Definition (house-style)
The ‘high calling’ is a soteriological concept denoting the eschatological destination of the believer who presses forward toward the goal to which God has called him. The phrase derives from Phil. 3:14, where Paul writes of striving ‘toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.’ The high calling is distinct from the general call to conversion: it presupposes that the believer is already called and justified, and now summons him to complete consecration and spiritual maturity.
In restorationist circles the high calling is linked to the overcomers theme: not all believers answer the high calling; only those who ‘press forward’ (Phil. 3:12-14) and do not look back attain the destination for which they were called.
Author variants
Warnock
Warnock uses ‘the high calling’ as a central concept for the soteriological ideal of the church:
“By defeat we mean some kind of a partial victory, or a falling short in some sense of the word from that high and holy calling by which and unto which we have been called.”
[Warnock, Evening and Morning, ch. 1]
“Pressing toward the mark of the ‘high calling.‘”
[Warnock, ch. 2]
Warnock connects the high calling to the universal vocation of God’s people:
“The people that were created to ‘praise the LORD,’ even to show forth and manifest His excellencies in the earth (Ps. 102:18).”
[Warnock, ch. 2]
The high calling for Warnock is not identical to election or regeneration: it is the invitation to the eschatological overcomer position that requires active response. A believer may be born again yet fall short of the high calling, just as the wilderness generation left Egypt but never entered Canaan.