I choose to delve into this topic because of all the mindless claims to speak for God. There is so much loose talk of “God told me to…” or “god called me” or “God is leading me to tell you…” and so on, that it has become a critical juncture now in separating fact from fiction in a persons mind as to what is really happening in their world.
It’s just interesting how men hang around in certain areas and use certain terminology when in actuality, they are not strong at all in the scriptures. Things like dedicate, dedications, offerings, burdened, burdens, God’s call, the call of Christ, God spoke to me, God lead me, God said unto me, the hand of God is upon him, and many more. Some even are not even biblical phrases at all! We hear these things chimed continuously. They were so rarely used in the word of God, yet we use them repeatedly and pretentiously.
Just a few things to start, to show how often some oft “used” statements we repeat are actually very rare statements in God’s word. The phrase “the Lord led me” shows up one time in Genesis 24. “Called of God” shows up one time in Hebrews 5:4. There is much talk of being “burdened for the Lord”, or “God gave me a burden”. The word “burdened” appears only 2 times in 2 Chronicles 5:4 and 8:13. Read them for what they are.
The word “burden” appears many times in scriptures, but is in no way an association of a “call of God” to the “ministry” like we man has been spinning it the last 150 years. The phrase “God said” shows up 46 times, all OT accept for a reference in Luke. The phrase, “God spake” shows up 13 times. Which included talks with Noah, Moses, Joshua, Abraham, Isaac.
And I thought this extremely interesting. The phrase “the Lord said” shows up 162 exact times, 2 of those in the New Testament. The only NT reference, aside from Peter in Luke 22:31, for “the LORD said”, is found in Acts 9, with Paul the apostle, the one born out of due time, the one whom God revealed many mysteries to, by revelation of Jesus Christ, for the body of Christ. The placement and order of such things as this is not by accident, but by “Intelligent” design for his body! This is the last time the phrase, “the Lord said” shows up in scriptures.
Facts are that God spoke to very few people directly! Throughout all of mankind! Hate to break it to you, but I doubt Jimbo Lieman the resident preaching thug, is on that list of men. People, preachers, God called men of God, we can’t just place our selves in that honored group of people because we feel something so strongly about our ocnvictions! I realize we have the holy Spirit, but people, c’mon!? Are men today just listening to the inclinations of their heart, their logic, or the voices in their head?
We have a Book! Not dreams. Not visions. Not a voice. Not grand callings. I believe I have God’s spirit. I believe he leads, guides, protects, and all that. But he doesn’t show up to me in trances and visions and say “Go ye into Alaska”. “Go into Malaysia”, Go into China”, “Go yell at the Sports enthusiast”, “Go start this specific, idiosyncratic work”. These things, and positions, and status’s that we have made callings through years of religion and tradition, were never “callings” in the NT, they were functionings within the body of Christ. Men did things for functioning of a body not to fulfill some call of God.
The Bible does have much to say on a call of God, but I have yet to see these kinda of calls I am describing above. Maybe you have heard as I have some pastor strip some Pauline verse out of context about being “called to the ministry”. Maybe you heard as others have how some pastor twisted the meaning of “addicted to the ministry”. We have all heard some youth pastor continually tell the youngsters to “wait on God’s call”.
We can’t just continue to have all these different ways of God calling men. It’s out of order and obviously not in anything becoming of unity of the scriptures! When I finally put aside all the hoopla, the Baptist spin, the methodology of Congregationalism, the propaganda, the sources, the systematic theology, the phrasing, the quips, the trickery, and the guile proceeding from the pulpits, I realized that we have been adding to his word in many of these cases when it comes to the “call of God.” We do a lot of interjecting don’t we?
Even more alarming is how we actually plagiarize the Lord in using his word to justify our disorder. In the word of God, you actually see the progression quite clear.
God called men directly when God was working with men directly.
The only call of God that I see from the scriptures is the one dealing with salvation. We see our salvation and calling clearly from the book. Not just some elitist class of preachers. The called, are those who have heard and obeyed his voice unto salvation. Not just the missionaries on foreign lands.
The following verses are referencing a call or calling and are commonly twisted and perverted to fit into our Baptist Box as the ministry. But every single one of them has to do with our higher calling of salvation through our Lord and his precious blood! You can read the text of each verse at your own leisure and draw your own educated conclusion.
Romans 1:7, we are ...called of Jesus Christ
Romans 2:17, we are...called to be his saints
Romans 8:28, we are...the called according to his purpose
1 Corinthians 1:2, ...to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints
1 Corinthians 1:9, we are ...called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord
1 Corinthians 7:15, ...but God hath called us to peace
1 Corinthians 7:17, ...as the Lord hath called everyone, so let him walk
Galatians 1:6, ...called you into the grace of Christ
Galatians 5:13 ...ye have been called unto liberty
Ephesians 4:1 ...that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called
Ephesians 4:4 ...as ye are called in one hope of your calling
Colossians 3:15 ...ye are called in one body
1 Thessalonians 2:12 ...who hath called you into his kingdom and glory
1 Thessalonians 4:7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
2 Thessalonians 2:14 ...he called you by our gospel
1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
2 Timothy 1:9 Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling
Hebrews 9:15 ...they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance
1 Peter 1:5 ...as he which hath called you is holy
2 Peter 1:3 ...who hath called us to glory and virtue
1 John 3:1 ...that we should be called the sons of God:
Jude 1:1 …to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:
Revelation 17:14 ...and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
Revelation 19:9 ...Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.
It’s our salvation. We are not intended to spiritualize everything we see in the word to fit our own molds and devices. Our calling is just that. Our calling was our addition to the body of Christ. It was our entrance into THAT heavenly kingdom. We heard his call, we heard his voice and words through his holy Spirit and the word being preached or discussed and we answered HIS call. That is the only call of God there is for this day.
It is important for me state that many men in the word of God had a special calling for a special purpose. I do not believe anyone living today has any such call as they. Men like Noah, Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, Paul and Silas, and Peter. So believing this, when I constantly hear men, for whatever reason, throw themselves into similar ministries and mimic callings, it just begins to be difficult for me to take them seriously. Some of these men, they separate themselves unto a special calling, they lie against the truth, or allow themselves liberties in their calling that no one else is allowed, this places them in a unusual place.
This is why this loose terminology of the “call of God” is so dangerous. In my view, according to the order of God’s book, the last to have such a separating, and defining calling was Paul. And maybe the last to have a revelation was John in the book of Revelations. But what do I know?
You can claim unorthodoxy or “God’s call” all you want. Others have the same manual. Others are able to see the offices, ordinations and administrations. We plainly see how our affairs should be run. Every believer has access to the truth. The only reason so many men have gotten away with disorderly offices, positions and conduct is because people in their naivety have allowed preeminence to be established. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”. No one is reading the Book anymore, we are all Independently dependent on men and denominational tendencies that have full sway.
There was always a arch of authority with men that God used. In the NT, it was John the Baptist as the forerunner, Jesus Christ the Lord, as our sacrificial lamb for our salvation, Peter for Israel, and Paul for the gospel of grace and the Gentiles, the rest of the world. It’s just the way it was, and all of you that differ just can’t accept naked truth. Jesus is my King and Savior, so don’t think that such statements above downplay that.
After Acts, and the signs and wonders from the Lord and the Apostles, and the Lord audibly working with and talking with these men, you see authority shift to the scriptures. You don’t see anymore dealings of God with man directly. Now I know Jesus is our mediator. We go through him for salvation. But as far as God talking with man, I don’t see that happening again until the millennial reign of Jesus Christ on this earth, which is a future event.
So here we are today, well past 2000 AD, and people still talk as if God spoke to them. Do we ever heed on the side of caution with this stuff? There is a grave danger in claiming or thinking that God spoke to you. It is how cults are born, it is how coercion is born, it is how the gospel is perverted and every wind of doctrine is perpetuated.
Is it possible that God does not call man or speak to man in the manners he spoke to Bible characters aside from the salvation call. Is it possible that God hasn't said a word to man since 90. AD? Is it possible? What if? That would make a whole bunch of us just plum crazy. Off our rockers. Makes ya think doesn’t it. About all you have heard coming out of the mouth of preachers?
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