Category: Other Musings

Great Christmas song, great video. Thanks Matthew.

I am not sure of the validity of this practice, but apparently at one end of Army shooting ranges there is always one lone soldier standing at attention. According to Brad House, one soldier wondered why this was. He asked the officer in charge why and his answer was, “that’s how we have always done it.” After some more profitable investigation he found out that the protocol was written when officers rode horses. The lone soldier would hold the horses’ bridles so that they would not get spooked by the gunshots. When the horses left, the soldier remained; and soon, nobody knew why.

Altar calls are like that soldier. Ours is absent and some people may be asking “Hey, where did that soldier go?” Here are the reasons why we have removed this soldier from his post.

First, this soldier hasn’t always stood there. The altar call is nowhere to be found in the pages of Scripture and you have to do some serious origami with the Bible to “validate” it. We simply are not commanded to give an altar call. It was an idea that a man came up with. Was it a good idea? I don’t think so. Although some Methodist preachers were already using altar calls, it was Charles Finney who popularized the altar call. I am always surprised when I hear evangelicals speak of their high esteem for Finney. Many seem to revere him simply because he was a big figure in the Second Great Awakening who promoted “revivals”, drew crowds, and under whose preaching many made “professions”. They are unaware that Finney denied justification by faith, total depravity, and said that all we needed to do to be saved was to make a decision. Because the core of man was not evil according to Finney, we just need to decide to be good and then we will be saved. The altar call to Finney was a tool to make conversion happen. Grace is something we can then pull down at will, we just need to find the right methods and use them according to Finney.

So was the altar call a bad idea? Most certainly it was as Finney used it, but can it be used in a good way? Rarely; I don’t think pastors who do altar calls are necessarily sinning, but I do think the practice unwise at best and I do think the practice has the potential to be gravely dangerous. The altar call can be a manipulative tool used to coerce someone using their feelings. Biblically we should seek to arouse the emotions, but always through the mind.  We should lift the emotions with Biblical truth, not emotional or sentimental appeals. I agree with Jonathan Edwards that,

I should think myself in the way of my duty to raise the affections of my hearers as high as I possibly can, provided that they are affected with nothing but the truth, and with affections that are not disagreeable to the nature of what they are affected with.

I grew up going to church camp and seeing an emotionalism that led to many “walking the aisle.” Children were assured that if they “meant” that prayer they were truly saved. Truly many of these ministers preached the gospel and meant well, and many souls were genuinely saved, yet many never demonstrate any fruit and return to that event as proof positive that they are redeemed. Scripture never tells us to find peace and assurance in this way. John wrote a letter so that those who believe might know that we have eternal life (1 John) and nowhere does he or any other Biblical author tell you to try and remember an event.

Altar calls then can lead individuals to confuse the physical act of “coming forward”, with the spiritual act of “coming to Jesus”. They are not the same act. They may happen in the same moment, but they are not the same act. Coming to Jesus isn’t reliant on your coming forward. I came forward in a church service, but that was not identical with my coming to Jesus. Many think they have been saved while pastors pronounce “peace, peace,” when there is none. Because of altar calls many are in a worse state, deluding themselves that on the basis of their own works, not Christ’s, that heaven is theirs. Many will cry out on the last day, “Lord, Lord, did we not do… in your name (Matthew 6:21-23)?” How many of these will have walked an aisle?

Some think that the altar call is necessary as a public profession of faith. But what about those who don’t walk the aisle? Further, if they aren’t saved yet, what exactly are they professing? Baptism is the act whereby we publicly identify with Christ, not the altar call. God’s badges are superior to man’s. Just because there isn’t a soldier at the end of the range, doesn’t mean that we aren’t soldiers.

But the most substantial reason why I do not give altar calls is that “that soldier” isn’t necessary for us to hit our target. It is the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16). As the gospel is preached God convicts, draws, regenerates, and gives faith (Romans 10:14-17; 1 Peter 1:23-25). Salvation is of the Lord! When I preach the gospel, God saves sinners. God’s means (preaching) trump man’s methods (altar calls). This soldier ain’t necessary. Don’t mistake me, I believe in invitations. Oh I believe in invitations, but the invitation is, “look to Christ, believe on Christ, trust Christ.” There isn’t a holy place at the front of the church that makes salvation happen, but there is a holy God in heaven who does.

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*I am indebted to Ryan Kelly whose list below served to clarify much of my thinking.

1. The altar call is simply and completely absent from the pages of the N.T.

2. The altar call is historically absent until the 19th century, and its use at that time (via Charles Finney) was directly based upon bad theology and a man-centered, manipulative methodology.

3. The altar call very easily confuses the physical act of “coming forward” with the spiritual act of “coming to Christ.” These two can happen simultaneously, but too often people believe that coming to Christ is going forward (and vice-versa).

4. The altar call can easily deceive people about the reality of their spiritual state and the biblical basis for assurance. The Bible never offers us assurance on the ground that we “went forward.”

5. The altar call partially replaces baptism as the means of public profession of faith.

6. The altar call can mislead us to think that salvation (or any official response to God’s Word) happens primarily on Sundays, only at the end of the service, and only “up front.”

7. The altar call can confuse people regarding “sacred” things and “sacred” places, as the name “altar call” suggests.

8. The altar call is not sensitive to our cautious and relational age where most people come to faith over a period of time and often with the interaction of a good friend.

9. The altar call is often seen as “the most important part of the service”, and this de-emphasizes the truly more important parts of corporate worship which God has prescribed (preaching, prayer, fellowship, singing).

10. God is glorified to powerfully bless the things He has prescribed (preaching, prayer, fellowship, singing), not the things we have invented. We should always be leery of adding to God’s prescriptions for His corporate worship.

When people say, “Calvinism destroys any motivation to evangelize”, they often fail to realize they silently say, “If the salvation of souls depended upon the free choice of man then I would be motivated to share the gospel, but if it depends solely on the free choice of God I am not motivated.”  Thus man’s goodness and freedom become the basis of evangelism instead of God’s goodness and freedom.

As we are moving and seeking to sell our house, we had our bathtub reglazed today. The repairman, sympathetic to our plight, said he was pretty sure that Satan invented moving. I don’t like any form of sacrilegious humor, though hypocritically I might laugh or make such a comment, not even Satan is to be joked about. Still this repairman spoke better than he knew, or I knew until a little reflection.

Home was the garden. Satan suggested that moving would be a good idea. It wasn’t. We were driven from our blessed home into the cursed wilderness by loving his lies.

But Jesus “moved” too. He took on flesh and entered our wilderness to make a way home. Jesus redeemed moving. When Jesus ultimately “moves” us we won’t have to bring or pack any of our old baggage, and we won’t want to either. No more renting, we will finally be home.

I hate Candyland. I have never liked it. As a child I remember liking Trouble or checkers, never Candyland. There is no strategy, there is no candy, so what’s to like?

But nowadays I find myself playing Candyland, and enjoying it, though it has nothing to do with the game. I can’t redesign Candyland to make it a game of strategy, so I bring the strategy to it. I play Candyland because of my kids.

I approach Facebook the same way. Facebook is fantasy world, and a dangerous one. Facebook has many candies, but they are illusions, they do not satisfy.

[Narcissism] One of the characters you’re sure to encounter is Narcissus. Do you remember him? In Greek mythology he was the man who when lured to a pool fell in love with his own image and died staring at it. Facebook is the garden revisited, and we fall a thousand times over, wanting to be gods. Failing at real life to be worshipped, we enter a virtual world to promote our own glory. We are so presumptuous as to think our every banal action needs to be broadcast for the benefit of mankind. We are our own paparazzi. My friend David described Twitter (which I also joined for the same reason I will soon give) like this, “It’s like a guy carrying around a megaphone who periodically announces to no one in particular; ‘I’m shopping at Pay Less!’, or ‘Just waiting at a stop light!’, for no other reason than to justify the carrying of it.”

[Gossip] Facebook is TMZ for the commoners. While some approach Facebook to promote themselves, others journey there to demote others, if only in their own heart. Perhaps this is just a more sinister way of convincing oneself that they are god, or at least more god than others are. The saddest reality is that often one need not talk to a friend or enemy to get some leverage on you, you provide that yourself. “Curious how sinful I am? Have a look!”

[Voyeurism] Molasses Swamp exists in Facebook as well, or we might now call it The Matrix – a group of people living in a virtual world or living voyeuristically through others. The real is traded for the less real. Friendship is redefined to mean nothing more than acquaintance. Molasses Swamp is sticky, people get stuck here. Instead of enjoying good company, a vacation, or a meal, we either are preoccupied with how we are going to share it with others, or instead of enjoying our own, we are envious of someone else’s.

[Lust] Princes Lollipop is everywhere. She is very attractive. She can be a close friend, even a sister in Christ. Proverbs speaks a lot about this whore. Avoid her. Don’t click on her photos. Hide all posts by her. Establish a one-way route of influence. De-friend her if she is invasive. It is a shame for a woman to tolerate pornography, worse still to enjoy it herself, worse yet to become a self-promoted, softened version of it. Modesty is platinum; a rare treasure in this land. Celebrate it where you find the Proverbs 31 woman.

So why play such a deadly game? Because there is no new thing under the sun. Facebook isn’t evil, we are – we bring the evil to it – ourselves. I’m coming to this game with a strategy.

“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’”, so said Abraham Kuyper.  And this truth rings true over virtual worlds as much as real ones. Facebook does not exist for us. The chief end of your life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We should bring this purpose to everything we do, including Facebook.

So why then join this candyland full of deadly enticements? One may as easily ask “Why live in this world?” There is only one acceptable answer – for His glory.