A Biblical Alternative to the Unbiblical Altar-Call

What I have sought to establish in these past three posts is a very careful and critical evaluation of the altar-call. It has been my intention to hold up this "sacred cow" of modern evangelism, in the light of both Scripture and church history, to prove that it is purely a practice of man's invention driven initially by pragmatic motives without the warrant of God's Word. Moreover, its theological construct actually robs God of His glory in redemption, by positioning man's will as the determinate factor for why anyone is saved. Hence, the altar-call does not "call" sinners to look only to Christ for their salvation; but rather, their focus is fixed on what they must do (e.g, walk an aisle, pray a prayer, sign a card) in order to secure themselves in God's favor. The fruit however of such misguidance are largely false conversions instead of sinners truly casting themselves solely upon Christ and His saving work. Suffice it to say, the altar-call should be abandoned as an unbiblical method which undermines both the gospel and the redeeming work of Christ.

Now with such a strong condemnation for the altar-call, what kind of evangelism should then be practiced? If we take the altar-call away, what are we left with? In the first place, to remove the altar-call we will reestablish the sufficiency of the gospel. This means that the gospel will again be seen as "the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes" (Rom.1:16), and thus what God has ordained for bringing sinners unto a saving faith in Jesus Christ (Rom.10:14-17). Furthermore, the gospel-commands to "believe" and "repent" will take their rightful place as the only biblical responses necessary to salvation (Mark 1:15; Acts 20:21); as opposed to the unbiblical commands to "raise a hand", "repeat the sinner's prayer", "walk an aisle", or "sign a card." In short, the gospel has its own built-in invitation to all sinners that is sufficient for their salvation, without the confusion and benighted notion of "coming to the altar to be saved."

In the second place, to remove the altar-call we will reestablish the necessity of the Spirit's work of regeneration. To call sinners to an altar for salvation takes away from the fundamental urgency to be "born again" (Jn.3:3-8). If a mere decision and a "coming forward" is all we need to be saved, then why must there be a new birth? But the truth is, we have "stoney hearts" which God in His sovereign mercy must replace with "new hearts", so that we will be savingly converted to Christ (Ezk.36:26; Tit.3:5,6). With no altar-call the doctrine of the new birth can be proclaimed without obstruction, and the sinner will be impressed with the fact that a "change of heart" is the very core and essence of his salvation. As Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) once declared: "I speak advisedly when I say that the doctrine of 'believe and live' would be a very dangerous one if it were not accompanied by the doctrine of regeneration." Remember what Christ said to Nicodemus: "You must be born again" (Jn.3:7, emphasis mine). Without regeneration there is no faith or repentance (Jn.1:12-13).

In the third and final place, to remove the altar-call we will reestablish a context of integrity for both conversions and church membership. This is probably the greatest need of the hour for the local church. The altar-call has bloated so many churches with members who have no fruit to prove the credibility of their conversion. But if the altar-call is taken away, then greater time, patience, and care can be given to sinners who "seem" to be under conviction for their sin and are asking questions about Christ. This means that conversions will not be rushed or forced for the sake of "numbers" or "results" - but instead, the gospel is faithfully preached, sinners are called to believe and repent, and God is trusted for the work which He alone can do, namely, save sinners! In time, we must be assured that if God has brought salvation, then the fruit of that conversion will eventually manifest itself (Matt.13:18-23); and the result will be a church membership with integrity. This, above all, must be recovered in our day.

The Hardest Thing to See

In twenty years of ministry I have become convinced that the hardest thing for people to see is their own sinful depravity. They can talk about the sins of other people all day long, but when it comes to looking at themselves as sinners - well, they're not really all that bad. But this is really the problem, isn't it? Our sinfulness has a built-in blindness where we cannot see the true nature of our corruption and rebellion as sinners against God. The Bible puts this problem in the plainest of terms: "The heart of man is desperately wicked, and deceitful above all things..." (Jer.17:9). There is nothing in the world more "deceitful" than our own natural sinful disposition. And this comes to light with particular force whenever people are confronted with the reality of their sin.

We make excuses. We try to justify ourselves. Or better, we shift the blame. This is the easiest thing to do. We blame our parents. We blame our spouses. We blame our children. We blame our environment. We point the finger at everyone else for our sin (even at God) only so we can escape personal responsibility and not be made to "look bad". But the truth is, we are bad. We are born in sin (Psa.51:5), with a nature that is bent on rebellion against God and a self-serving spirit that is always vying to be in first place.

The Bible again makes this plain and clear: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one" (Rom.3:10-12). This is a grim and alarming picture of humanity, but it is the truth. We are not good but bad at the very core of our being. Our lives do not conform in any measure to that which is perfectly righteous. We have no natural understanding to embrace the things of God nor do we have any inclination to seek God in a saving way. In fact, by nature, we have turned aside from God and His way of salvation, and continue to do so if left to ourselves. Moreover, our natural disposition is as a rotten as sour milk, and thus there is nothing we are able to do in our own strength which measures up to the only true standard of goodness - which is God's standard. This is why the world we live in is so troubled and corrupt. This is why there is murder, hatred, envy, pride, gossip, lying, adultery, and cheating. It's not the environment that causes these things, it is the state of our own hearts (Mk.7:20-23)!

But to explain this truth of our sinfulness to people at large, is like trying to penetrate a Sherman tank with a pea shooter. Their hearts are naturally hardened to hear the truth of what they really are. They don't want to hear it. They want to hear how good and wonderful they are. They want to hear that if they just believe in themselves and follow their hearts, then everything will be just fine. And in the context of religion, they want to hear that as long as they go to church, read their Bible, pay their tithes, and have been baptized or have walked the church aisle - then they are "o.k." with God. The bottom-line is this: in our sinfulness we do not want to believe that we are hopeless and helpless to save ourselves, and deserving of hell before a holy God. Instead, what our sinful hearts crave is to be told that we can be good enough for God.

This is why the gospel of Jesus Christ makes no sense to a sinner lost in their sins. "The natural person [the person who is lost in their sins] does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned" (I Cor.2:14). Man in his sin cannot see his own sinfulness and thus he cannot see his desperate need to be saved by God's grace in Christ. He is blind to his true need and his plight as a sinner. But it is only as we see ourselves as sinners - guilty before God and hopeless to save ourselves - that we will see the joy and glory of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. However, such a redeeming vision will not come to any of us unless God grants this by His sovereign grace.

As Jesus said: "Unless is one born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" (Jn.3:3). We "cannot see" God's rule, His glory, His redemption for us in Christ unless something happens to us. We must be born again. We must be given by God a new heart that sees our own sinful depravity for what it is, and out of that new heart comes forth a cry of faith in Jesus Christ as our only hope, confidence, security, and assurance for being right with God. We no longer look at ourselves as being good enough for God but we look only to Christ as our sole righteousness whom God accepts (II Cor.5:21; cf. Rom.3:21-28). Hence, we cling to nothing we have or can do to be right with God - since we have come to see that all our righteousness is stinking putrid rags in God's sight (Isa.64:6). Our only acceptable righteousness before God is Jesus Christ and what He has accomplished by His life and death in perfect obedience to God's law in our place. Therefore, we cling to Christ and Christ alone for salvation with the confidence that God has accepted everything Jesus has done to save us (Rom.8:1). This is our only hope. This is our only surety to be cleansed of our sinfulness and given a new heart, whereby we will escape God's wrath and embrace His everlasting mercy. But left to ourselves apart from God's grace, we will not see our own sinful depravity and thus our need for Christ alone to save. This therefore is why our own sinfulness is the hardest thing to see.