January 25

ALTAR CALLS “?”

-The modern day church service goes something like this … :

The band leader starts up the music …

The people begin to praise and worship the Lord for about thirty minutes …

The preacher then exhorts the people for about fifteen minutes …

Someone sings a special song …

The collection plate is passed around to receive the offerings of the people …

The preacher preaches his message for the day ( about thirty to forty-five minutes ) …

Then the preacher PLEADS and BEGS the people to come to an altar where they can “get saved”, healed, or delivered … Is begging the people to come to a man-made altar a scriptural thing to do? Let us look to the Bible.

-How many “altar calls” do you find in the book of Acts-Revelation? Well … You guessed it. NONE! When the apostle Paul was asked by a man what must I do to be saved, what was his response? It was, BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST! Where was the altar call? Did Paul forget to lead him in a “sinner’s prayer”? As a matter of fact, the Bible speaks nothing about accepting the Lord at an altar. We are not told to accept the Lord, but rather, we are told to BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. In actuality, HE IS THE ONE WHO HAS ACCEPTED US IN CHRIST! As you can see, the apostles of the early church had revelation truth from God. They did not have to resort to the SILLY man-made tactics that the modern day church has resorted to. The altar call, as we know it, has its roots in the person and ministry of Charles Finney ( 1792-1875 ). Finney’s meetings involved huge crowds and multiple conversions, and altar calls were used as a means to lead people to Christ. As long as an altar call is used to symbolize something that is already taking place in our hearts, it does not become a problem. The problem is though, THE CHURCH HAS MADE A GOD OUT OF GOING TO THE ALTAR. What was an altar used for in the Old Testament? It was used to offer up a sacrifice to God. The higher spiritual truth for us today under the New Testament is to be found in Romans 12:1. It states, … present your bodies a LIVING SACRIFICE, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service … We must understand that we are to BECOME AN ALTAR UNTO GOD, and that our life must become a sacrifice unto Him. It is not a matter of going to an altar as much as it is BECOMING AN ALTAR! We must STOP trying to force and manipulate people to come to a man-made altar, convincing them that walking an aisle is what saves them. Rather, we must help them to comprehend that GOD HAS ALREADY RECONCILED THEM TO HIMSELF THROUGH THE CROSS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. As they are AWAKENED to this truth they will want to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. When this takes place we BECOME AN ALTAR, and our lives BECOME A LIVING SACRIFICE unto God.

-PRESENT YOURSELF AS A LIVING SACRIFICE UNTO GOD!-