The effectual call is not the same as the general call.
That is correct. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/ClapHands.gif" alt="" />
Then faith becomes a condition. I do nto believe you can have it both ways. The elect are justified prior to any faith on their part. The faith is the gift of God that lays hold of the Christ. Believing is a fruit Pilgrim. Once the Holy Spirit regenerates the Elect, they do not plead their faith in Christ in order to come to Him. We come as helpless beggars. Knowing nothing but our need for a savior.
Error! The
ordo salutis found in Scripture is election, predestination, calling, regeneration, faith, repentance, justification, sanctification, and glorification (of course this may be expanded). God gives an effectual call (in His time) to all He has elected. The Holy Spirit thus regenerates and from this new creation faith and repentance flow forth. Then we are justified, etc. Have you read any of these articles;
[1],
[2]?
Regeneration, new birth, effectual calling, and irresistible grace are synonymous theological terms referring to the work of the Holy Spirit in the radical transformation of the soul.
While all these have to do with one’s union in Christ, they are
not synonymous, but actually very distinctive terms. You have yet to give us dictionary definitions of the terms expressed. Do you have a systematic theology like Berkhof’s available to read?
I do not believe this is Classic Calvinism as you call it. This makes faith a work and the cause of justification. Again Abraham was justified in Genesis 12 when He was called. If faith is a gift of God, how can it count towrds our justification? If He gives is, why would He wait for us to show our faith before justifying us. The elect are justifed by faith, by grace, not because of faith, you know this.
Berkhof is hard to beat for an answer to you here. In the earlier portions of the OT there is but little in the line of abstract statement respecting the way of salvation. The essence of the religion of the patriarchs is exhibited to us in action. The promise of God is in the foreground, and the case of Abraham is designed to set forth the idea that the proper response to it is that of faith.
Berkhof summarizes saying, Scriptures says that we are justified
dia pisteos, ek pisteos, or
pistei (dative), Rom 3:25-30; 5:1; Gal 2:16; Phil 3:9. The preposition
dia stresses the fact that faith is the instrument by which we appropriate Christ and His righteousness. The preposition
ek indicates that faith logically precedes our personal justification, so that this, as it were, originates in faith. The dative is used in an instrumental sense. Scripture never says that we are justified
dia ten pistin, on account of faith. This means that faith is never represented as the ground of our justification.
