Effectual call and Gospel call
Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2005 16:32:03 +0800
Dear Brethren of Ipoh East Church
[this church disbanded some while after they had rejected me as the overseeing elder because they would not receive the word of truth rightly divided. They chose to persist in the doctrines they have inherited from the Reformed Baptists]
I believe that there are several issues that require your particular attention when you come together to study the Scriptures' teaching as summarised in the Confession of Faith. I say 'particular' attention because there are lots of confusion and difficulties lie.
I will just highlight them, so that you may focus your attention on them.
As I said before, I will be a facilitator. I will facilitate by asking some questions for your careful consideration. If you feel that the questions are illegitimate please feel free to ask alternative legitimate questions to help us to understand the subject better. Then we will try to find answers for them. You don't need to feel trapped by the simple questions. I don't ask these questions to trap anyone. You brothers are intelligent and thinking men. Only the inconsistent and contradictory beliefs will ever trap a man. Nothing else would. Let the truth guide to where you ought to go.
In this post, we will begin with Effectual Call (1689.10) and Gospel Call (1689.14,20). The chapters of the Confession mentioned would be a good guide. [I am using the Met Tab's edition.] They summarized what the Scriptures teach on the related subject.
Please consider carefully the distinction between the effectual call and the gospel call. Feel free to add to the questions and/or give your answers. They are no trick questions. They are simple questions with simple answers. Some are similar questions phrased in different ways. Others may be phrased in a clumsy way. I TRULY fear that some of you may feel INSULTED by being asked such simple questions. So, I do apologize in advance. Often simple truths are best taught with simple questions. Just DON'T keep quiet. If you do, then your brothers do not know what you do believe!!!
A. Effectual Calling
1. Concerning 1689.10.1.
"Those whom God hath predestined unto life, He is pleased in His appointed and accepted time, effectually to call,(1) by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ;(2) enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God;(3) taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them a heart of flesh:(4) renewing their wills, and by His almighty power determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ;(5) yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace.(6)"
- Who is the author of effectual call?
- Who/what is the Word of God - "His Word"?
- Is Christ the eternal Word involved in the effectual call?
- Who are the objects of effectual call?
- What is effectual calling?
- What does God, by His Word and Spirit, do at effectual calling?
- What is the condition of a man's mind before/after the effectual call?
- What is the condition of a man's heart before/after the effectual call?
- What is the condition of a man's will before/after the effectual call?
- In the effectual calling, is a sinner drawn to Christ and united with Him?
- What does it mean to be drawn and united to Christ?
- Who does this drawing and uniting?
- What does it mean 'determining them to that which is good"?
- Is a human preacher involved in any part of the effectual calling?
2. Concerning 1689.10.2
"This effectual call is of God's free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, nor from any power or agency in the creature,(7) being wholly passive therein, being dead in sins and trespasses, until being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit;(8) he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it, and that by no less power than that which raised up Christ from the dead.(9)"
- How is the effectual call executed or effected?
- Is the effectual call dependent or condition upon God's free and special grace alone?
- Is the effectual call dependent or condition upon anything in the person called?
- Is the effectual call dependent upon any power [of believing perhaps] or agency in the person?
- Why is the person entirely passive in the effectual call?
- In what call is a man dead in trespasses and sins made alive, in the effectual call or gospel call?
- In what call is a man dead in trespasses and sins "quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit"
- In what call is the grace offered and conveyed, in the effectual call or gospel call?
- Is a man dead in trespasses and sins able to embrace the grace offered and conveyed?
- What call enables a man dead in sins and trespasses to embrace the grace offered and conveyed?
- In what call is the grace offered and conveyed embraced by a man, in the effectual call or gospel call?
- What call does the quickening and renewing by the Spirit enable a man to answer, the effectual call or the gospel call?
- Why is the power that enables the embrace of the grace offered and conveyed no less power than that which raised up Christ from the dead?
- Is effectual call dependent upon the gospel call?
- How are the effectual call and the gospel call related?
3. Concerning 1689.10.3.
"Infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit;(10) who worketh when, and where, and how He pleaseth;(11) so also are all elect persons, who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word."
- Are the statements in 1689.10.1 concerning 'those whom God has predestinated to life' INCLUSIVE of ALL the elect mentioned in this paragraph?
- Are the elect mentioned in paragraph 3 included in the elect predestinated unto life in paragraph 1?
- Are the elect in paragraph 3 effectually called to life and salvation in a different manner than those mentioned in paragraph 1?
- What is the difference between the effectually called elect mentioned in paragraph 2 and those effectually called elect mentioned in paragraph 3?
- What does the 'ministry of the word' mean?
- How is "by Christ through His Spirit" in paragraph 3 related to 'by His Word and Spirit' in paragraph 1?
- To whom is the ministry of the word intended: those with a mental capacity to hear or those without?
- What is the relationship between 'grace offered and conveyed by it' in paragraph 2 and the 'outwardly call by the ministry of the word' in paragraph 3?
- What is 'it' by which grace is offered and conveyed?
- What is the difference between the 'elect infants dying in infancy' and 'all elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the word'?
- What is the similarity [indicated by 'so also'] between the 'elect infants dying in infancy' and 'all elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the word'?
- Why is the elect infant dying in infancy incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the word?
- Why are all other elect persons in paragraph 3 incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the word?
- What are two chief reasons the elect mentioned in paragraph 3 incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the word?
- Are there God's effectually-called elect who, for various reasons, are not reached by the gospel call?
- Will these be justified by God? How?
- Will these be justified by their faith? How?
- Will these be found in heaven? Why?
4. Concerning 1689.14.1 - Faith and gospel call.
"The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts,(1) and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word;(2) by which also, and by the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, prayer, and other means appointed of God, it is increased and strengthened.(3)"
- In the effectual call, God, by His Word and Spirit [the THREE Persons of the Godhead] call to life and salvation one who is in the state of sin and death. In the gospel call, the Spirit of Christ works faith in the hearts of those already regenerated. Are the two acts of grace the same? How are they related?
- Who are they that are enabled to believe?
- How is 'enabled to answer the call and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed by it' in 1689.1.2 related to 'is enabled to believe' in 1689.14.1?
- Who is able to respond to the gospel call, those already effectually called to life or those still in the state of sin and death?
- Who is able to exercise faith in response to the gospel call, those already effectually called to life or those still in the state of sin and death?
- What role does an elect play in the gospel call?
- What role does an elect play in the effectual call?
- What is the divine work in the gospel call to faith?
- What is the divine work in the effectual call to life and salvation?
- How is an elect ORDINARILY brought to faith?
- How is an elect ALWAYS WITHOUT EXCEPTION brought to life and salvation?
- What does 'ordinarily brought into being by the Word' imply?
- Are bringing a spiritually dead person to eternal life in the effectual call, and calling a person effectually called life to believe the truth of his salvation, the same thing?
5. Concerning the Purpose and Function of Gospel Ministry 1689.20.3-4
"... And therefore in all ages, the preaching of the Gospel has been granted unto persons and nations, as to the extent or straitening of it, in great variety, according to the counsel of the will of God."
"Although the gospel be the only outward means of revealing Christ and saving grace, and is, as such, abundantly sufficient thereunto; yet that men who are dead in trespasses may be born again, quickened or regenerated, there is moreover necessary an effectual insuperable work of the Holy Spirit upon the whole soul, for the producing in them a new spiritual life; without which no other means will effect their conversion unto God."
- Who determines the availability of the gospel ministry in various places and different times in history?
- What is the divinely ordained purpose of the preaching of the Gospel?
- What does 'the preaching of the Gospel is the only outward means of revealing Christ and saving grace' mean?
- Why is the preaching of the Gospel is the only outward means of revealing Christ and saving grace?
- How does 'the preaching of the Gospel reveals Christ and saving grace'?
- What is absolutely necessary for the preaching of the gospel to reveal Christ and saving grace?
- Can the preaching of the gospel reveal Christ and saving grace when there is no PRIOR work of effectual calling to life?
- In whom does the preaching of the gospel reveal Christ and saving grace?
- How is the preaching of the gospel related to the conversion of sinners unto God?
- Who can be converted to God by the preaching of the gospel?
- Finally, are the gospel call blessed by the Spirit of Christ unto your conversion to God, and the effectual call of God, by His Word and Spirit, that brought you out of a state of sin and death to life and salvation by Jesus Christ, one and the same? How are the two related? Do they always happen together?
I have asked lots of simple questions on one or two subjects. I am sure you may have some too. Please free to ask. Print out the questions and use them to study the subject.
We hope through this exercise we can agree what the 1689 LBCoF has summarized the Scriptures' teaching.
At this stage, we are NOT concerned whether we agree with the summary of the Confession. At this stage, we only want to determine what the Confession HAS summarized.
I hope you enjoy the study together.
Sungai Dua Church will also study these questions this Wednesday, and the following weeks.
May the Lord bless the Berean minded believers among us.
I am seeking and learning together with you all.
Your brother and servant of Christ,
Pastor Lau
