Is the altar call biblical?
10 min read
The altar call is a modern-day practice where preachers call congregants to come forward to the altar, or stage, in order to make a "decision for Christ". Once people arrive at the altar, they are told to pray the sinner's prayer by repeating after the preacher. After they have done so, the preacher declares them "saved" and heaven-bound.
History of the altar call
There are actually no altar calls in the Bible. It was never heard of before the 19th century. A preacher named Charles Finney (1792 - 1875) started using the practice of the altar call and then another preacher named D.L. Moody (1837 - 1899) popularized it.
When the altar call was first used, it was criticized by many for being manipulative. Despite its early criticisms, the altar call spread across the globe and continues to be used in many churches today. The reason is mainly due to Billy Graham, who used altar calls during his crusades.
The altar call formula
The altar call is typically done right before the end of a church service. The lights are dimmed, the right music is played, and a group of existing church members go forward to the altar. They do so to make it easier for new guests to also go forward to the altar. This is cultish and deceptive, because psychological manipulation is used to influence people to respond to the preacher in the way that the preacher wants them to. The altar call results in a lot of emotional but insincere responses due to the manipulation tactics that are used.
For their altar call formula, some preachers will ask congregants something like, "Raise your hand if you want to go to heaven". Those who raise their hands are then told to repeat after the preacher in order to pray a prayer that they call the "sinner's prayer".
Asking people if they want to go to heaven is like asking them if they want to go on vacation to the Bahamas. Why would anyone say no to paradise? It's the wrong question to be asking people. Jesus and his disciples never asked anyone this question. Everyone wants to go to heaven, but they just don't want the God of the Bible to be there when they arrive.
Just because someone walked up to the altar and repeated a prayer, it does not mean that they understood the message enough to truly repent and believe. Sadly, the number one sign that someone is a Christian in North America is that they responded to an altar call that one time and repeated the sinner's prayer. Where is the altar call and the sinner's prayer found in the New Testament? You won't find it because it's not there.
The altar call and the sinner's prayer are a great deception. They reduce the gospel of Jesus Christ into a ritual and a formula. As a result, they produce a lot of unrepentant, hell-bound people who think they are saved and going to heaven just because a preacher once told them so. They produce the same false security that infant baptism does in the Catholic Church. Like the altar call, infant baptism cannot save anyone.
Billy Graham once confessed that if only five percent of the people who made a "decision for Christ" at his crusades were actually saved, he would be pleased. Why didn't Billy Graham ever tell the people that during his crusades then?
The gospel is not a vaccine
Many preachers present the saving gospel of Jesus Christ as a vaccination for the hell virus. If you repented and prayed a prayer that one time, then you got your vaccine and are immune from hell. However, that's not true. The evidence that someone repented and believed in Jesus a long time ago is that they are still repenting and believing in Jesus today.
In Paul's letter to the Corinthians, he taught that it is the preaching of the true gospel of Jesus Christ that saves. When the true gospel is not preached, the power of the Holy Spirit is not made manifest in people's hearts and people do not truly get saved. Since true salvation happens very rarely today due to bad preaching, many preachers are so desperate to have it happen in their church that they have devised ways to counterfeit it. Their counterfeit method is the altar call.
The altar call for church growth
Preachers need people to get saved in their church in order to grow the church. Preachers want to be able to tell their congregation that they have had "X number of decisions for Christ" or that they "won X number of souls to the Lord".
News like this makes their church appear powerful and is a good incentive for people to give the church more donations. Many preachers know this, and as a result, they remain focused on reporting any growth in numbers that they can. They love to brag about how many people got saved at their church. People are not statistics to be sold for donations, nor are they saved by a church, or as a result of a church. They are saved by God alone, and as a result of the proper teaching of the Word of God alone.
Repeating the altar call every Sunday morning is the modern-day recipe for church growth, at the expense of people's souls. People have a soul that will either spend an eternity in heaven or in hell. Preachers, don't tell people that they are saved just because they came forward and repeated your prayer. Don't sell them an eternity in hell for buying into your lie. The only thing worse than going to hell is going to hell thinking that you're heaven-bound.
I recently heard a preacher give the following message during his altar call. He said, "I'm inviting you to an exciting life. It's very easy and it doesn't cost you anything. It cost God everything. It cost God his Son. But it doesn't cost you anything. All you have to do is receive Jesus."
What an unbiblical and deceitful message. The truth is that responding to the call to follow Jesus won't just take the few minutes that preachers tell you it will. It will take sacrificing your entire life. It takes time to teach people what the Bible says about sin, Jesus, and salvation. It takes time to help people understand the Scriptures. It doesn't get done in five minutes on a stage.
The altar call often presents a very simple, easy, and watered-down message to get people to "come to Christ" for forgiveness. It's a numbers game. The watered-down message allows the preacher to get more people forward, but most of them have no proper understanding of what they are doing. It's manipulative and it's wrong. People deserve to get the whole truth of the Bible before making a decision as important as giving their life to Jesus Christ.
People are not numbers
Every person deserves the help of an honest individual to help guide them through the Bible for days or weeks before they can have a Biblical repentance and a true understand Biblical faith. People are not numbers. So many preachers are building their congregations on the backs of unrepentant church members who never got a chance to properly understand the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The altar call is known to skate lightly around sin because the goal of the altar call is not to bring people to repentance. It's to get as many people as possible to walk forward as a symbol of them "coming to Christ". The preachers then hope that those who walked forward will afterwards repent in their own time.
Sin is a vital part of the gospel message. It cannot be treated lightly. For anyone to be saved, they must be given the whole truth so that they can see themselves under condemnation, bound for hell, hopeless and helpless in sin and under the wrath of God. If we cannot see the horrible nature of our sinful condition, our slavery to it, and the horrifying end result of it, how can we properly respond?
Salvation needs no altar call
It is a great danger when preachers present a response to an altar call as being essential for salvation. Salvation doesn't require any deceitful techniques. In John 6:47, Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life." Jesus never asked anyone to walk forward during an altar call. He only asked people to repent and believe in Him.
The altar call is not essential to salvation. If it were, it would mean that the thief on the cross went to hell. The thief hung on a cross. He could not walk down to an altar or a stage. However, the thief did declare that he believed in who Jesus was (Luke 23:39-43). Jesus responded by assuring him that he would be with him in paradise.
The phrase, "believed in him", is used throughout John's gospel to mean salvation. In this verse, many Jewish leaders put their faith in Jesus, but they did not confess their faith in him publicly. They feared being excommunicated from the synagogue for their faith in Jesus. Even though they made no public demonstration for everyone to see, they were saved.
Nothing is really complete once the altar call is over, despite how preachers try to sell it. The Bible tells us to develop the practice of examining ourselves in order to see if we have truly repented. The Bible leaves no room for manipulative and counterfeit techniques.
Salvation is more than filling pews
Salvation does not just fill pews. Salvation creates real change in real people. A true follower of Jesus examines themselves to see if their current lifestyle matches their repentance and their proclamation of faith in Jesus Christ. One who truly repented and was truly saved by God will demonstrate evidence of it. They will be growing in their faith and becoming more like Jesus Christ and less like they once were.
It took the apostle Paul most of chapters 1, 2, and 3, of his Letter to the Romans in order to teach the doctrine of sin and the gospel of Jesus Christ. How is it that today's preachers have reduced the gospel to a short little prayer that can be repeated with one's eyes closed during an altar call?
In the New Testament, every time a crowd followed Jesus, Jesus would turn around and tell them something so radical that so many of them would walk away. Jesus didn't care about numbers. Jesus cared about truth and honesty. He didn't manipulate people into following him. He made sure that those following him were doing so for the right reasons.
Jesus would never be invited to most churches today because His ways don't align with theirs. Most churches today are focused on attracting people in and then gradually bringing them deeper into church matters. This is the same thing that cults do.