The Invitation System and the Altar Call

[David Lamb]

Yes, coming to the front is not the Gospel...

Do you think your Pastor could give an Alter Call, and do it right? All things are Lawful but not all things are Prudent. I think it can be done Prudently. And I have never heard my Pastor tell anyone that coming forward means they're Saved...

My Reformed Baptist Church would always end every Sermon by segueing into the Doxology. I would end my Sermons by segueing into Isaiah 55:1-3. Then I'd offer people to come forward...

Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to [Jesus];
listen, that you may live.
[He] will make an everlasting covenant with you...

Yet I can't think of a single example in the bible of Jesus or the apostles preaching, then asking people to "come to the front." There are so many dangers in such a thing. I remember when I had been not long converted that I went to help at an evangelistic meeting. I was one of those who was to accompany individuals coming to the front. I went to "accompany" one such individual, but noticed another helper getting up to accompany him, so I sat down again. Somebody said to me, "You shouldn't do that, brother. People will think that you were somebody about to go forward who turned back. You could stop someone becoming a Christian!" That's just nonsense, but it shows the sort of false teaching that can accompany "altar calls."

 

[ReverendRV]

Nevertheless, it would not be so had not God intended it to be so, and so it will serve its purpose. I just hope that purpose is not a winnowing. I do know from Scripture that everything that is built on a different foundation than the one the apostles laid will be burned up. The people will be saved (if they are genuinely saved and, just caught in a deception) but what they built will be burned up. We need to be building on the Rock.

Providence...

I've been meaning to bring this up, but since God is Providential; who really cares?

 

[ReverendRV]

Yet I can't think of a single example in the bible of Jesus or the apostles preaching, then asking people to "come to the front." There are so many dangers in such a thing. I remember when I had been not long converted that I went to help at an evangelistic meeting. I was one of those who was to accompany individuals coming to the front. I went to "accompany" one such individual, but noticed another helper getting up to accompany him, so I sat down again. Somebody said to me, "You shouldn't do that, brother. People will think that you were somebody about to go forward who turned back. You could stop someone becoming a Christian!" That's just nonsense, but it shows the sort of false teaching that can accompany "altar calls."

We don't need a Verbatim Verse which says we should walk the ailse; we have Theology. I Tire of always saying we have boocoos of Doctrine that doesn't have a Verbatim Verse. I call out Provisionists all the time for using the, "Where's the Verse?" Shield...

Gotta go...

 

[David Lamb]

We don't need a Verbatim Verse which says we should walk the ailse; we have Theology. I Tire of always saying we have boocoos of Doctrine that doesn't have a Verbatim Verse. I call out Provisionists all the time for using the, "Where's the Verse?" Shield...

Gotta go...

Not perhaps a "verbatim verse" that includes words like, "You shall end your preaching with an altar call," but surely we should base our church life and practice on biblical principals?

 

[Hazelelponi]

...

 

[prism]

those calls to "come to the front."

Which are done more for church growth purposes (numbers) rather than for souls.

 

[Carbon]

Then a better Altar Call is required. What would make it better? How can we keep Ananias and Sapphira from walking an aisle, but stay true to Saint Peter?

Didn't the Upper Room produce false Converts? The Bad Soils produced false Converts. A thing is established by two or three Witnesses. It's God's business who's heart he Opens...

It's not about bad or good converts, it's about God's way or man's way with the gospel.

 

[Carbon]

How many Saints would be Lost without this Altar Call?

Well, that depends, don't you think? Do we have faith in Jesus saves or faith in our own faith at an alter call?

 

[ReverendRV]

It's not about bad or good converts, it's about God's way or man's way with the gospel.

God's way gave Us Ananias and Sapphira...

 

[Carbon]

I didn't say Isaiah was wrong, just that his words and the words of Jesus to those who labour and are heavy laden, bear little resemblance to those calls to "come to the front."

Agree!

 

[Carbon]

Yes, coming to the front is not the Gospel...

Do you think your Pastor could give an Alter Call, and do it right? All things are Lawful but not all things are Prudent. I think it can be done Prudently. And I have never heard my SCB Pastor tell anyone that coming forward means they're Saved...

My Reformed Baptist Church would always end every Sermon by Congregationally segueing into the Doxology. I would end my Sermons by segueing into Isaiah 55:1-3. Then I'd offer people to come forward...

Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to [Jesus];
listen, that you may live.
[He] will make an everlasting covenant with you...

If Partial Preterism is True, aren't we in a time of Christ Calling people through Us now?

But this isn't about coming up front to an altar either.

 

[Carbon]

Which are done more for church growth purposes (numbers) rather than for souls.

Yep. Church business.

 

[prism]

Yep. Church business.

Gotta keep those coffers ringing $$ $$.

 

[David Lamb]

No one is immune or deaf to the Inward Call...

As Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached; "But God"...

Let's remember Spurgeon's Conversion based on, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth". Spurgeon received God's Call from the Altar...

How the Snowpocalypse of 1850 Led to Spurgeon's Conversion 164 Years Ago Today

164 years today a snowstorm prevented 15-year-old Charles Spurgeon from attending his father's church. He wandered into a small Primitive Methodist Chapel and heard a short sermon from a layman that changed his life.

www.thegospelcoalition.org

How many Saints would be Lost without this Altar Call?

I think people are using the term "altar call" to mean completely different things. Preaching on "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth" is not what I think of when I hear or read the term "altar call." To me, it refers to an emotional plea to people to come to the front, made at the end of a crusade meeting or other evangelistic meeting.

 

[Rescued One]

I think people are using the term "altar call" to mean completely different things. Preaching on "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth" is not what I think of when I hear or read the term "altar call." To me, it refers to an emotional plea to people to come to the front, made at the end of a crusade meeting or other evangelistic meeting.

i agree.

 

[prism]

As Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached; "But God"...

As I recall I don't believe that sermon of MLJ was an altar call, but a reminder to the saints the pit which they were dug from...

Ephesians 2:1-6 KJV
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; [2] Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: [3] Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. [4] But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, [5] Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved [6] And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

 

[Carbon]

God's way gave Us Ananias and Sapphira...

And that says what?

 

[Carbon]

Gotta keep those coffers ringing $$ $$.

Yep