The Mysterious Call of God

Part 4 – If There is a Special Call, Who Receives it and for What Purpose?

In the last part of this series, we ended with the new ground rules that today’s Christian leaders use to judge whether a future pastor is genuinely “called by God.” These men of today are considered qualified by these questions:

• Is he saved?
• Does he have the desire?
• What is his personal life like?
• Can he shepherd?
• Does he love the lost?
• And, who agrees?

Unlike the biblical requirements of Titus 1: 5-9; 1Tim. 3:1-7 & 1Pet. 5:1-4, which requires years of obedient living to God’s Word, the above questions are much more easily answered because they are subjective. If a young man desires to be a pastor, it is assumed that he is already saved and must be living a godly life.  The rest of what a future pastor desires to be is assumed to be learned at a seminary.   In contrast, God’s character prerequisites are developed and proven over years of dedicated service to the Lord.

The Belief in the Call of God Assumes Many Guarantees

What is the point of being called by God, anyway?  If you don’t understand this question, let’s ask it in reverse.  If men go into the ministry or pastorate without this special calling, are they then out of God’s will?  There are many other questions that arise out of this “called by God” philosophy as it conflicts with the teaching of biblical mandates that qualify a pastor/elder for ministry:

1.  Is being called by God a guarantee from God that young men in their teens, twenties, or thirties will automatically fulfill the biblical mandates of Titus 1: 5-9; 1Tim. 3:1-7 & 1Pet. 5:1-4 once they finish seminary? 

2.  Since these young men never had the time, experience, or may be just starting to raise their own family, is their “call of God” God’s guarantee that they will fulfill the biblical mandates of having Christian children? 

3.  By experiencing academic life in a seminary-controlled environment, is the Lord promising them that they will be temperate, sober-minded, and have good behavior when the time comes to actually be a pastor/elder?

4.  I know that some churches require that their pastors’ and elders’ children must be saved if they are to serve in those roles.  Does that mean that God will guarantee the salvation of these men’s children because He had “called” them to be a pastor/elder?

5.  Since there are many young men whom God has called into the pastorate with young wives and babies, does the call of God guarantee the young men will be one-woman-men and rule their households well?  Will their children automatically be faithful and not be accused of dissipation or insubordination?

6.  What about those called men who have not been on their own yet?  They have had their parents pay their way through college and seminary and/or have had to use school loans.  Since they were called of God, does that mean they have God’s assurance that once they are on their own, and earning an income, they will be wise with their money?

Some pastors and theologians do not believe in the special call from God to go into full-time ministry.  Are they wrong, or just not called? Pastor Ken Hornok challenges the belief of the individual call:

“‘Being called’ to ministry is perhaps among the most hotly debated aspects of beginning a new ministry or planting a church. Many look to a past event in their life, which had such a profound impact on them that they decided to pursue ministry. For myself, I see little emphases in Scripture on a personal individual experience of this nature. The focus seems to be not on calling but on qualification.” (Does God Give Subjective Revelation Today? The Place of Mysticism in Christian Decision Making)

Maybe the called ones are different from other men in the ministry? Perhaps they are on God’s varsity all-star team with responsibilities so special that they cannot be performed by the lay-pastors and lay-elders?  If so, what are these special responsibilities?

The Call of God Philosophy Creates Disunity Among Christians

When God calls men into the pastorate, He must not care about the conflicting doctrine between denominations.  The following religious beliefs are a few examples of misleading or downright false theology on some of the Bible’s major doctrines.

Salvation

• That baptism is necessary for salvation; and that through it, both adults and infants are given God’s grace.

• Through baptism one becomes a living member of the church (becomes a Christian?), believing in Jesus and keeping His commandments.

• That salvation is a personal experience. Through faith in Jesus, we become at peace with God, moving us to follow Jesus’ example as his disciples by living as peacemakers in the world.  A person must hear the gospel, believe in Christ, repent, confess Christ, be baptized, and persevere in holiness to be saved.  (Works based.)

• My Belief:  That we are saved by grace alone when God imputes to us his gift of righteousness through faith alone (sola fide) in Christ, who died for our sins. Good works are the inevitable result of true faith, but are in no way the basis of our right standing before God.

Heaven and Hell

• At death, the faithful’s souls are purified as needed (a process of growth, not punishment), then they get a foretaste of eternal blessing in heaven. Upon death, the souls of the wicked get a foretaste of eternal torment in hell.

• The faithful’s souls are purified as needed to enjoy full communion with God, and at Christ’s return, they are raised to the fullness of eternal life in heaven. Those who reject God face eternal death.

• Some teach no official view of what happens immediately after death. At Christ’s return, God’s people will be raised to eternal life, and the unrepentant will be forever separated from God.  (The last sentence is true.)

• My Belief:  Upon death, the souls of believers immediately go to be with Christ. At Christ’s return, their bodies are raised to immortal, eternal life. Upon death, the souls of the wicked begin suffering immediately in hell.

Sacraments

• That baptism is necessary for salvation; and through it, both adults and infants are given God’s grace. The Lord’s Supper remains truly bread and wine and becomes genuinely Jesus’ body and blood (consubstantiation).

• That the sacraments are “outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace.” Infants and converts are made part of the church in baptism. Christ’s body and blood are really present in communion.

• That baptism is not necessary for salvation but is a sign of the new covenant of grace, for adults and infants. Jesus’ body and blood are spiritually present to believers in the Lord’s Supper.

• That baptism is a sign of regeneration and of the new covenant and is for adults and children. Jesus is really present, and his body and blood are spiritually present to believers in the Lord’s Supper.

• May practice infant or believer’s baptism, or both. Sacraments are symbols of spiritual realities.

• That baptism is only valid in their own churches. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic memorial.

• My Belief:  Baptism is done by immersion of believers only as a symbol of their faith in Christ. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic memorial of Christ’s death and the anticipation of his return.

End Times

• Postmillennialism is an interpretation of Revelation, chapter 20, which sees Christ’s second coming as occurring after the “millennium,” a golden age or era of Christian prosperity and dominance.

• Amillennialism is the name given to the belief that there will not be a literal 1,000-year reign of Christ. The people who hold to this belief are called amillennialists. The prefix “a-” in amillennialism means “no” or “not.” Hence, “amillennialism” means “no millennium.” … This differs from the less accepted view called postmillennialism (the belief that Christ will return after Christians, not Christ Himself, have established the kingdom on this earth).  

• Preteristism is the view that the end times is based on a symbolic view of the Book of Revelation believing that most of its prophecies have already been fulfilled. Preterism denies the future, literal fulfillment of most of the Bible’s prophecies, focusing instead on allegory and symbolism. Of particular importance is the argument that the end time prophecies of Revelation were fulfilled in AD 70 when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans.

• My Belief:  Premillennialism is the view that Christ’s second coming will occur prior to His millennial kingdom, and that the millennial kingdom is a literal 1000-year reign of Christ on earth. In order to understand and interpret the passages in Scripture that deal with end-times events, there are two things that must be clearly understood: a proper method of interpreting Scripture and the distinction between Israel (the Jews) and the church (the body of all believers in Jesus Christ).

Other Divisions in Beliefs

• Calvinism vs. Arminianism
• Pedobaptist vs. Non-pedobaptist
• Covenantalism vs. Dispensationalism
• Charismatics vs. Non-charismatics
• Transubstantiation vs. Consubstantiation

By God personally calling men from a diversity of conflicting beliefs, it would confirm that God doesn’t care about correct Bible doctrine!  But, of course, God wouldn’t be God if He thought that way.  As an example, one of the primary roles of a pastor/elder is being “able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it” (Titus 1:9). If God were calling an assortment of “special men” with conflicting beliefs then that would nullify that verse.

So, again, what is the big deal about being personally called by God?  Why does it matter? Why does it matter to those who say God has called them? Why does it not bother the lay pastors and elders that God has not personally spoken to?  Could it be that since God “calls” the noticeably young and inexperienced men to go into His ministry, they do not have to be biblically qualified?  And, once they finish their religious schooling, God allows them to be exempt from those mandates because He chose them?  After all, they did not choose Him. Maybe the biblical qualifications of Titus 1: 5-9; 1Tim. 3:1-7 & 1Pet. 5:1-4 are only for the lay pastors and elders because they didn’t take the time and money to go to seminary? 

This quote from a notable seminary only encourages the erroneous belief in the called philosophy. 

“One of the biggest challenges facing anyone who is considering ordained ministry is recognizing God’s calling. What does it mean to be called?  How does it “feel?” How does one determine and confirm a call? This section addresses your perceived call to ministry and outlines resources available to you for confirming it. What does it “feel” like to be called into ordained ministry? This is a difficult question to answer, and no two callings will be identical” (Westminster Theological Seminary).

The True Understanding of a Man’s “Call” to the Pastorate

The biblical question is not wondering if God is calling a man to ministry; but should be in knowing whether a man is biblically qualified for church leadership! A Christian man may have a vast amount of Bible knowledge, but if he is lacking in any of the character qualifications set forth in Scripture, he is not qualified for the ministry.  Plain and simple. 

In 1 Timothy 3:2 Paul describes the kind of character that qualifies a pastor-teacher:  “is to be” means “It is necessary for him to be right now” [present infinitive] (A Biblical Theology of the Church by Mal Couch, pg. 176).  He is a man that has demonstrated and proven over the years in his home church (1 Timothy 3:10), that he is “right now” biblically qualified to be a pastor-elder.  He is not a novice Christian husband, father, or leader. He has proven to his congregation that he is above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable to strangers, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders (non-Christians).

Paul writes to Titus: “An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it” (Titus 1:6–9).

Seminary can only teach doctrine, but seminary cannot teach or change a man to have the character traits he needs to already be qualified as a pastor/elder.  Notice in Titus 1:9, “He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” These are men who already know the scriptures and know how to use them.

American theologian Albert Barnes (1798-1870) expounded on Titus 1:9 when he wrote:

“Both to exhort and to convince – To persuade them, or to bring them over to your views by kind exhortation, and by the instruction which shall convince. The former method is to be used where men know the truth, but need encouragement to follow it; the latter, where they are ignorant, or are opposed to it. Both exhortation and argument are to be used by the ministers of religion.” (Bible hub)

The English Baptist pastor John Gill (1697-1771) wrote about “able to teach” in 1 Timothy 3:2:

“Apt to teach; who has a considerable store of knowledge; is capable of interpreting the Scripture to the edification of others; is able to explain, lay open, and illustrate the truths of the Gospel, and defend them, and refute error; and who is not only able, but ready and willing, to communicate to others what he knows; and who likewise has utterance of speech, the gift of elocution and can convey his ideas of things in plain and easy language, in apt and acceptable words; for otherwise it signifies not what a man knows, unless he has a faculty of communicating it to others, to their understanding and advantage.” (Bible hub)

The teaching standards of the Bible to be a pastor-elder are men who already know the scriptures.  These are men who have spent many years studying the scriptures for themselves, their families, and their church. 

Nowhere in the New Testament is there an insinuation that God will give men divine revelation for going into the ministry after the Apostles, especially when He has written His biblical standards of Titus 1: 5-9; 1Tim. 3:1-7 & 1Pet. 5:1-4 through Paul.  The pastoral-eldership guidelines are written in black and white in 1,521 different languages. Since the Lord has taken all the guesswork out of wondering if a man should go into the ministry, why does a Bible-believing man need personal divine revelation?

The only understandable reason a man would believe in “God’s call” is that it allows him easier access to the ministry.  It’s a fast road to leadership. Just ask any older Christian man past their forties if his character would line up with the standards in Titus 1: 5-9; 1Tim. 3:1-7 & 1Pet. 5:1-4.  You will probably get a negative response from most of them. But, twenty-something-year-olds, who have very little life experience living out God’s standards, seem eager to say that they meet all of the scriptural standards without actually having practiced them!

But, if you ask a pastor or church leader if their character lines up with God’s standards for church leadership, they should all say that their character does, or else they would be disqualified for their position.  They might say that they are weaker in some of the areas and stronger in others, but the idea is that they are still trying to fulfill God’s mandates for leadership according to Titus, 1 Timothy 3, and 1 Peter 5.

Not satisfied with God’s Word alone, man, since the beginning of time, has continually found new ways to re-interpret Scripture to fit their man-made philosophy of how they should behave.  Not being willing to obey the whole of God’s Word, man has tried to alter parts of Scripture to excuse his rebellion.  These short-cuts have led to a low view of God and church leadership.  It is only with a heart wholly dedicated to God’s Word, will man be able to fulfill His will.

Has the unproven philosophy of the “call of God” replaced sound biblical teaching?

By Rob Robbins, October 2020, churchfm316.com

Editing and Proofreading by Laura Robbins