Altar Calls

“If you’ve accepted Jesus into your heart, then come down here and publicly profess your faith and begin your walk of new life as a Christian.” To some, altar calls are a mandatory part of any worship service. To others, they are a complete theological error, fraught with danger in addition to not being founded on Biblical precedent. So who’s correct?

Post-Show Thoughts: After reading the articles and the Bible references and talking it over with you for two hours, here is my conclusion. The practice is not shown in the Bible. Instead, we have the pattern of repent, believe, confess, and be baptized. Everything the altar call is supposed to accomplish would be better and more fully accomplished by having people come be baptized, and this would be done without the various dangers which go with altar calls. Since the Bible so clearly lays out this pattern, and there's no reason to tinker with it, I can't imagine a church preferring to practice the altar call without baptism. I think those who do altar calls are simply in the habit, which is only a tradition for about 170 years, and haven't realized the superior practice of immediately baptizing new converts, just as they did in Acts. Literally, every argument for the altar call is a better argument for baptism, and every argument against immediate baptism is a better argument agains having altar calls for salvation. And it disturbs me that in researching for this show I simply could not find any resource on the Web offering even a theoretical defense of the altar call, let alone a Scriptural one. The reason that such an article is not linked below is because I could not find one. That's not decisive in the discussion, but it should concern advocates of the altar call, which I have long been until just now.

Bible References: Matt 4:18-22, Matt 7:21-23, Matt 8:18-22, Matt 9:9, Matt 9:37-38, Matt 10:32-33, Matt 19:16-21, John 3:8, Acts 2:37-40, Acts 3:19, Acts 17:32-34, Rom 8:28-30, Rom 9:15-16, Rom 10:12-15, 2 Cor 5:1, James 1:18, 1 Peter 1:22-23

Links on Altar Calls:
Altar Call by Wikipedia
Altar Call by Mountainretreatorg.net
Altar Calls: Helpful or Harmful? by Biblicalstudies.com
Altar Call Evangelism by 9marks.org
Refusing To Heed an Altar Call by Gracesermons.com
A Close Look at Invitations and Altar Calls by BibleBB.com
Charles Finney and the Altar Call by Wordpress.com
Why We Don't Use The Altar Call by VictoryBaptist.us