- An Anti-Confessional Definition

An Anti-Confessional Definition of Effectual Call

RBF: 2. What is effectual call? It is God’s effective and irresistible call. It is effectual because it ushers men into the state of salvation. It actually summons men to repent and return to the God who is holy and just through faith in Christ. It specifically calls men to come to Christ. No one could respond to that call unless Christ is clearly preached. So it is natural to understand that the call is enshrined in the apostolic gospel. The apostles indeed understood that the elect were called by the gospel (2 The.2.13-14). Effectual call is specifically addressed to the elect as the Confession puts it; “Those whom God has predestined to life, He is pleased in His appointed and accepted time to effectually call by His Word and Spirit, out of the state of sin and death which they are in by nature, to grace and salvation by Christ.

SF: Your definition of effectual call is adequate in the first two sentences. After that, it has little semblance to the effectual call as summarized and defined by the Confession of Faith. A Yankee once said, “He who defines is always right in his own eyes.” So, you are right in your own eyes, even though your ideas are far off from what the Confession actually says. As I see it, you are quite clearly all muddled up and confused about the effectual call unto life and the gospel call unto faith in Jesus Christ. Chapter 10 says nothing about the gospel call except that it is the effectual call that enables an elect to answer the gospel call. The gospel call to faith is not dealt with until chapters 14, explicated further in 20.

You are obviously confused about the effectual call to eternal life by God, and the gospel call to faith in Christ through the preacher, Roman 10:14-17. How quickly you have forgotten your own wise words, “It is true that all of them are about redemption, but all are distinct, and therefore we must not confuse the one for the other.” The effectual call and the gospel call are distinct, and therefore we must not confound the one for the other. The effectual call to eternal life is without means, God by His mighty power brings a spiritually dead elect to eternal life; the gospel call to faith is through the ministry of the word, the preaching of the gospel, calling all sinners to faith in Jesus Christ. In the effectual call, God summons a spiritually dead elect unto spiritual life, much like Christ summoned dead Lazarus out of the grave, without the aid of the apostles. The apostles did help to remove the grave-clothes from Lazarus whom Christ has sovereignly made alive. That’s the picture of what happens at the gospel call. Nevertheless, it is only those whom God has effectually called to life that are able “to answer the gospel call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed by it.”

As for the passage of 2Th 2:13-14, both the effectual call and the gospel call are stated there. The phrase “for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit” refers to the effectual call unto grace and salvation in Jesus Christ. The sanctification here is the definitive aspect at effectual call, i.e., separated unto eternal life when God through His Word (Christ) and Spirit effectually called an elect out of that state of sin and death to grace and salvation. Please note carefully that the function of the gospel is to bring the effectually called elect to the belief in the truth – “…and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel.” Please rightly divide the word of truth – get the sense, not just the sound!

Read 1689.20.4 carefully and see what the Particular Baptists say about the role and function of the gospel. You are free to disagree with the Confession… but you are not free to impose your view as the view of the Confession. To do so destroys your credibility.