Effectual Calling

Definition and Meaning

Effectual calling refers to God's call of a person to salvation when that call actually produces a response and faith. In Korean the term is rendered variously as "effectual vocation," "effective calling," or "efficacious calling."

Reformed theology distinguishes two kinds of calling. The first is the external call (or general call), in which the gospel is proclaimed to all people through preaching and evangelism. The second is the internal call, in which the Holy Spirit renews the heart so that the person actually believes in Christ. Effectual calling refers to this internal call. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 31, describes it as the work of God's Spirit whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, He persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.

Biblical and Historical Background

The following passages are frequently cited in support of this doctrine:

• Matthew 22:14, "For many are called, but few are chosen": the conclusion of the Parable of the Wedding Feast, used as a basis for distinguishing those who are called from those who are actually chosen.
• Romans 8:30: the so-called "chain of salvation," in which predestination, calling, justification, and glorification follow in sequence.
• John 6:44; 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Corinthians 1:22–25

Historically, Augustine, opposing Pelagianism, emphasized that God's grace precedes the human response. After the Reformation, John Calvin and Reformed theology carried this emphasis forward. In the seventeenth century, the Canons of Dort (1618–1619) confessed that grace actually brings people to conversion, a confession often summarized by the phrase "irresistible grace." The Westminster Confession of Faith devotes the whole of Chapter 10 to "Effectual Calling."

Arminianism takes a different view: God's call is extended to all people sincerely and sufficiently, but a person can resist that grace. Wesleyan theology teaches that prevenient grace (grace given before a person seeks God) restores to all people the ability to respond.

Practice in the Korean Church

Many Presbyterian denominations in Korea adopt the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms as their doctrinal standards. Effectual calling is therefore treated in systematic theology courses at Presbyterian seminaries and in catechetical instruction in local churches, where it is explained as one step in the order of salvation alongside predestination, justification, and the perseverance of the saints.

Methodist and Holiness churches explain salvation with Wesleyan prevenient grace at the center, and so they seldom use the term "effectual calling" itself. Among Baptist and Pentecostal churches, the emphasis leans toward either Calvinism or Arminianism depending on the denomination and seminary. These differences are discussed in detail in the article Predestination and Free Will.

In the everyday language of the Korean church, "calling" or vocation often refers to a call to pastoral ministry or missions, or to a calling in one's occupation. It should therefore be distinguished from effectual calling as a term of soteriology.