do God a favor.

I'm not going to go to catechism or church or whatever because I'm pretty good. I'm not murdering people or anything like that. So I'll do him a favor. He doesn't have to worry about me. I'll take care of myself.

I have not heard that before. That was sure nice of you. Yeah, so I thought I was doing him a favor. So I stopped going to catechism and stuff, and I just kind of grew up being a somewhat normal kid, I guess you would say, but obviously rebellious and born a child of wrath, like the Bible says.

But as I was growing up, my father was an alcoholic, and he ended up leaving the house. And my mother was trying to raise me and my sister, and I was starting to become a teenager and becoming even more rebellious with no father figure around, and I was getting out of hand.

And so I went to high school, and the first year in my high school, I got into a car accident, and I lost my sight from that car accident. And a year after the car accident, my father passed away. Two years after my father passed away, I graduated high school, and six months after that, my mother had passed away from cancer.

And within four years, I had lost my sight, lost my father, lost my mother, and I was blind and living on my own at the age of 18.

The Blindness, Rebellion, and Heavy Metal Years

Now stop there for a second, Jonathan. When you were thinking about God in all this, were you doing what unbelievers typically do, what children of wrath do? Were you saying, you know what, God, you did this, God, you're to blame, somehow impinging on the generosity and goodness of God?

Absolutely, I always believed that there was a God and knew there was one. I just thought he had this personal vendetta against me. He was out to get me. He was taking all these things away from me, trying to make my life miserable.

And after I had gotten the car accident, I had started playing guitar, and I was in a heavy metal band and the more that these losses came to my life, the more rebellious, the more wicked I became towards God, I became more of an enemy of God, if that were even possible.

And this wasn't heavy metal like golden earring. This was heavy, heavy metal. Like, what kind of band would we associate? I forgot the name of your band.

What was the name of your band? Well, at first, we called it Children of a Lesser God, which was a play on the words, because I know there was a movie about the, I think it was a deaf girl called that, but it was more, we're children of the lesser God of Satan,.

Is the way I was taking it. So Children of the God who is not God, but the small g, the God of this world, as the Bible would say. Children of Satan, that's the name of the band.

Everything I did at this point was, like, again, I believe that there was a God. I knew he could see me. He was omnipotent. He was all-seeing. I knew he could see me, and all of this was just a billboard to show my hatred towards him.

And then when you, did you say there's another name for your band? Did you change it? Yeah, then I ended up calling it Blind Creation.

Okay, and you were the guitarist, or what were you? Yeah, I play guitar and sang. Okay, and do you sing and play guitar now at all?

Yeah, a little bit, but nothing like that.

So was it a long kind of, like, you know, mega death, Metallica, that kind of stuff? Yeah. Okay, and so you lose your eyesight, you lose your mother, you lose your father. How did you first start thinking about, you know what, let me think about my sins before God.

Who were the people who began to talk to you about faith in Christ Jesus?

Well, during the time of my darkest hours, around the age of 18 and 19, my band was playing at a local, it was not a bar, it was like an underage bar for kids and stuff. And there was this girl that I ended up meeting, and to make a long story short, she had a mutual friend, which I then ended up speaking to on the phone.

And from the moment I talked to this girl, I knew that she was meant for me just by her voice. And we just connected right over the phone. And she is now my wife. We've been married for 10 years this year, been together for 14 years.

And your wife began to preach the gospel to you, or what happened?

Not at this moment. We were both very unsaved people. Is that a theological category? Saved and very unsaved? Yeah, maybe. If not, it's a new category, because I was definitely nowhere near saved at this point.

Okay. And so she ended up moving in with me and we were living together. And she started, I don't remember exactly what brought this on, but she started going to a church and she knew where I stood when it came to all of that.

I wanted nothing to do with it. And she went to church for maybe a few weeks, a month or two months. I don't remember exactly how long it was, but I can remember one day, and you know what? She never said anything to me.

I'm assuming she had to have been praying. She never had really said anything to me, but one day I remember she was gone and I was sitting in my chair. And this is probably, I might've been blind for, I'm not even sure how long, maybe seven or eight years.

And I was sitting in that chair and I just remember thinking, you know what? I've been mad and angry for so long. I don't even know what I'm mad at anymore, who I'm angry at anymore. I don't even, why am I mad?

And I started just pondering God then. And just thinking, why am I mad at him?

Or who am I mad at? Why did these things happen to me? And while you were thinking about all these issues, what were you doing for work at the time?

At that time I was not working. I was collecting disability at that point. Okay.

And then in your background, do you remember a time when the word of God, the special revelation of God began to enter your life? Was it through your wife, through radio? How did that start to happen?

Specific kind of preaching? Well, I mean, I guess at first, she ended up getting me to go to the church she was going to, which was this congregational church in Southbridge. And so we started going to that and she bought me the New Testament on tape and I started listening to that on cassette tape.

Providence in the Car Accident and the Sovereignty of God

Okay. Well, we're talking today on No Compromise Radio to one of the members of Bethlehem Bible Church. I'm happy he's a member. He and his family are here. Jonathan, I'll say it right, Nado. And Jonathan, tell us as we're looking back and we're seeing God's hand in your salvation and what he was doing to bring you to your knees and bow to Christ Jesus.

Give me the whole story about life, flight, and the accident and what happened there, because I think it's fair to say based on our previous conversations that God used your blindness to bring you to spiritual sight.

And so tell us about the accident and how, of course, the unbeliever might look at it as luck or chance or happenstance or fortune, but you can just see how God, here's the theological point, No Compromise listeners, God keeps the unregenerate elect alive long enough to believe.

Yes. Would you believe that? Yes. Okay, so Jonathan, tell us about how God kept you alive so that you would believe.

Well, the day of the car accident was November 15th, which was a Sunday, and this was in 1992. And the town that I grew up in was Putnam, Connecticut. And like I said, it was a Sunday. It was about 10 in the morning or so.

I was actually gonna get my first guitar lesson that day, and the person driving the car that I got in the car accident with was the very first time I ever met this person. And so we were driving, and we were going down a road kind of shaped like an S, and he was going faster than he should have been going.

And he hit a patch of sand, and the car rolled three or four times, and I was in the back passenger seat as the car was rolling. I kind of got ejected out the back windshield halfway, came back in the car, and then another time it rolled, it finally ejected me out of the car.

And as it did, I slammed my head against the telephone pole. And obviously, I was not in good shape at this point. There's no houses on the road, but there's a very high hill, and there's houses up there.

And someone came running down, and my cousin was just screaming, somebody call the ambulance, somebody call the ambulance. And this person came running down the hill saying, I called the ambulance, I called the ambulance.

So the ambulance came, and the hospital's about a mile, maybe a mile and a half away from where we were. So the ambulance came, and they picked me up. And when the paramedics came, they told my cousin, there's no way your cousin's gonna make it to the hospital.

And so we got to the hospital. And when I got to the hospital, and in Putnam, we do this thing called Life Flight, UMass Life Flight practice run. And what happens during this Life Flight practice run is they do a practice run, so if something like me happens, they know how to handle it.

So when I got there, my hospital was doing a Life Flight practice run at that moment. The helicopter was already on the landing pad, it was already there waiting to go. All the doctors that needed to be in the hospital to do this Life Flight practice run were already there.

So when the ambulance brought me in, everything was ready to go. They rushed me in, the doctors patched me up long enough, and even the doctor said, even if we get this kid patched up, there's no way he's gonna make it even to UMass.

And they got me patched up, they got me in the helicopter, flew me to UMass, and then once I got to UMass, I was in surgery for about 18 hours straight. Stop there for a second.

Jonathan, now you've been trained, and you understand the sovereignty of God. Tell us a little bit about your view of the sovereignty of God in the midst of all that, even when you were an unbeliever, to just keep you alive, have all the people there.

That's an amazing thing.

It is nothing short of the sovereignty of God. It's absolutely amazing. Even before I saved people, people would be like, that is so amazing, and I wouldn't be able to explain it, because it is amazing, and it's not explainable if you're not a believer.

And you know, isn't it sad that something like that happens, and unbelievers, this is Romans 1, they don't acknowledge God in it, they don't give thanks to God for it, and they don't honor God for doing something so kind and compassionate and wonderful to have all those people there.

Absolutely. And so to me, that just strikes of Romans 1, and people who, they know God in their conscience, but they don't honor him or give thanks. That's Romans chapter 121. By the way, is one of your favorite doctrines the sovereignty of God?

It is by far my favorite.

My favorite. Like you said before, I've received the second blessing.

And for the No Compromise listeners today, second blessing is when God shows you spiritually that you are the recipient of sovereign, distinguishing grace, that God would choose you in eternity past. Once you get a hold of that, boy, that is what we call here at No Compromise Radio, the Calvinistic second blessing.

Definitely. And so I think it was R .C. Sproul who said, God's favorite doctrine is the sovereignty of God, and if you were God, it'd be your favorite doctrine too. And to think, Psalm 103, Jonathan, I know you know the passage, God's sovereignty rules over all.

It does. And he rules over all, whether it was 2 ,000 years ago or 5 ,000 years in the future, and in Putnam, Connecticut, on a road, isolated, and here, all the right people were there. Did they have doctors on that helicopter as well?

I'm not sure. I think so, maybe, yeah. Okay. And so we're talking to Jonathan Nadeau today, No Compromise Radio. Jonathan's now in the car accident. They don't think he's going to live. You hit your head both in the windshield.

Did that damage your head as well? And then the telephone pole, or just the telephone pole?

Yeah, well, I lacerated my entire face with the glass when I went through the back windshield, and the telephone pole didn't help, I'm sure.

Okay, so now you get to UMass, and then continue from there.

So when I got to UMass, I was in the surgery, the ER surgery, for 18 hours straight. The ER room must have had a revolving door at that point because there was neurosurgeons coming in, and eye doctors coming in, nose doctors, and mouth doctors, and every other doctor you can imagine has anything to do with head trauma.

I believe I still have the worst head trauma record at UMass to this day, so.

Wow, and so here you have the problem, the accident, the doctors are there. How many days later were you discharged?

I was in the ICU room for about two weeks, and then I moved to a regular room for about two weeks, and then after that I went to Newington's Children Hospital for about a week, just to make sure, they wanted to make sure I had motor skills and all that stuff, and that everything was functioning fine.

I mean, really, this car accident, I walked away from only losing my sight when I should have lost my life.

And of course, tell the listeners, if it was possible for someone who was, it can't work now because you're elect, and you believe in everything else, but if you would have died in that car accident,.

Where would you have gone? I definitely would be in hell for the rest, for all eternity, paying for my sins.

And would you have deserved it? Absolutely. And so God has saved you temporally. Now, when was the first time, when did they tell you you've lost your sight, or did you wake up and realize, you know what, I can't see, how did that all happen?

Well, when I first kind of started coming through, because I was under lots of drugs at this point, but when I first started kind of waking up here and there, I would hear like the beeping of the machines, and I'd have nurses every now and then tell me, Jonathan, you're in the hospital, you've been in a very bad car accident.

And I just remember being very confused because I thought, for some reason, I was like at my grandmother's house, and why are these people talking to me? But they did think they could save one eye up until a certain point, but my head had so much swelling from all the operating, they couldn't get it to it fast enough, and so they did do one operation, but after the operation, at this time, I was a little more coherent, and my jaw was wired shut, I couldn't talk, I had a tracheotomy, and the only way I could communicate with people is they gave me a pad, and I would write on the pad, and then they would have to talk to me, because, you know, I could hear them.

And so after the surgery, I wrote on the pad, you know, how did it go, and the doctor said, sorry to tell you, you're never gonna see again. And then you thought? Well, I threw the pad, and I pretty much thought my life was over, because up until this point, I was very active.

I played basketball, baseball, football, I was way into sports, and I was just like, there goes my life.

From Physical Blindness to Spiritual Sight

Well, let's fast forward a little bit, and we're gonna talk to Jonathan next week as well, and so this is gonna be a two-part interview. Tell me now how you think God used you losing your physical sight.

How did he use that in your salvation?

Your physical eyes can be deceiving, and since they were shut for me, it gave a opportunity for my spiritual eyes to be opened, and I had to, you know, I was forced to use them, really.

Now, I remember Johnny Erickson Tata saying this, and so I don't wanna put words in your mouth at all, but I remember that she said that she was actually not necessarily happy that she lost her, you know, she became a quadriplegic because of diving into the lake when she was a teenager, but she was glad that that happened because God used that to save her.

Would that be the same for you,.

Or how do you think about that? Absolutely, that day is, you know, by far one of the top, you know, best days of my life, really, looking back at it, because if it were not for that day, I wouldn't have lost my sight, I wouldn't have started a band and met my wife, who I'm married to, and we wouldn't have the three great kids we have, and it was just, you know, a great day.

I wonder when we get to heaven, Jonathan, do you think God will say to you, sorry, Jonathan, I made a mistake that day, November 15th? Never. No, can you imagine the sovereignty of God planning all this out?

Only God can take some horrible thing and make good out of it. Would you believe that Romans 8, 28 is true, that God causes all things to work together for good? Absolutely. And in this particular case, you know, Romans 8, it's for those who, you know, love God and are called according to his purpose, but also God is causing things to happen in the lives of unbelievers, because there are many unbelievers who he has called to believe, and they go through difficult trials.

For me, Jonathan, it was losing my father, and I know you had to lose your father and mother and your eyesight, but God took my father, and then it made me think about life and death and heaven and hell, and so we've got about four minutes left.

The Gospel, Election, and Christ in Glory

Tell us a little bit about salvation. If you needed to give a gospel message to people before we get on to part two and learn a little bit more about your testimony, what would you like to tell people who are 16 years old or 66 and who think, you know what, I got the raw end of the deal in life, therefore I'm mad at God?

What would you say to them? I would say that God is a sovereign God, and if you are the elect, he would have chosen you before the foundation of the world in eternity past. The triune God would have elected you for salvation, and then he would have sent his only begotten son to take on the likeness of man, to be born of a virgin, to live a perfect life, to fulfill the law, something that you and I cannot do, and then to be sacrificed on the cross and to pay your ransom on the cross, to pay for every sin that you've committed past, present, and future, to satisfy the wrath of God that is appointed for you.

He satisfied the wrath of God, his father poured out punishment on the son for you, and then he rose on the third day, he ascended to heaven, and now he sits at the right hand of the father, and the work has been done, that death has been overcome, sin has been overcome once and for all, and for you to receive this gift, you must repent of your sins and put your trust in the finishing work of Jesus Christ.

Kinda sounds like you're a preacher to me.

Jonathan, tell us, here at No Compromise Radio, tell us about the next person that you'll see.

Hopefully it's Christ in his glory. What do you mean hopefully? Who's your pastor? Well, I mean, he could still heal me,.

It's up to him, so. Well, that's true, I didn't think about that. That's exactly right. That's why I said hopefully. Okay, well, for certain, short of a few, of whatever they do here on earth and whatever new technologies are invented to help you see on earth, for certain, it will be great when you see Christ face-to-face in eternity, won't it?

Absolutely, yes. To imagine, here is this Jesus full of radiance and glory, and I believe it was Fanny Crosby, the blind hymn writer, that we sing many of her songs, and she said, I'm thankful to know that God is sovereign over all this, including my blindness, and he's a good and gracious God, and the next person I see is going to be Jesus Christ in glory.

Amen. Jonathan Nadeau, we're talking today on No Compromise Radio Ministry. We've got about a minute and a half left. Tell us about your wife and kids.

My wife is fantastic. Her name's Rebecca, and we have three kids. Our oldest is Caleb, our middle is our daughter, Ava, and our youngest right now is Isaiah.

And as the kids grow up, when they're little, they don't know Daddy Can't See, and when they're older, how do you walk through all that and you know Daddy Can't See?

It's pretty tough, because they see me doing everyday normal stuff, and then when I, you know, my daughter's actually a little quicker than I think than most kids, because she lives with me, but even like a few months ago, she would say, Daddy, look at this picture I drew, and usually I'd take it and I'd say, oh, yeah, and I'd pretend like I'm looking at it, but when she tells me, no, Daddy, look at it, she takes my hand and she makes me touch the paper.

So she grasps that I can't see. That is wonderful.

Well, today we've talked to Jonathan Nadeau, part two, Nadeau on No Compromise Radio. See, Jonathan, I just, you're pronouncing it wrong. It's kind of like my name is Avendroth, but it looks phonetically Abendroth.

Jonathan is a faithful No Compromise Radio listener, but more than that, he is a faithful follower of Christ Jesus, and he would affirm that that faithfulness only stems from the faithfulness of Christ, and we'll look next week, we'll listen next week to Jonathan and his testimony, what he thinks about trials and suffering, the gospel, and we'll see you, Jonathan, next week.

God bless you. You too.

Program Sign-Off and Church Information

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE in staff or management.