The Westminster Confession reads: “By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others to everlasting death. These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is so certain and definite that it cannot be either increased or diminished. The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth, for the glory of his sovereign power over his creatures, to pass by and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his glorious justice.” This reads as if both the saved and the lost were made originally for their respective final estates without respect to character. It is supralapsarianism. It is certain that the supralapsarians were in the majority in the Westminster Assembly, and that they determined the form of the statement, although there were many sublapsarians who objected that it was only on account of their foreseen wickedness that any were reprobated. In its later short statement of doctrine the Presbyterian body in America has made it plain that God's decree of reprobation is a permissive decree, and that it places no barrier in the way of any man's salvation.
On the general subject of Election, see Mozley, Predestination; Payne, Divine Sovereignty; Ridgeley, Works, 1:261-324, esp. 322; Edwards, Works, 2:527 sq.; Van Oosterzee, Dogmatics, 446-458; Martensen, Dogmatics, 362-382; and especially Wardlaw, Systematic Theology, 485-549; H. B. Smith, Syst. of Christian Theology, 502-514; Maule, Outlines of Christian Doctrine, 36-56; Peck, in Bapt. Quar. Rev., Oct. 1891:689-706. On objections to election, and Spurgeon's answers to them, see Williams, Reminiscences of Spurgeon, 189. On the homiletical uses of the doctrine of election, see Bib. Sac., Jan. 1893:79-92.
II. Calling.
Calling is that act of God by which men are invited to accept, by faith, the salvation provided by Christ.—The Scriptures distinguish between:
(a) The general, or external, call to all men through God's providence, word, and Spirit.
Is. 45:22—“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else”; 55:6—“Seek ye Jehovah while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near”; 65:12—“when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but ye did that which was evil in mine eyes, and chose that wherein I delighted not”; Ez. 33:11—“As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” Mat. 11:28—“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”; 22:3—“sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the marriage feast: and they would not come”; Mark 16:15—“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation”; John 12:32—“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself”—draw, not drag; Rev. 3:20—“Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”
(b) The special, efficacious call of the Holy Spirit to the elect.
Luke 14:23—“Go out into the highways and hedges, and constrain them to come in, that my house may be filled”; Rom. 1:7—“to all that are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ”; 8:30—“whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified”; 11:29—“For the gifts and the calling of God are not repented of”; 1 Cor. 1:23, 24—“but we preach Christ crucified, unto Jews a stumblingblock, and unto Gentiles foolishness; but unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God”; 26—“For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called”; Phil. 3:14—“I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high [marg. ‘upward’] calling of God in Christ Jesus”; Eph. 1:18—“that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”; 1 Thess. 2:12—“to the end that ye should walk worthily of God, who calleth you into his own kingdom and glory”; 2 Thess. 2:14—“whereunto he called you through our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ”; 2 Tim. 1:9—“who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal”; Heb. 3:1—“holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling”; 2 Pet. 1:10—“Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure.”
Two questions only need special consideration: