Book Review

Called of God by Prophecy
Dennis Horne

In the church, we belief that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.

This book addresses this topic, giving lots of examples in the history of the church, in explaining the topic. Now, usually in the past when I have come across a church book that gives so many stories about things like this, I tend to not like them so much, because usually they just leave the stories there, and have no narrative. The stories are not there for any good reason than to be there. In this book however, the author is explaining points about being called of God, and has a narrative in the chapters of the book. He uses a lot of little stories, but these are there to reinforce points in the book, and he does it in a way that becomes faith promoting, rather than just being sensationalistic.

I like this book, the author does a very good job in explaining the topic. Being one that has both received and extended callings in the church, it was a good reminder that at all times, we try to receive revelation through the Spirit before calls in the church are extended to people. As a result, we can move forward with faith and confidence in the church when we accept calls and extend them, knowing that the revelation has occurred first. It's been a good thing for my in the past year in the Bishopric of the ward to extend these callings, praying about them first as a Bishopric, and proceeding from there. I also have enjoyed seeing people that may have been hesitant at first to accept a calling, going ahead and trying, and really coming to enjoy the calls that were extended.

Anyway, this book is a really good treatment of the fact that in the church, we are called of God. Those in a position to extend calls would do well to read this book.