CHAPTER 2 - OBSERVATIONS ON MR. WOLFF'S CHAPTER 2, WHERE HE SPEAKS OF THE VOCATION TO MINISTRY
CHAPTER 2 — OBSERVATIONS ON MR. WOLFF’S CHAPTER 2, WHERE HE SPEAKS OF THE VOCATION TO MINISTRY
It is true that the substantive “vocation” is applied to the effective calling of God in a general sense:+ but called (as an adjective) is applied in the same sense to Christians and to ministry. In Romans 1: 1, we read that Paul was called an apostle; and in verse 7, that the saints at Rome were called. The same term is applied to the vocation of apostleship, and to the vocation to salvation.
+I say in a general sense, because the only application in this sense refers to the Jews; and it is quite false to say that vocation (klesis) signifies the effective calling. This word signifies, as in French, a calling, vocation. Undoubtedly, God calls the elect (Romans 8); but so little is it true that this word signifies the effective calling which God addresses to all His elect, that it is only once found used in this sense, and nine times in a more general sense. As in French, the ordinary sense of this word in Greek expresses the character or condition which one is called to maintain or embrace (that is, the vocation). The elect have a heavenly vocation; Christians ought to abide in the vocation wherein they were called. And to shew with what levity the word is used here, the only time when the word is used in the sense of calling according to the immutable purposes of God, it applies to the Jewish nation; namely, in the passage, “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” It is a general principle as to the calling of God; but, in Scripture, this word is never applied to an inward and effectual call in the heart. In general, as regards Christianity, this expression is, as a verb, contrasted with election. Thus in the passage, “Many are called, but few are chosen,” the chosen or elect are called. Moreover, here are the passages in which this word is found: Romans 11: 29; 1 Corinthians 7: 20; Ephesians 1: 18; chapter 4: 1: 4; Philippians 3: 14; Hebrews 3: 1; 2 Timothy 1: 9; 1 Corinthians 1: 26; 2 Thessalonians 1: 2; 2 Peter 1: 10.
[p. 224] This chapter of Mr. Wolff presents to us all that is false and ridiculous in the principle of his pamphlet. Ministry is exercised without gift; such is the principle of Mr. Wolff. These two things, ministry and gift, are totally distinct. Ministry, he says, is connected with the Lord Jesus; gift, with the Holy Ghost.
And yet Mr. Wolff speaks here of the ministry of the prophet, which, we must therefore suppose, was exercised without gift. A singular ministry this! — that of a prophet without gift; a ministry the vocation of which was from God alone. So that, in this case, we cannot speak of an outward vocation. It would be very difficult to conceive what could be the ministry which a prophet exercised without gift.+ The case is more striking than that of an apostle, because the office of the prophet was not so varied as that of the apostle. The only thing the prophet did was to prophesy. Of two things, one, according to Mr. Wolff’s system: either they prophesied without gift; or else, exercising a gift, it was no longer a ministry.
One might perhaps have found the means of escaping this contradiction, by saying to oneself (as I endeavoured to do myself in order to find some explanation), It might be that the prophets exercised their ministry when they spoke to comfort and edification, and that it was a gift when they revealed the future. Not so. All was gift — and miraculous gift; for what is said in 1 Corinthians 14, on edification through prophecy, is quoted by Mr. Wolff as a proof that prophecy was a miraculous gift, the signs of which, when exercised, shewed that all pretension to possess it now was merely a delusion (page 73, No. 12). So that, in the case of a prophet, a person was called to a ministry by God alone; but then, at all events, it was wholly a gift, and the exercise of this gift is no ministry at all.
+And one must remember that ministry is “essentially different” from them (i.e. from gifts) “by its nature, its origin, and its object” (Wolff, page 66).
[p. 225] All that can be said on such confusion is, that, the object being to strengthen that which exists, without real fear of God, the consequences necessarily become apparent, if the word is consulted. God has not permitted it should be otherwise. Here the contradiction is ridiculous.
The division of vocation to ministry, which Mr. Wolff establishes, is not even exact. As an instrument, a person might receive his vocation by means of an angel, as well as by means of men. Under the Old Testament it was much more the case. There is something similar in Revelation 1: 1: “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave ... and he sent ... by his angel unto his servant John.”
We have, then, to remark, on this chapter, that prophecy, which was wholly a gift in all its parts, is acknowledged to be a ministry, and that consequently ministry was the exercise of a gift, because the prophet did exercise his gift when he prophesied, and if that was not his ministry, it is very difficult to know what was his ministry as prophet; this is a positive contradiction of chapter 5.+
One remark more on this chapter. Whoever is somewhat familiar with the word of God would have supposed that, after having spoken of apostles and prophets, coming to evangelists and teachers, one would have again found the list of Ephesians 4, or at least some other list taken from the word of God; but not so at all. All lists are given up, because what is now in existence is the only object that one has here in view, and the train of thought in the word is of small import. Thus, after apostles and prophets, we have bishops, evangelists and teachers, because such do exist, but such an enumeration exists nowhere in the word; and the bishop is not found in any list whatever among all those contained in the word of God.++ This already presents something equivocal. They are compelled to abandon the Holy Ghost’s way of thinking and teaching, so as to carry their point, even to include in the list what is never found there in the word of God, what the word never places there, and to make up for themselves another list, totally different from every list which is found in scripture.
+In a word, according to Mr. Wolff, the prophet exercises a ministry which he has immediately received from God (pages 14, 50); prophecy is a gift (page 71); but ministry is not the exercise of a gift.
++It is an invention of Mr. Wolff to support his system, and slyly slipped in here, that one may receive it and get accustomed to it without heeding it.
[p. 226] I repeat, when, to support a system, one is thus compelled to abandon the word of God, that alone is a sad thing.