Featured A Concern of Mine

I can't keep up with what you believe. I thought you didn't believe in eternal security.

 

Steven, It's good to watch you consider the scriptures and the whole council of God.

I'm reformed, as you know. You should also know that I went kicking and screaming to the reformed view. I understand the struggle. Here is a quick video about altar calls and the kind of heresy that can spring from them. People who claim salvation based on one prayer, are not Christians.



This is the basis of OSAS for some. Yet we know that most people saying the sinners prayer, think they have their ticket punched and they can live like hell. That's how doctrines become so perverted. When God draws His own, they are His and they WANT to live for Him. Works can't save. It's all about grace faith and repentance.

I also want to say that I know some people are saved altar calls. I'm one of them. God the Holy Spirit was working within me.



God Bless

 

You can never insult me by comparing my views to those of David Platt. He really got my attention in a message about Christian living.

 

I never said that it was. In fact, I stated that I responded to an altar call.

 

I base them upon the study done by D.A, Carson. You don't have to agree with me or Don Carson. I'm also pushing social security age, and I have personally seen this happen. Your experience may be different.

 

I don't think for a minute that you don't understand what I am saying. But, I admit that I can 'err'.

Perhaps what we have here is a failure to communicate. I'll own it.

 

The altar call and making a "decision for Christ" is something I have criticized often over the past few years.

I have written about this before, but it bears repeating in this thread. I attended a well-known bible college in the Adirondack region of New York state. The founder of the bible college was an older contemporary of Billy Graham. Along with Graham, he was one of the last stadium evangelists in the United States. His stadium and auditorium events were most prolific in the late 1940's and 1950's. This gentleman closed every meeting with an invitation where people were asked to either raise their hand, walk to the altar, or both. This style of evangelism was inspired by Charles Finney and Billy Sunday. Responders prayed the sinner's prayer and spoke to counselors who were gathered near the speaker's podium. It was very difficult to follow up with so many people, and many were left to their own devices as to whether they would seek out a bible believing church. Mass evangelism had a way of acquiring "decisions for Christ", but the poor follow-up resulted in many people believing they were saved when all they really did was respond to an emotional appeal. That does not mean people were not genuinely saved (many were), but it also gave just as many people false hope and assurance. When I attended the bible college this gentleman founded in the early 1970's, the same philosophy of evangelism was used, albeit on a smaller scale. The smaller scale made follow-up more effective, but it still resulted in the same false hope and assurance.

False hope and assurance are one of the problems with OSAS. A true profession may never have been made, yet individuals are sent on their way believing they are covered by the Jesus insurance policy. While it is true that a person who genuinely places their faith in Christ is eternally saved, it is a good thing for all professors to test their faith to see if they are truly possessors. Does their profession match up to the Bible's expectation of how a believer should live (c.f. 2 Corinthians 13:5)? I have erroneously been accused of advocating for near perfection in the life of a professed believer. That is not true. Believers will sin and sometimes sin gravely. The difference between a true believer and a false professor is whether the true believer will repent and turn back. Do they exhibit a tender conscience towards sin or do they sin with impunity? David was called a man after God's own heart, not because he walked righteously all the time, but because when confronted with his sin (2 Samuel 12) he repented.

 

I'm just curious, at what point did OSAS become synonymous with altar calls/sinner's prayer?

 

I wold like to know how they determine that. I am not aware of any mechanism to accurately track that.