John MacArthur on "Altar Calls"

Below John gives his opinion on altar calls. Much of which I agree.

"in 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, Paul shunned manipulative oratory. He didn't do like many preachers do today. He wasn't into manipulating his crowd, he says in chapter 2, verse 1, of 1 Corinthians, "I didn't come with superiority of speech" (that's oratorical ability), I didn't come to bowl you over with my oration, I didn't come with "wisdom."

He says, verse 4, "My message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom" (I didn't use technique; I didn't use manipulation). I didn't want your faith to "rest on the wisdom of men" (literally, the wisdom of their information or their approach). He said, I came to you with God's wisdom; I came to you in God's power; I came to "you in weakness in fear and in trembling."

He didn't use techniques that excite and stir, and move people's emotions to achieve results. He preached the Scriptures (listen to this) to the mind! Many preachers today (and I suppose through history) are good at the art of persuasion--they know how to move people to respond without the Scripture being the issue. They can manipulate them emotionally, and frankly, that kind of stuff really prostitutes the preacher's stewardship, because it makes him no different then a secular persuader.

It is not my task to manipulate you to do something emotionally. All the slick techniques, all the gospel marketing packages, all the pulpit histrionics of jumping and stomping and flailing around and beating the organ, and doing whatever they do to create the mood. All the sad stories, the mood music, the endless invitations, the hand raising, the walking, all of that kind of pressure is not preaching the Word.

The decision of yielding, surrendering and then retaining and acting, is between the hearer and God, and not the hearer and the preacher. It is the Holy Spirit's work.
Preaching is proclaiming saving truth, sanctifying truth, and strengthening truth from Scripture, the rest is up to the Holy Spirit. So Paul says, I was entrusted with the proclamation. That's all that I can do. All I can do is to get their ATTENTION and bring COMPREHENSION. The message is the Scripture, and since the message is the Scripture, beloved, it should be patently obvious to everyone that the proper kind of preaching should be "expository preaching." That is the only legitimate way to be true to the divine message.

You know as well as I know that I could manipulate people with stories. I mean, you could tell a tear jerking story and effect emotional trauma on people. You can move people with things other than the Scriptures, but you are working on their feelings and not on their mind. The message is Scripture, and if the message is Scripture and the preacher is to preach the message he has to preach the Scripture, and preaching the Scripture means you must exposit the Word."
end quote:

I think most churches and preachers in Alexander County would agree with much of what John is saying. This is why at ETBC we never tell people they are saved because they have "raised their hand", "walked an aisle", "prayed a prayer", "cried", "got goose bumps" "joined the church" "took The Lord's Supper" "were baptized as a baby or an adult".

This is also why we usually don't sing an invitation song for 15 minutes and tell stories about people wrecking in a car on the way home from church dying and going to hell. We also try not to get people to respond to the benefits of Christianity, such as: "A home in Heaven, peace in your heart, you will live your best life now" "or God will give you a cool car and a pretty spouse".. etc..

Our goal is to let people know they are guilty before God because they are sinners. And apart from the shed blood of Jesus and His resurrection we would all spend eternity in Hell. We try to trust the Holy Spirit to convict the sinner of their lost condition.
If the Holy Spirit does they will repent (it is a gift from God according to the Bible), confess (Romans 10:9) and follow Jesus. This is the Lord's work and He is responsible for the results.

This can happen if they come forward or not. Only God can raise spiritually dead people and give them "the real stuff". All my screamin, yellin, huffin and puffin can't do this for someone. If it could I would.

How do we know people have "the real stuff". Time will tell. Just because one "makes a decision" doesn't mean they are saved.
At Bonfire we saw many people make decisions. We call them decisions because only God knows their heart and time will tell if they are sincere or not. Many probably are sincere and some are probably not. Time will tell. God has called us to preach the Gospel and leave the results to Him. The same is true in your church as well.

The typical salvation experience in Alexander County goes something like this:

Go to church and hear a message from a preacher, get emotional and call it conviction, make a decision as a 8,9,10 yr old -get baptized- then backslide through their teenage years and early 20's - then date a girl who is in church - then come back and rededicate and serve the Lord. Is this person saved? Time will tell. Many are saved, backslide and "rededicate" and some are not.

With this said: we still preach the Gospel and give an invitation (which sometimes includes: praying, raising hand and "walking forward"). We just trust the Holy Spirit to give people "the real stuff". Time will tell.

Would LOVE to hear your comments!