Featured Street Preaching

If altar calls are not in the Bible, what was Peter doing in Acts 2:38-41?

Tracts are not in the Bible. Telephoning false churches is not in the Bible. Witnessing on Facebook is not in the Bible.

 

They certainly wasn't calling men to come to a piece of wood to be saved where they ?

 

Nice strawman. Would it help you if I called it an "action call" instead of an altar call?

There was a sermon. The Holy Spirit was acting on people's hearts. Peter gave a call to action, "Repent and be baptized". They responded. They were born again, baptized and added to the church.

 

In the new testament the word altar is always associated with the old testament way of worship. In Heb. 13:10 the scripture says, We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. If you read on you will see that Christ replaced the altar, he is a fulfillment of all the old testament types and shadows. I have heard preachers say, come to the altar and be saved and some goes so far as saying while jesting toward the altar, come to Christ and be saved. This is blasphemeous.

 

So here's a scenario for you. Preacher gives a rousing salvation themed sermon and gives an invitation for anyone with questions about salvation to go to the back of the church and a counselor will meet with you and take you through the Bible's plan for salvation. No canned sinner's prayer.

Is that OK with you? Why or why not?

 

Would it help you if I called it an "action call" instead of an altar call?

 

I'm not against people being counseled about salvation. You just don't know how these altar call churches in the south makes an idol of the altar.

 

You're correct, I don't have any experience with southern altar calls. I have been at evangelistic meetings in Minnesota where there might be an extended invitation, i.e. all verses of Just As I Am (which I thought was a bit over the top).

 

Absolutely agreed. The preaching I'm referring to never says "Don't you want to go be with _____ when you die ? or the only way you will ever see ______ again is to be saved." The gospel is preached and an opportunity to come to the altar/mourner's bench/prayer bench/whatever your church calls it is given. The trick is, as we often say in our churches, the opportunity to pray is always available. If a person feels the need to pray, they can do so at any time. If anyone else wishes to pray with them, they are welcome to. We would never limit the time in which a person is allowed to pray to only the last few minutes of the service.

By the way, salzer, there is no saving power or grace in the "altar/mourner's bench/prayer bench/whatever your church calls it." How is it blasphemous to offer sinners a time to repent after hearing the gospel, whether they accept it or not? Sure, Christ fulfilled the Law and replaced the sacrificial altar of the Old covenant. For Christians, the altar is now spiritual, a place where we can present our bodies as a living sacrifice. The bench is just a bench. It represents a place of prayer. A sinner seeking to repent is just as welcome to pray in their seat, or go to the back door and pray, or go to the water fountain.

In your notion of service, how should repentance be handled after a sinner hears the preached word of God?

 

Lets say you give a altar call at a funeral. How would you deal with a person coming to the altar and praying, praying, praying but not reaching satisfaction ? you have members of the family attending the funeral that don't go to church, and are not interested in people being saved, and these family members and the funeral home staff are on a time schedule and this altar call is taking up their time. People that promote altar calls have been programed to see repentance in action. What they don't see they don't believe. To them repentance is praying, favorably down on your knees. If you say repentance is a change of mind brought on by a godly sorrow, this is like foreign language to them. The preacher has been commissioned to preach the gospel, not stand in the place of the Holy Spirit. The sinner should always take the first step in asking for guidance. Right here is where we differ, you present opportunities because you think the fish might get away, I believe if God is in the matter they will seek God and they will find him. If God begins a good work in them, He will finish it.