I Was Called By God

            All my life I have heard people make claims that they received special “calls from God” telling them to engage in some “special service” that God has chosen them to do. Some of these claims are said to instruct them to become a preacher or, in some cases, to start up another religious denomination. One man told me he received his call while he was mowing his yard on his riding mower and God told him how to start a new type of church and even the name he was to call it.

            This “fantasy” about people receiving a special message from God has been going on for as long as men have been practicing some kind of religious activity. These calls come in mysteriously reported ways. Some people actually report that they received their call by hearing the actual voice of God. Some claim to hear God’s voice in an audible way and some even claim to see visions or have visits by Angels with special instructions. However, these types of claims are rarer than the common report that God spoke to them through some form of a “Spiritual feeling” or with some form of what they interpreted as a “vision” especially created for them.  In most cases the person contributes his “special feelings” to the influence of the Holy Spirit giving him a special message as a “call to service”.

            Let me say right up front that these “special calls” are “imagined fantasy”, and these ideas are not supported by any such claims by the Bible. The reports of special feelings that someone claims comes from the Holy Spirit and special “calls from God” are produced by a lack of understanding of the Holy Scriptures and a personality highly influenced with superstition and imagination. To many people, religion is a mixture of fantasy, magic, superstition, and imagination.

            Look at what the Bible has to say about being called.

            John 6:43-45

            ⁴³ Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. ⁴⁴ No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.

            Pay close attention to what this says. These are the words of Jesus.

            First, He says; ⁴⁴ No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him;

            Now people read these words with all kinds of preconceived world views.

            Someone who has been fed a diet of the doctrines of “Calvinism” would right away connect this to the false teaching of John Calvin in support of his teaching that “God has selected those who will be saved and those who will be lost long before they are born and those who are the ‘Elect’ will be sent an ‘irresistible” call to develop faith and receive salvation”. In Calvinism this is the doctrine of “predestination” and “irresistible grace”.

            Don’t be misled here by a famous name in religious history. Calvin is no more worthy of your respect for his views than any other false teacher you could name. Perhaps less due to the number of souls he has led astray by his false ideas and doctrines.

            If Calvin was right, then there would be no point in trying to send missionaries to teach the lost because there would be no way that any teaching would help them. After all, if God has already decided their fate and there is nothing anyone can do to alter this decision, why teach anyone?

            But one simple verse that we all know shows Calvin’s ideas to be completely wrong.

            John 3:16

            ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

            And how about this one?

            Acts 10:34-35

            ³⁴ Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: ³⁵ But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

            Anyone, and that includes you and me and anyone else can read these verses and see clearly that John Calvin is flat out wrong. Anyone can be saved.

            And yet in spite of this, men have been so influenced with Calvin’s false doctrines that many, many other false doctrines and misconceptions have been invented just to try and align them with Calvin’s views.

            One such misconception is the view that men will receive “personal calls” for special service from God and the Holy Spirit. This springs from Calvin’s views that those of the “elect” will receive an irresistible call from God to become saved. Don’t fall for this, it is just not true.

            Look at these verses in John 6 again.

            John 6:43-45

            ⁴³ Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. ⁴⁴ No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.

            Jesus says that “no one can come to Me unless the Father draws him”.

            And then He tells us how this is done.

            1. God gives the message to the prophets and teachers to write down.

            2. God teaches men with these words.

            3. Those who hear and learn come to Jesus.

            So there you have it. The call to come to Jesus and to salvation comes from the words of God written in the Holy Scriptures. This text says that is how it is done and there is no other way.

            This is backed up by the words in 2 Thessalonians 2:14-15;

            ¹⁴ Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁵ Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

            So we are called by the Gospel. We are taught the Gospel by word or epistle.

            Now this is what the Bible has to say about being called. There is much more we could list but if this is not enough then I doubt you could be persuaded as to the truth of this misconception. Superstition and fantasy and even personality disorders come into play here and these are hard to unteach. I met a lady once who was convinced that her cat could literally talk to her and have a conversation. This lady was serious about this cat. There was no point in trying to tell her that this was not true.

Carl O. Cooper