Here’s the thing about calling: it is irrevocable. Of salvation, it is those who were called who were those who were predestined to that calling and those called were sanctified and were glorified. There is no standing in the way, as Maness previously said. No one can stop Jesus’ work, that work that the Father gave Him to do. He saves all those who were given to Him without fail. That is the lesson of Peter. Everyone called is prayed for by Jesus, John 17. And each one does make it. Everyone to whom little is given and everyone to whom much is given, all that God has called will hear and follow. That is the prayer we are instructed to pray. All that, by the way, done in eternity passed, the works which God has given us such that we will walk in them (Ephesians 2:10). God’s will, will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven, he working in us both the willingness and the power to do His good pleasure.
So the question is since it is irrevocable, Romans 11:29, can the call ever be denied?
According to the Evangelical Church’s teaching it can, according to Jeff Maness it can, according to Wesley and Arminius, it could, but according to Scripture, the only ones who can deny the call are those who were never called in the first place.
Mormons answer the call and are dead wrong. Emotional drive and ego attachment can accomplish much- ask Hitler who was convinced of his heavenly calling- but they are no test of the validity of the call. Judas, who had great zeal for the poor, was one who was never called. Peter was one who was called, who remembered the poor but not as a priority. Jesus makes clear that all those he was given in eternity will come to him because it is the Father’s work, not theirs. He also tells the apostles that they have been granted thrones which they will fill, but not according to their desires, but the Father’s. And not according to their choices or works, but according to the call. And if Judas was the son of perdition who fulfilled Scripture, that is, he could not have done otherwise no matter how he “loved” the poor, and his seat really belonged to another, Acts 1:15-26, what sense is there in saying (as Maness implies) that a man can deny what God has foreordained, if God is for him? What sense would the story of Jonah make, if he could?
Maness says:
2 Corinthians 6:8 We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us.
Manesss puts himself among the apostles? If he claims this about hisself where the context is apostolic credentials and not ministers’ credibility in general, does he also claim:
as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.
Really? This has been his testimony? Without a doubt there are ministers who have undergone extreme temptation since the apostles but it did not make them such. Some how I doubt it has ever been the case with Maness. And beside, as I said, the context here is not general coverage of ministers’ derrières, but of apostolic authority.
Does Maness mean to make such a bold claim? Perhaps he had better think about a more humble approach, then?
Again Maness claims:
“I could care less about how I might be evaluated by any human, GOD will examine me and decide.”
So Paul’s examination of others didn’t matter? When he claimed the authority of the Word to examine and judge others, it meant nothing? When he said he would be coming to judge what others were doing in ministry, it didn’t matter? When he taught Timothy to silence false teachers, it didn’t matter? See, what I think Maness is doing is what many prosperity teacher do, excusing the call, not defending it, excusing ignorance, not amending it.
The ministry is open to examination by those within and those without. So a minister must brace up, get a backbone and defend the faith faithfully as Paul taught Timothy, and not by the emotional appeal that the ministers are some how above judgement and escape evaluation, because they got the burning in the bosom or some other anointing they appeal to. Our only appeal for credibility is to the authority of the Word of God, now, not in the future. That is what Paul was teaching, not that we would stand to be judged in the future state, but that if we judged ourselves rightly, now, we would not be judged, then, at all. In fact, at that point it won’t matter. What matters is the right testimony, now. As Paul said, we must learn to not go beyond what is written, now. And, we know that by the measure with which we judge we will be judged. And that must be done, now. So the obvious question, if a minister is not willing to be judged, now, of what value is his judgement about the call? And to what is it that he has been called which will be assayed, then? That is what Paul was talking about. What materials the ministry is built with, matters:
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Carelessness, clearly, is not a sign of the call, is it? Paul grants no freedom to build with what will be burned up. The opposite is true. The day he was speaking of was not necessarily the eschaton, but most likely was that day when he himself would come and judge the Corinthians:
For this reason I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.
As he was doing in the opening chapters of 1 Corinthians he is warning them at the end of 2 Corinthians. The reason for the priority of getting it right now is the fact that the teachers will stand to make an accounting before God as Peter said. So, it is imperative that those called as elders also submit to criticism and not think themselves above it.
