A Calvinist asked me about the Arminian view of calling so that he would not misrepresent it in a sermon he would be giving. I was aiming to be brief yet give an adequate explanation. Here is the result:
There are 2 main Arminian views of calling to salvation. One is that it means inviting or summoning and is resistible as in the parable of the wedding feast in which many are called but few respond positively to the call and come. The passage uses terms for calling more than once to mean invited/summoned, and that invitation/summoning is successfully resisted. Arminians who take this view would see the many passages that refer to Christians as those who have been called/invited/summoned as natural without expressing Christian calling as inherently effectual, seeing it as a way to emphasize God’s grace and initiative in salvation. I have seen it likened to a speaker at an event addressing the attendees as invited guests. The fact that everyone at the event was invited and are so designated does not mean that the invitation was necessarily effectual or that no one else was invited and rejected the invitation. Normally, it would be the case that there would be people who declined the invitation even though everyone who did accept it could be naturally referred to as invited guests.
The other main Arminian view of calling to salvation when used of those who are already Christians as inherently effectual but not an invitation or summoning, but as naming/appointment. This view would see Christian calling as referring to the naming of Christians as God’s children/people, like Rom 9:25-26 — ‘As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,” and, “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God,’ ” and 1 John 3:1 — “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” This naming is effectual — it makes believers God’s children/people. And so it is an effectual call that is by faith just as justification is.
That is a brief explanation that hopefully still gives enough detail to give a basic understanding. To simplify it even further to one sentence:
Arminians view calling to salvation as either God inviting people and wooing them though they can reject that invitation and wooing, or they think it refers to God calling (naming) them his children once they believe.
