A Proper Altar Call Series

A Proper Altar Call

Acts 2:37-41

The “Altar Call” plays a very important part of many Evangelical worship services. We want people to accept Christ as Savior. This is right because the Scripture states that God Himself is not willing that any perish. Considering the dread alternative of eternal punishment, we have a great deal of motivation to get people to confess Jesus as Savior, especially our friends and family. No one wants to see anyone condemned to hellfire; therefore, the importance of the end is taken to justify the means. Whatever it takes to get one to commit to Christ, one should do. Paul is quoted in 1 Corinthians 9:20-22 to support this idea.

But does the end justify all means? To take an extreme case, should one try to convert someone at gunpoint? The Emperor Clovis took such an approach. When he became a Christian, he ordered his soldiers to get into two lines, one to be baptized, and the other to be executed. Obviously, there were many baptisms on that day. Perhaps for some, this became the real means of their salvation. For others, it was an exercise in pragmatism. When we look at this, we should realize that this was not the best means of evangelism, even if it worked for some. It also created many hypocrites. It put the veneer of Christianity upon barbarism.

Now getting back to altar calls, we should ask the question about what a true altar call is, and whether it is the most effective means of winning the lost. People like Charles Finney used the altar call to try to capture someone’s “free will” to follow the desired the end of becoming a Christian. All sorts of psychology is applied. The emphasis was upon results. But who gets to say what the real results really were? Winning people to Christ was reduced to properly going through the steps. If one just followed these steps, it would win people to Christ. We reduced salvation to getting someone to say the “sinners prayer” and then submit to baptism. We have the “Romans Road” and quote five scriptures out of context as a means of evangelism. We have evangelism explosion. We have “crusades.” Were people won to Christ? There are many people who can testify that their lives were changed forever at a crusade. But there are many who make a profession of faith and never darken the church door.

I think an examination of this passage will shed light upon our evangelistic methods. What we see here is the reaction to the church’s first sermon. Before we go and craft new methods to reach people for Christ, we are obligated to look here. Peter had just finished his Pentecost sermon. After explaining the phenomena of the descent of the Holy Spirit, he centers in on the person of Jesus. He shows that the Old Testament prophesied of him. The wonders and signs He did also prove that Jesus was God’s chosen one which God had planned from the very beginning. He tells then twice that the One whom God approved had been crucified by them. But God’s proof of His acceptance of the work of Jesus was that God had raised Jesus from the dead. Peter goes on to talk about Jesus’ exaltation to the Father’s right hand. The descent of the Holy Spirit who had descended this very day also was proof. Altogether, Peter offers incontrovertible evidence. When He finishes with saying that the very One whom they had crucified had been made by God both Lord and Christ.

It is at this point that the hearers felt undone. They had crucified their Messiah, and God’s response was to raise Him from the dead, and not only from the dead, but to the pre-eminent position in the Kingdom. He is not only Christ, but Lord. The resurrection was also coupled with the final judgment. We see this at Mars Hill in Acts 17. Because Jesus is the divine Son, they had crucified the Creator as well. The Holy Spirit’s job according to Jesus is to convict people of their sin. They knew they were in trouble and deserved the most severe judgment for what they had done. The text says that their heart was stabbed. So they were asked Peter and the rest of the Apostles: “Men, brothers, what can we do?” They were desperate. Peter and the Apostles did not try to elicit a response from them. They did not cajole or threaten hellfire. This was totally unnecessary. The altar call, so to speak, was initiated by the listeners who were provoked by the Holy Spirit. And Peter did not respond with: “Just sincerely say the following sinners prayer and be baptized and you will be good with God." The truth is even more amazing than that. They were told to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of their sin. To repent means to rethink the situation and accept the new way of thinking in the Greek idea of repentance. In Hebrew thought, it means to turn back from the way they were headed, which was leading them to eternal judgment and to turn the LORD. In other words, the message of the gospel is not a mere appeal to one’s emotions. Even the heart in both Greek and Hebrew thought is better translated “the mind” as “kidneys” are used for the emotional self.