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Are the elect only effectually called?
A. All the elect, and they only, are effectually called; although others may be, and often are, outwardly called by the ministry of the word, and have some common operations of the Spirit; who, for their willful neglect and contempt of the grace offered to them, being justly left in their unbelief, do never truly come to Jesus Christ.
Psalm 81:11–12
11 “But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
Matthew 7:22
22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
Matthew 13:20–21
20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.
Matthew 22:14
14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”
John 6:64–65
64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
John 12:38–40
38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,
40 “He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart,
lest they see with their eyes,
and understand with their heart, and turn,
and I would heal them.”
Acts 8:13–21
13 Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.
14 Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, 15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. 18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19 saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.
Acts 13:48
48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
Acts 28:25–27
25 And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet:
26 “ ‘Go to this people, and say,
“You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
27 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears they can barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed;
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
and turn, and I would heal them.’
Hebrews 6:4–6
4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
Hebrews 10:29
29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
1 John 2:19
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
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Welcome to the Reformed Standard. I'm Tony, let's get started. Question 68 of the Westminster Larger Catechism reads: Are the elect only effectually called? The answer is all the elect, and they only are affectionately called, although others may be and often are outwardly called by the Ministry of the word, and have some common operation of the Spirit, who for their willful neglect and contempt of the grace offered to them, being justly left in their unbelief, do never truly come to Jesus Christ. So this question here is a restrictive question on the previous question. And so the reformed tradition has always understood that there's a distinction between the outward call of the gospel the outward call of the Ministry of word and sacrament, and the internal call of the Holy Spirit, which comes about when is is constrained by or is, is restricted to those who are outwardly called by the Ministry of the word. And so there are there is a class of people who are outwardly called by the word, by the Ministry of the word, primarily in the preached word on the Lord's day, but not exclusively. And then there's a subset of those people who are also a factually and internally called by the Holy Spirit through that outward proclamation of the word. So what this is not saying is that there is somebody out, there could be somebody out there, who is actually called, apart from the the word of the proclamation of the word. And we'll see in other parts of the Catechism, and we may jump into the Westminster Confession briefly. But we'll see that that this is talking about God's ordinary operations, the way that God ordinarily works. There are some statements in the Catechism, which identify a class of people who may be a factually called although they're not able to be outwardly called. And that is specifically talking about those who are children who die in infancy. And then those who for other, most likely cognitive reasons, are not able to respond to or to understand the outward call. And so what it's saying here is that those who are effectively called all of those people are called the elect, all of those who are in the category of elect are not only outwardly called by the Ministry of the word, but are also in normally called. And then it makes this distinction that we just talked about, and then it talks about how there's also those who receive this outward call, and also have some common operation of the Spirit. And probably what the divides have in mind here is that there are those predominantly within the church who appear to have been affected internally, that the Spirit seems to have brought about some level of conviction, conviction of sin, that there is some sort of apparent growth in outward holiness. But those people neglect and have contempt for the grace offered to them. And they do so because of their unbelief. And so we would, we would see in the Scripture, that there are those who appear in the church to have received certain elements of what the Spirit does in the elect. There's, like I said, there's a conviction of sin, oftentimes, there are some outward conformity and some outward appearances of growth. But at the end of the day, they simply have not been called internally. And because of that, because of how the effectual call works, to enlighten their minds and renew them renew their wills. It's not the case that they unwillingly neglect or contempt, the grace offered, but their wills are still bent inwards and corrupt, and so they will fully neglect and contempt, the grace offered to them. And so they are left in their unbelief. And so we would see in the Scripture, predominantly in Christ parable of the sower, that the word is scattered abroad, Lee and promiscuously, to all who will hear it and that there are different different effects. And and the initial appearance of that word taking root is not necessarily a significant portion, or a clear understanding that it will grow and sprout and blossom into salvation. So we see that there are those who for a variety of reasons, simply never, the seed never takes full root and never grows. And so those are the people that that this question is talking about those people who there seems to be some growth the plant starts to grow and appears to be nourished. But for all of these different reasons, which ultimately boil down to neglecting and contending the grace offered to them. They never truly come to Christ and thus, the plant that has started to blossom by the common operations of the Spirit, never fully flowers into the fruit of salvation.