Paul Alexander writes:
- The altar call confuses “coming forward” with coming to Christ. In order to be saved, people must repent of their sins and believe in Christ, which has nothing to do with walking down an aisle.
- The altar call may deceive people about their spiritual state. The altar call encourages people to think that they have been saved because they’ve come forward and prayed a prayer. But this isn’t necessarily true:the outward response of coming down to the front is no guarantee of genuine faith and repentance. So, the altar call may lead people who haven’t repented of their sins and trusted in Christ to think they’re Christians.
- The altar call may encourage people to base their assurance of salvation on their decision—a one-time event in the past—rather than on Christ’s work for us and in us.
- The altar call confuses “coming forward” with baptism. According to the New Testament, baptism is the way Christians are to publicly profess their faith in Christ (Acts 2:41). The altar call threatens to replace God’s way for Christians to profess their faith.
(This material has been adapted from Paul Alexander’s article “Altar Call Evangelism”)
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Well said that man!
A fifth danger is that it can encourage preachers to assess their ‘success’ on the basis of potentially erroneous outward signs of commitment. And then to develop a style which is more about encouraging response than it is about communicating truth. Dishonesty can then often creep in. I have heard people say things like “You might have said the prayer in your heart, but you need to witness to it publicly.”
I have also witnessed many times the variation on the altar call where the preacher asks everyone to bow their heads and shut their eyes and raise a hand to indicate a response. Assuring them that no one need witness their statement of faith. They then acknowledge each hand with a “Thank you”. If no one obliges, some are in the habit of acknowledging a few imaginary hands. Ostensibly to give the reluctant convert the comfort of knowing he or she is not alone but it also has the fortunate side effect of suggesting to everyone else that they get converts every time they preach.
Wouldn’t want to overstate the case of course. There are times when giving people the opportunity to respond to a message in some way will be very helpful. There are many Christians who met Jesus at Billy Graham rallies for example.