Calling on the name of Lord

[CNKW3]

What does this mean? Both Peter and Paul preached this message.

“Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved”.

This is critical. We have two inspired apostles stating that this is the way to salvation so we need to know what this is. I am not just going to come out with my explanation. I want to find out how others come to the conclusion of what it means to “call on the name of the Lord”.

 

[Helen]

What does this mean? Both Peter and Paul preached this message.

“Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved”.

This is critical. We have two inspired apostles stating that this is the way to salvation so we need to know what this is. I am not just going to come out with my explanation. I want to find out how others come to the conclusion of what it means to “call on the name of the Lord”.

Good point.
I've never thought of it before.

It seems from scriptures , that it is presumed that we just do it naturally.

Gen 26.25
"And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's servants digged a well."

1 Cron 16
"Oh give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples."

Psalm 86
"For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon You. "

And many more.
So we don't just 'called on the name of the Lord' to get saved.
But we continue in our life to called upon His name.

I guess it just means to 'look to Him' in acknowledgement of His awesomeness.

I'll be interested to see what others have to say here

 

[CNKW3]

One other thing that needs to be discussed is how does one today “call on the name of the Lord”.
So,
First...what does this mean?
Second...how does one “call on the name of the Lord”.
Do you want salvation? Then you must call. So, how do you do that?

 

[amadeus]

It is certainly more than simply mouthing what we believe His name is:

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of
my Father which is in heaven." Matt 7:21

And the Father's will is...?

"And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:40

Who sees the Son and who believes on him? Seeing Jesus amounts to more than looking at some artists portrayal of the man, Jesus and believing on him amount to more than mouthing the words, "I believe".

 

[MetalMike]

To me, prayer is one form of calling on the name of the Lord, and perhaps the most important form.

 

[Butterfly]

I have always presumed that it meant acknowledging ' who he is ' knowing his identity- and ' praying ' to him ( Christ ) for salvation. When you knock at the door you need to know who you are seeking and why.
Rita

 

[Helen]

To me, prayer is one form of calling on the name of the Lord, and perhaps the most important form.

A big amen there. Why didn’t I think of that!!

And Amen @Butterfly ...amen ...nail on the head.

 

[Butterfly]

A big amen there. Why didn’t I think of that!!

And Amen @Butterfly ...amen ...nail on the head.

Ooooooh, do I earn a brownie point !!

 

[Helen]

Ooooooh, do I earn a brownie point !!

YES INDEED. Do they use that term over there now?

 

[Butterfly]

Yes, haven't we always used it over here ! ?

 

[farouk]

I have always presumed that it meant acknowledging ' who he is ' knowing his identity- and ' praying ' to him ( Christ ) for salvation. When you knock at the door you need to know who you are seeking and why.
Rita

"...then began men to call upon the name of the LORD." (Genesis 4.26) Interesting verse...

 

[Helen]

Yes, haven't we always used it over here ! ?

Funny, I never heard it until I moved here.
Was it about in the 70’s , when I left there?
You would have been quite young back then. Right?

 

[Butterfly]

Funny, I never heard it until I moved here.
Was it about in the 70’s , when I left there?
You would have been quite young back then. Right?

I was a teenager in the 70's - I had been in the brownies in the 60's, so would have known about ' earning points but I honestly don't know if it was used as an expression or not x

 

[Butterfly]

"...then began men to call upon the name of the LORD." (Genesis 4.26) Interesting verse...

I always thought that verse meant ' prayer ' started - up until that point, before they were excluded from the garden, they ' walked ' with the Lord. The relationship had changed

 

[CNKW3]

In short I believe that calling on the name of the lord is when man does what God has commanded in order to seek his favor or to be accepted by him.
To do anything in the name of the Lord is to do it by his authority or through his direction. Man cannot just do anything and say they did it in the name of the Lord. In the same way man can not just appeal to God for acceptance in any way he wants. One must appeal to God on his terms not ours. He decides how it is done and we are to comply with that.
Acts 10:35 tells us that in every nation, he that fears God and works righteousness will be accepted by God.
Ps 119:172 tells us that all Gods commandments are righteousness.
How does one “work righteousness”? They do what God says.
Let’s look at Gen 4..
Cain and Abel both offered sacrifices. Abel’s was accepted, Cain’s was not.
In Heb 11 we see that Abel offered by faith and since we know that faith comes by hearing Gods word Rom 10:17, we can know that Abel’s sacrifice was accepted because he did what God had instructed him to do.
God then explains to Cain this acceptance principle.
Genesis 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
To doest well meant to be obedient. Abel did it, Cain didn’t.
In short Abel called on the name of the Lord, Cain called by his own influence.
This is what I believe is meant in Gen 4:26 when it says that man began to call on the name of the Lord. As population started to spread this God given directive of sacrificial worship spread with them as well. Men began to appeal to God on his terms for favor.
We will explore this more in the next post.

 

[CNKW3]

Let’s look at Abraham..
Genesis 12:8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord .
Genesis 13:4 Unto the place of the altar, which he had make there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.
We see Abraham here in Gen 12 carrying out this sacrificial worship just as had been directed back in Gen 4. He was, through his sacrificial worship which God had commanded, calling on the name of the Lord or as stated before, he was appealing to God for acceptance on Gods terms not his.
He was being an obedient servant of the Lords.
This is why I am so fervent in arguing with those who misuse and misapply Rom 4 about Abraham believing God and it being counted as righteousness. Abraham was already a righteous man long before Gen 15:6. It wasn’t at that very moment and time that Abraham became righteous he was already righteous as he had been calling on the name of the Lord for years before that statement was made.
We see Isaac doing the same thing in Chapter 26.
People sought Gods favor by calling on his name or in other words calling out to him for favor/salvation through obedience to his terms of acceptance and not our own. We will find the same thing when we get to the NT.

 

[Enoch111]

This is why I am so fervent in arguing with those who misuse and misapply Rom 4 about Abraham believing God and it being counted as righteousness. Abraham was already a righteous man long before Gen 15:6.

You seem to be confused about imputed righteousness and the righteous acts of those who are righteous.

The Bible makes it perfectly clear that unless a man is as righteous and perfect as God and Christ, he cannot enter into God's presence. Since no man can attain that righteousness and perfection, God has a different plan. He IMPUTES THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST to the sinner, and DECLARES RIGHTEOUS (JUSTIFIES) the one who believes Him and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is what Romans 4 & 5 is all about.

Therefore that portion makes it clear that salvation is purely by the grace of God in response to the faith of the one who believes (see Eph 2:8,9; Rom 5:1).

ROMANS 4
22 And therefore it was imputed* to him [ABRAHAM] for righteousness.
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed* to him;
24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed*, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Now if you are not prepared to accept what God the Holy Spirit says through Paul, it means that essentially YOU YOURSELF DO NOT BELIEVE GOD.

* Strong's Concordance
logizomai: to reckon, to consider
Original Word: λογίζομαι
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: logizomai
Phonetic Spelling: (log-id'-zom-ahee)
Definition: to reckon, to consider
Usage: I reckon, count, charge with; reason, decide, conclude; think, suppose.

Thayer's Greek Lexicon
STRONGS NT 3049: λογίζομαι
a. to take into account, to make account of: τί τίνι,Romans 4:3,(4); metaphorically, to pass to one's account, to impute (A. V. reckon)

 

[CNKW3]

You seem to be confused about imputed righteousness and the righteous acts of those who are righteous.

The Bible makes it perfectly clear that unless a man is as righteous and perfect as God and Christ, he cannot enter into God's presence. Since no man can attain that righteousness and perfection, God has a different plan. He IMPUTES THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST to the sinner, and DECLARES RIGHTEOUS (JUSTIFIES) the one who believes Him and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is what Romans 4 & 5 is all about.

Therefore that portion makes it clear that salvation is purely by the grace of God in response to the faith of the one who believes (see Eph 2:8,9; Rom 5:1).

ROMANS 4
22 And therefore it was imputed* to him [ABRAHAM] for righteousness.
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed* to him;
24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed*, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Now if you are not prepared to accept what God the Holy Spirit says through Paul, it means that essentially YOU YOURSELF DO NOT BELIEVE GOD.

* Strong's Concordance
logizomai: to reckon, to consider
Original Word: λογίζομαι
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: logizomai
Phonetic Spelling: (log-id'-zom-ahee)
Definition: to reckon, to consider
Usage: I reckon, count, charge with; reason, decide, conclude; think, suppose.

Thayer's Greek Lexicon
STRONGS NT 3049: λογίζομαι
a. to take into account, to make account of: τί τίνι,Romans 4:3,(4); metaphorically, to pass to one's account, to impute (A. V. reckon)

Rom 4 explains who it is that receives imputed righteousness....
Romans 4:6-8 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
Well who is this man he is talking about? David! Tell us.....

Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
It is the man whose sins are forgiven by God. At what point today does man have his sins forgiven? When he is raised out of the waters of baptism. Acts 2:38, 22:16; Rom 6:3,4,5,17,18; 1 pet 3:21
It is at this point man has righteousness imputed to him. It is at this point he has submitted to the righteousness of God.

Good timing. What does it mean to “believe”. I just got through dealing with this elsewhere. Here is my post based on Mt 21....
Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.
This is the interesting part. Christ admonished these people by saying they did not believe John. What did he mean when he used the word believe?
He meant they would not obey in being baptized by John. This is exactly what is being said in Lk 7:29,30. The publicans and harlots believed him. Why does he say this? It’s because they submitted to John in water baptism. They were obedient.
See how the Bible includes obedience within the word believe. This is Bible commentary showing that a person cannot be a true believer without obedience. So it is not “belief” alone.

 

[CNKW3]

Let’s carry on to the NT.
In Acts 2 Peter is quoting a prophecy from Joel and is applying it to what is taking place on Pentecost.
Acts 2:21..
Whosoever shall call on the name of the lord shall be saved.
He then proceeds to preach Jesus to the audience. When the audience hears and believes the message they ask....”what shall we do”? Peter has already told them they needed to call on the name of the Lord but he never described how that was to take place. So, naturally they asked...what shall we do?
Does Peter tell them to Pray? No.
Does he tell them to just believe? No.
Does he say...I can see that you are believers (by your fruit or present actions) so you don’t need to do anything Christ has done it for you. No.
He tells these believers to repent and be baptized in the name of the lord for the remission of their sins. This is HOW they were to “call on the name of the Lord”. They were to seek Gods favor/salvation by being obedient to God on his terms, according to his direction. This is no different then what those early individuals did in Genesis. They appealed to God for acceptance through His righteous commandments.
To be cont’d

 

[CNKW3]

To support what I said in my previous post let’s look at the conversion of Saul.
After Saul was met on the road to Damascus, he asked...
What wilt thou have me to do? Jesus told him to go into the city and there it will be told thee what thou MUST do.
This was not an option. He would be told what he MUST do.
Jesus then sends a preacher to preach to Saul, and in acts 22 we find what was said....
And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
Saul had already believed, repented, and confessed back on the road.
He now was told to arise, be baptized, wash away his sins, CALLING ON THE NAME OF THE LORD.
This sentence is progressive. First is baptism, second is sin removal, through this process one is calling on the lord for salvation.
Just like in Acts 2, Saul called on the name of the Lord through belief, repentance, and water baptism. He, just like those on Pentecost were obedient to the Lord on his terms, by his direction, doing what God required.
Back in Genesis we see individuals called through sacrificial worship that had been directed by God. But, for us today it should be coming pretty clear that we are to Call on the name of the Lord through belief, repentance and baptism. It also should be pretty clear after looking at these two accounts that calling on the name of the Lord does not happen automatically at the point of belief. Also it should be clear that calling on the name of the Lord is not merely a verbal act of a sinner with the mouth calling....Jesus, Jesus save me. Nothing like that took place on either occasion.
This is crystal clear when looking at Acts 2 and the conversion of Saul.
To be cont’d