Are Altar Calls Biblical?

1689Dave said:
I'm just saying if Calvin was right, you hate God and worship an idol in Christ's name.
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Ok, I will go say 10 Hail Geneva's and burn a likeness of Servetus in effigy now. That should do it. Catch ya later Dave, and thanks for the correction bruh-, ummm, ... may I call you brother forthwith?
 
ALAYMAN said:
Ok, I will go say 10 Hail Geneva's and burn a likeness of Servetus in effigy now. That should do it. Catch ya later Dave, and thanks for the correction bruh-, may I call you brother forthwith?
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Calvin was innocent in the Servetus case. You are lying about him too.
 
I am not a big fan of altar calls, and I previously said I do not see them mentioned in the New Testament. However, that would also apply to Christian radio and TV, videos, movies, Sunday School, bus ministries, Bible colleges, ushers and collection plates, church buildings, and a lot of other things that are used (and often misused) by churches these days. I agree with all of you who have said we should not ban or condemn any practice, including altar calls, just because it is not specifically mentioned in the New Testament. Perhaps the big problem is not the use of these practices, but their misuse to spread false doctrine or manipulate people to make a "decision." Let us not sit in judgment of those who use these techniques in a scriptural manner, just because there are others who are misusing them.

Evangelist Fred Brown used altar calls or invitations, but he avoided misusing them. He told of the time at a certain church where the leaders asked him for a list of songs to use at invitation time. They expected him to give them a long bedsheet list of invitation hymns. He said they were shocked when he told them "We are only going to sing one song - and we may not even sing all of the verses!" (No need to walk out or roll one's eyes for an altar call that brief).
 
illinoisguy said:
I am not a big fan of altar calls, and I previously said I do not see them mentioned in the New Testament. However, that would also apply to Christian radio and TV, videos, movies, Sunday School, bus ministries, Bible colleges, ushers and collection plates, church buildings, and a lot of other things that are used (and often misused) by churches these days. I agree with all of you who have said we should not ban or condemn any practice, including altar calls, just because it is not specifically mentioned in the New Testament. Perhaps the big problem is not the use of these practices, but their misuse to spread false doctrine or manipulate people to make a "decision." Let us not sit in judgment of those who use these techniques in a scriptural manner, just because there are others who are misusing them.

Evangelist Fred Brown used altar calls or invitations, but he avoided misusing them. He told of the time at a certain church where the leaders asked him for a list of songs to use at invitation time. They expected him to give them a long bedsheet list of invitation hymns. He said they were shocked when he told them "We are only going to sing one song - and we may not even sing all of the verses!" (No need to walk out or roll one's eyes for an altar call that brief).
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Well, that is not an acceptable rebuke of the Baptist Sacrament!

/sarcasm



Well said illinoisguy
 
1689Dave said:
It is a sin to judge me.
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"Judge with right judgment" (John 7:24).

As someone once said: I'm judging your works, which we are called to do.

You assume I think as you do,
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Since I don't pretend restating my assertions is proof of them, I most definitely do not think as you do.

Either you're yet another troll pretending to be a hyper-Calvinist (and doing a poor job at it), or you're not living with the rest of us on Planet Reality. Either way ... pfft.
 
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tmjbog said:
I'm also "Smearing" you by believing in all likelihood you are Strom.
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For the record, since I can see everyone's IP addresses, I can say with considerable confidence that 1689Dave is not Strom. They both post(ed) from distinctly different parts of the world.
 
ALAYMAN said:
Really? You think I've treated you poorly? Examples?
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The Sorry Ole Boy has a "martyr" and "persecution" complex. He's a troll..especailly since he refuses to participate on an HONEST, forthright basis!
 
1689 Dave is, I sincerely hope, a troll trying to be a pompous horses’s rear for his own entertainment.
To think he’s really like he appears to be here is sad.
Although I have come across a few Reformed Baptists’ who he does remind me of…😊
 
Tarheel Baptist said:
To think he’s really like he appears to be here is sad.
Although I have come across a few Reformed Baptists’ who he does remind me of…😊
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I can easily believe he is who he claims to be. Remember Biblebeliever? Same bad habit of restating his opinions as though repetition made them fact. Years ago we had a Lutheran guy who was similarly dogmatic about the Book of Concord.

Poor reasoning skills are universal.
 
Ransom said:
I can easily believe he is who he claims to be. Remember Biblebeliever? Same bad habit of restating his opinions as though repetition made them fact. Years ago we had a Lutheran guy who was similarly dogmatic about the Book of Concord.

Poor reasoning skills are universal.
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I don't doubt that it could be a real individual with poor reasoning skills, but I find it suspicious he avoids direct questions like you asked about things that would reveal his hyper version of the tulip.
 
Coincidentally, today in not-really-Satanist history, it's been 40 years since Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a live bat on stage.
 
Jrock said:
There are some - perhaps many - in the Christian world today who do not think the practice of the altar call is either biblical or wise. There are also many pastors or preachers who may agree with the idea of the altar call, yet never actually make such an invitation.
I believe the altar call is both biblical and important, and I believe that a majority of pastors and preachers should give their listeners a clear invitation for faith more than they do. I hope to make several brief posts here on calvarychapel.com looking at the theme from several angles.
A good place to begin is to be clear with what we mean by the term "altar call." I don't know that there is a universal definition, so here's one: An altar call is a deliberate invitation to profess faith in Jesus Christ as one's Savior and Lord; it is a call to decide for Jesus given by a preacher or teacher.
We commonly call this an "altar call" because of the practice of asking those who make such a decision to come forward to what is sometimes called the "altar" of a church meeting room, an area between the front seats and the speaker's platform. This area is called an altar because in a spiritual sense it is a place of surrender and sacrifice, just as a literal altar was for Old Testament sacrifices.
However (at least in my thinking), the call to decision doesn't necessarily have to call people to a particular part of the room. It might be good and appropriate to do it in one case, and not in another. The important aspect of the altar call is the pointed call to decide, and to express that decision in some way.
At its core, the question of the altar call comes to this: Is it proper for the preacher to call his listeners to decide regarding Jesus Christ? From a New Testament perspective, the answer is an overwhelming yes - it is proper to call for decision.
Jesus called men to decide. In the longest example of Jesus' own preaching (the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7), Jesus ended with a dramatic call to decide: will you build your house on the sand, or on the rock? (Matthew 7:21-27). When Jesus said, "He who is not with Me is against Me" (Matthew 12:30), He spoke to the need of men and women to decide regarding who He is and what He did for fallen humanity.
Peter called men to decide. In his famous sermon on Pentecost, we read "and with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, 'Be saved from this perverse generation'" (Acts 2:40). Some mistakenly think that Peter gave no invitation in his preaching on Pentecost because those who listened asked Peter and the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37) It's a wonderful thing that the people posed this question, and it was evidence of a great move of the Holy Spirit. Yet that doesn't mean that Peter did not also seek to persuade and call for decision, as Acts 2:40 tells us.
Paul called men to decide. There are many examples from Paul's preaching work, but one that stands out is his preaching to King Agrippa in Acts 26:27, when Paul said to him: "King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe." Paul directly called upon Agrippa to not only decide for Jesus, but to do so with an open response. Paul's preaching work could be called persuasion (Acts 17:4; 18:4; 19:8; 19:26; and 28:23-24), and he described it that way himself in 2 Corinthians 5:11.
There is much more to say about the idea of calling people to decision, and I hope to say some of it in coming posts. For now, we can be confident in a simple principle: The New Testament pattern shows us that it is good, honorable, and necessary to call people to decision for Jesus Christ in our work as Bible teachers and preachers.
I hope to keep an eye on the comments and to interact as I'm able - but if a comment or question will be directly addressed in an upcoming post, I'll let you know in my response. - David Guzik
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I appreciate your quoting him; I didn't want to listen to those.
There should be a call to decide for Jesus Christ -- but it should not be that the pastor or church gives the impression that salvation is esoteric, so that the unsaved must be led to it by a saved person. There is no reason that the Holy Spirit cannot speak to a man during a message; he doesn't go forward (for whatever reason), but at homd later, the Holy Spirit convicts him again, and he calls out to God for salvation.
 
Jrock said:
The problem with this article is that he is defending altar calls by arguing for "invitations to Christ" or making a "decision". But one can give an "invitation" without having an altar call. They are not the same thing in my opinion.
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Good point.
And in most of the churches I've been with, the altar call appears to be more designed to stroke the speaker's ego... we are instructed that we must come forward if God spoke to us in any way... and if He didn't, we should come forward and ask God to speak to us. I HATED that kind of manipulation that implies only a hard-hearted, rebellious man would not come forward.
For the record, the biggest spiritual decisions of my life were NOT made at an altar.
 
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Walt said:
Good point.
And in most of the churches I've been with, the altar call appears to be more designed to stroke the speaker's ego... we are instructed that we must come forward if God spoke to us in any way... and if He didn't, we should come forward and ask God to speak to us. I HATED that kind of manipulation that implies only a hard-hearted, rebellious man would not come forward.
For the record, the biggest spiritual decisions of my life were NOT made at an altar.
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If you need an Invitation after you preach, maybe you suck?
Peter needed none:
Acts 2:37
Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
 
ALAYMAN said:
I answered an altar call at a non-denominational church in 1988. I prayed the prayer. It was some time later that I realized that my response to the altar call was, in effect, a reaction due to what had already occurred by the grace of God in my heart while I heard the preaching and was setting in the pew that day. Having said that, I never thought, at that moment in time nor anytime later, that the recital of those words was in any way an action that saved me, any more than I thought that getting into those baptistry waters save me when I did that 10 years later. As is often the case in these kinds of discussions, people are far too simplistic in their theological presuppositions and biases. Is it true that some people will think that an altar call and the prayer of the invitation is the action that saved them rather than trust in Christ? Sure, could be the case. It's also true that there'll be people who trust propositional truths and systems of biblical theology for their salvation and not actually trust in the person and work of Christ.

By the way, I see that was your first post, welcome to The Forum, and help yourself to venture out of the Calvinism side of the waters and into the main fighting forum for some general conversation.
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I am returning to the SBC church where I grew up. We do not do an altar call per se any more. My wife and I sat down with the pastor a few weeks ago to discuss membership. His practice is after such a discussion, he will call the person up at the end of the next service and present them to the congregation.

Now that said, 50 years ago on Mother's Day I came forward to "accept Christ" during a revival service at that same church. I asked the pastor to delay our presentation until Mother's Day due to that anniversary. (He underwent brain surgery for a neurological issue and was out of action between the time of our discussion and last Sunday so no problem there.)

But in that time, I've come under some Calvinist influence and have a hard time saying I "accepted" Christ now. Looking back, it was the culmination of the Holy Spirit working on me leading up to that moment. I've always wondered when was the exact moment when I got saved: when I prayed with the youth minister, when I gave in and took the first step into the aisle...it's turtles all the way down. That said, I was wondering how to accurately articulate what happened then. "I came forward and professed my faith in Christ" is something that would fit. Thank you.
 
Agent P said:
I am returning to the SBC church where I grew up. We do not do an altar call per se any more. My wife and I sat down with the pastor a few weeks ago to discuss membership. His practice is after such a discussion, he will call the person up at the end of the next service and present them to the congregation.

Now that said, 50 years ago on Mother's Day I came forward to "accept Christ" during a revival service at that same church. I asked the pastor to delay our presentation until Mother's Day due to that anniversary. (He underwent brain surgery for a neurological issue and was out of action between the time of our discussion and last Sunday so no problem there.)

But in that time, I've come under some Calvinist influence and have a hard time saying I "accepted" Christ now. Looking back, it was the culmination of the Holy Spirit working on me leading up to that moment. I've always wondered when was the exact moment when I got saved: when I prayed with the youth minister, when I gave in and took the first step into the aisle...it's turtles all the way down. That said, I was wondering how to accurately articulate what happened then. "I came forward and professed my faith in Christ" is something that would fit. Thank you.
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"Accepted Christ" is not found in the Scriptures, nor is the litany of other descriptions of the only word the Scriptures give: Believe.

Because of the most common way we use the term believe, which is intellectual ascension, we run into confusion with the term believe and try to parse out what biblical belief is. We use phrases such as accepting Christ which does accurately convey that we accept His grace but it ignores a host of other facets of belief. Whether we believe, accept, trust, receive... God reaches out to the heart that will turn to Him regardless of how imperfectly it does so. Verbage doesn't save; Christ's work on the cross does. We have all turned to Him imperfectly. As we mature, we gain perspective on what the Spirit of God has done in each of our lives.
 
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