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Altar Calls
"We have an altar" Hebrews 13:10
by Don Fortner
Grace Baptist Church
2734 Old Stanford Road
Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438
A pastor wrote to me recently asking about altar calls (the
common practice of inviting sinners to walk down to the front of
an auditorium, or other makeshift "altar", at the end
of a religious service to receive Christ). He said, "Pastor
I would be interested in how you deal with the matter of altar
calls at your church. It is a matter that I have been struggling
with. I have seen its abuse in the past with the (denomination) I
was licensed under and I have not found peace yet concerning this
area. I feel like I should do something, but not the way I was
taught, because there was too much manipulation emotionally with
the people." We do not give "altar" calls at the
end of our services for a number of reasons.
1. Christ is our altar. We do not worship at any
earthly, material altar. No sinner has ever been saved by walking
down a church aisle, kneeling at a wooden bench, and saying a
scripted prayer. If we would obtain mercy and grace from God, we
must do business with the God-man Mediator, the Lord Jesus
Christ, in our hearts. In most Baptist churches, the altar serves
exactly the same purpose as the confessional booth among papists.
It is a place to which men come to meet another man who, acting
as a priest (2 Thes. 2:4), pronounces their sins absolved and
assures them that they now have a ticket to heaven.
2. We have neither precept nor precedence for the
practice in the New Testament. Not once is there an
example of Christ, any of the apostles, or any preacher in the
New Testament urging sinners to say anything, sign anything, do
anything, or walk anywhere for salvation. The practice of altar
calls, signing decision cards, saying scripted prayers, etc., are
matters of idolatrous, human invention, without a shred of
biblical foundation. Salvation is by grace alone in Christ alone.
It is obtained by faith alone.
3. Believers confess their faith in Christ, not by going
to an altar, but by believer's baptism. By our immersion,
we symbolically confess our salvation through the sin-atoning
death of Christ our Substitute, like our Master, symbolically
fulfilling all righteousness (Rom. 6:4-6; Matt. 3:15). Baptism
pictures the washing away of our sins by the blood of Christ, and
our resurrection from the dead by the power of his grace, through
the virtue of his sacrifice as our substitute.
4. We do not depend upon psychological manipulation for
the conversion of sinners, but upon the irresistible power and
grace of God the Holy Spirit. It is our business to
preach the gospel of Christ, to tell sinners the truth, to
deliver God's message of redemption accomplished by Christ (Isa.
40:1-2). We must do that, and absolutely nothing more. We do not
beg helpless sinners to let God save them. We beg almighty God to
accompany the Word preached, drive it home to chosen, redeemed
sinners, giving them life and faith in Christ for the glory of
his name. Our concern is not with results, but with honoring God.
We leave the results in his hand (2 Cor. 14-17).
This article was originally posted at: http://www.grace-for-today.com/1265.htm
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