On Altar Calls

“With all heads bowed and all eyes closed…”

“If the Lord is speaking to you…”

“Raise your hand right now and I’ll pray for you…”

“Repeat after me this prayer: ‘Father God…’”

Have you heard these so similar lines before? Is a raised hand an indicator of the Holy Spirit’s regenerating work? Can a prayer save you? Why is it that raising your hand and/or repeating a “prayer” used in altar calls? Why do an altar call at all, especially when you have not preached the gospel?

I have a problem with altar calls. They are not found in scripture. I walked the aisle when I was eight years old at the Baptist church I grew up in. I had tears streaming down my face, and I remember the scene, specifically like it was yesterday. I can’t say what was in my heart at the time, I can’t remember that. But I know that the years after showed no evidence of a supernatural work of God in my life. There was no change; I was not a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17). I also had no real desire for God. I had a desire to please my flesh.

The difference came when I was twenty-six and I heard the words of life. I humbled myself before God in a bathrobe on the floor. I didn’t go down the aisle again. I was immediately secured in knowing what He had done and I KNEW without doubt that he saved me. God had been doing a work for some time, and He gave me faith to believe; that faith came by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). I was DEAD in my trespasses and sins. Yet God in His mercy chose me to show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward [me] in Christ Jesus (Eph. 4:7). I have been saved by grace through faith, and that not of myself, lest I would boast (Eph. 4:8). I did not make a “decision” for Christ” since I did not seek Him, I did not want Him – I loved my sin and would have stayed if not for His mercy. The Bible says:

“As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips"; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.’”

So, why an altar call? Is it the easiest way? You then don’t have to spend time with a person, actually teaching them right doctrine about the Person of Christ and what he has done. You can just shove books at them and then go about building more monuments or doing more “church work.”

If Holy Spirit has done a work, then He will guide the person in the way to go. We shouldn’t give assurances of salvation. Too many times, people believe that they “prayed a prayer” and that’s that. The assurance will come, not in a “prayer” or in a hand raised or a nod, or some such, but through the witness of Holy Spirit inside a person and the evidence of a changed life. Let God do His work in a person and cease offering a “prayer of salvation”. Better yet, cease the altar calls altogether.