Seinfeld and Predestination

Who says Reformed theology is not relevant? Certainly not Louis Berkhof. In his Systematic Theology, Berkhof uses a term that is in one of the most famous Seinfeld episodes of all time. Of course, I am referring to the “Yada Yada” episode.

For those of you not familiar with Seinfeld, perhaps the greatest sitcom of all time, “Yada Yada” is a term used when a person skips over major details of a story. Usually, yada yada yada is used to avoid spelling out the details of something that one really doesn’t want to talk about. Take George for example:

George: Well, we were engaged to be married, uh, we bought the wedding invitations, and, uh, yada yada yada, I’m still single.

Marcy: So what’s she doing now?

George: Yada.

George didn’t want to go into the details of why the engagement did not culminate in marriage because the glue from the wedding invitations he picked out caused the death of his fiance. Okay, so now you are probably wondering how all this is related to Berkhof. If you look at page 111 of the Banner of Truth edition, you will see Berkhof is writing about the Scriptural terms for predestination. And at the bottom of the page, Berkhof notes that the Hebrew verb yada’ means “to know” or “to take cognizance” of something.

So basically, when Seinfeld uses the term “yada yada yada” it is to mean something similar to “you know, you know, you know.” And how do I know (pun intended) this: Louis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology.

So when Brian McLaren or Rob Bell tell you that Reformed theology is not relevant you can say, “Louis Berkhof, yada yada yada, Reformed theology is relevant.”