Sep 28, 2012 07:20
11 yrs ago
6 viewers *
English term
calling home
English
Art/Literary
Religion
What are the qualifications of this call?
(1.) It is a powerful call. Verba Dei sunt opera [The words of God are works]. Luther. God puts forth infinite power in ***calling home*** a sinner to himself; he not only puts forth his voice but his arm. The apostle speaks of the exceeding greatness of his power, which he exercises towards them that believe. Eph 1:19. God rides forth conquering in the chariot of his gospel; he conquers the pride of the heart, and makes the will, which stood out as a fort-royal, to yield and stoop to his grace; he makes the stony heart bleed. Oh, it is a mighty call! Why then do the Arminians seem to talk of a moral persuasion, that God in the conversion of a sinner only morally persuades and no more; sets his promises before men to allure them to good, and his threatenings to deter them from evil; and that is all he does? But surely moral persuasions alone are insufficient to the effectual call.
Is the author saying that Heaven is "home", and God calls the sinner to go there? Or does "calling home" have another meaning?
(1.) It is a powerful call. Verba Dei sunt opera [The words of God are works]. Luther. God puts forth infinite power in ***calling home*** a sinner to himself; he not only puts forth his voice but his arm. The apostle speaks of the exceeding greatness of his power, which he exercises towards them that believe. Eph 1:19. God rides forth conquering in the chariot of his gospel; he conquers the pride of the heart, and makes the will, which stood out as a fort-royal, to yield and stoop to his grace; he makes the stony heart bleed. Oh, it is a mighty call! Why then do the Arminians seem to talk of a moral persuasion, that God in the conversion of a sinner only morally persuades and no more; sets his promises before men to allure them to good, and his threatenings to deter them from evil; and that is all he does? But surely moral persuasions alone are insufficient to the effectual call.
Is the author saying that Heaven is "home", and God calls the sinner to go there? Or does "calling home" have another meaning?
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1 day 13 hrs
JaneTranslates
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calling [the sinner] to reconciliation with God
I know that being "called home" is usually a spiritual euphemism for death, but I don't find that explanation convincing in this context. When we sin, we wander away from God; he compellingly calls us to come back home where we belong.
Look at the final sentences, in which the author refutes the Arminian argument. Would God use "moral persuasions" to convince a person to die?
I don't disagree with Charles, because of his final comment: "[T]he literal sense is one's proper spiritual place, the place where one belongs. One might, perhaps, see some suggestion here of the return of the prodigal son: the sinner has wandered away from his/her spiritual home with God, and God calls him/her to return there."
IMO, that last comment of Charles's is EXACTLY the sense in which the phrase is being used here. That may be what he's saying in "NATIVE and eternal dwelling place," but I suspect most readers would interpret that phrase as meaning "heaven," so I prefer a plainer, more literal translation.
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Note added at 4 days (2012-10-02 11:30:24 GMT) Post-grading
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You are very welcome, Ana.
Look at the final sentences, in which the author refutes the Arminian argument. Would God use "moral persuasions" to convince a person to die?
I don't disagree with Charles, because of his final comment: "[T]he literal sense is one's proper spiritual place, the place where one belongs. One might, perhaps, see some suggestion here of the return of the prodigal son: the sinner has wandered away from his/her spiritual home with God, and God calls him/her to return there."
IMO, that last comment of Charles's is EXACTLY the sense in which the phrase is being used here. That may be what he's saying in "NATIVE and eternal dwelling place," but I suspect most readers would interpret that phrase as meaning "heaven," so I prefer a plainer, more literal translation.
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Note added at 4 days (2012-10-02 11:30:24 GMT) Post-grading
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You are very welcome, Ana.
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thank you, Jane!"
+4
19 mins
calling (a sinner) to his/her native and eternal dwelling place
Calling someone home means summoning someone to return home, like calling home a lost sheep, perhaps. "Home" here probably has the sense expressed in the phrase I have chosen, "native and eternal dwelling place", which I have copied from the Revised Webster dictionary of 1913:
"home
5. A place of refuge and rest; an asylum; as, a home for outcasts; a home for the blind; hence, esp., the grave; the final rest; also, the native and eternal dwelling place of the soul.
Man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets. Eccl. xii. 5."
In "call home", home is use adverbially, in this general sense (from the same dictionary):
"3. To the place where it belongs; to the end of a course; to the full length; as, to drive a nail home; to ram a cartridge home."
http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster's&word=home&us...
So yes, it does mean Heaven in effect, but the literal sense is one's proper spiritual place, the place where one belongs. One might, perhaps, see some suggestion here of the return of the prodigal son: the sinner has wandered away from his/her spiritual home with God, and God calls him/her to return there.
"home
5. A place of refuge and rest; an asylum; as, a home for outcasts; a home for the blind; hence, esp., the grave; the final rest; also, the native and eternal dwelling place of the soul.
Man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets. Eccl. xii. 5."
In "call home", home is use adverbially, in this general sense (from the same dictionary):
"3. To the place where it belongs; to the end of a course; to the full length; as, to drive a nail home; to ram a cartridge home."
http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster's&word=home&us...
So yes, it does mean Heaven in effect, but the literal sense is one's proper spiritual place, the place where one belongs. One might, perhaps, see some suggestion here of the return of the prodigal son: the sinner has wandered away from his/her spiritual home with God, and God calls him/her to return there.
Note from asker:
| Thanks. |
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Cristina Duta Pinrat
43 mins
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Thanks very much, Cristina :)
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| agree |
Martin Riordan
4 hrs
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Many thanks, Martin :)
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| agree |
Colin Rowe
5 hrs
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Many thanks, Colin :)
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Yvonne Gallagher
: doubt I'll ever get that call:-)
5 hrs
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Ah, now don't despair: grace abounding to the chief of sinners, and all that! Thanks :)
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