Are Altar Calls Biblical?
Are altar calls biblical? If they aren’t, then why are so many evangelical churches doing them? The altar is mentioned often in the Scriptures, but there’s no mention of an altar call. Then again, we’re not told that the 3,000 who were saved on the day of Pentecost came forward to some sort of ‘altar’ or place of prayer. The problem I have with modern-day altar calls isn’t so much the call to come forward as with all the trimmings that come with it – music to stir the emotions, counselors coming forward to encourage a response (and to stop the preacher from looking stupid if there’s no response). Add to that the fact that many altar calls aren’t calling people to repentance, but to a happier life-style, and it’s easy to see the damage that is being done to the cause of the gospel.
Preach sin and Christ to sinners not altar calls. As Spurgeon says,
No sinner looks to the Saviour with a dry eye or a hard heart. Aim, therefore, at heart-breaking, at bringing home condemnation to the conscience and weaning the mind from sin. Be not content till the whole mind is deeply and vitally changed in reference to sin. (The Soul Winner)
For more on this subject, see the Trust’s booklet The Invitation System by Iain Murray.
Latest Articles
The Works of Watson: Publisher’s Preface 27 March 2026
What follows is from the ‘Publisher’s Preface’ to our forthcoming five-volume edition of The Works of Thomas Watson. The Banner of Truth Trust was founded in 1957, and early in the following year the Trust published its first books. Thomas Watson’s Body of Divinity was one of them. At that time the book and its author […]
On the Trail of the Covenanters 12 February 2026
The first two episodes of The Covenanter Story are now available. In an article that first appeared in the February edition of the Banner magazine, Joshua Kellard relates why the witness of the Scottish Covenanters is worthy of the earnest attention of evangelical Christians today. In late November of last year, on the hills above […]