[BibChr]

Thanks for this link. I'm wanting to write a length reply, but work's very busy today. I'll have to be brief and a bit disjointed, I fear.

Truth is, I have mixed feelings and thoughts about the essay:

1. I myself "went forward" at a church service, met with a counselor, went through the Four Spiritual Laws, asked Christ into my heart. I have to say now, thirty years later, that the course of my life since, by God's grace, pretty well bears out my judgment that I was genuinely and soundly converted that day.
2. Yet, as a pastor, I never gave an altar call per se ("cattle call"), nor used the Four Spiritual Laws. So obviously I came to have reservations about them. (In fact, when I preached at one Southern Baptist church, one old fellow there was really exasperated with me not "inviting people to Christ." I protested that I did, every time I preached. After going back and forth on this amicably, I said, "What you want is for me to get their bodies moving, isn't it?" "Yes!" he cried, relieved that I'd finally seen the light. He finally graciously offered that, if I didn't know how to do it, I should let him do it for me.)
3. I think many of the author's observations are very accurate, and his tone is better than many such papers. Having said that....
4. I think some of these are properly categorized as "carping." For instance he complains about evangelists urging sinners to invite Christ into their lives, griping that the phrase:

   hangs on nothing biblical (though John 1: 12 and Rev. 3: 20 are used, out of context, for its basis). It is considered, nonetheless, to be the pivotal and necessary instrument for becoming a true Christian. But God commands us to repentingly believe, not to invite Christ into the life.

   Is that really a clear, major point of criticism? I don't think so. I am outside of Christ; by God's grace, I am drawn to be in Christ; I am a stranger, an alien, an enemy; I am made a child, a brother, a friend; I am heading Hellwards, and am turned around to head Heavenwards; I am walking against, and am turned around to walk with.

   I can't express the desires all that gives birth to in a prayer asking the Lord Jesus to come into my heart and life? That would be bad?

   As a young-but-Biblically-educated Christian, I started getting these Calvinoid criticisms, and wondering -- "What are they saying? Did I do something wrong? How do I tell someone to get from point A to point Omega? The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come' -- but I can't?"

5. All this has the effect of reinforcing in the minds of non-Calvinists the image of us Calvinists as cold, cerebral critics, looking down (WAY down) our long noses at the rabble down there, and occasionally curling our lips to let off a cutting remark or two — while it is they who actually try to urge sinners to Christ. Put another way:
6. This reinforces the image that evanglism is (A) done by non-Calvinists, and (B) criticized by Calvinists.

   A man said to an evangelist once, "Sir, I do not like your methods!" The evangelist responded, "I am always eager to learn a better way to urge sinners to the Savior. So tell me, what are your methods?" The man retorted, "Why, I haven't any!" Sadly, the evangelist said, "I like mine better."

   There is a valid point to that.

Dan
Biblical Christianity message board

[sheltonmac]

You are absolutely correct in assuming that you were inviting people to Christ every time you preached. That's the nature of the gospel. If you present the truth, then the truth should speak for itself. It doesn't require getting someone's body to move based on some emotional response.

I wonder if some evangelists and pastors use altar calls for their own benefit--to see the fruits of their labor, as it were. I know that's probably not the motivation of the majority, but I'm sure it happens.