Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the Pressure Put Upon People to Come Forward in Decision

We are to preach the Word, and if we do it properly, there will be a call to a decision that comes in the message, and then we leave it to the Spirit to act upon people.
Early in the 1970s Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones was the speaker at a ministers’ conference in the USA and at a question session was asked the following question:

Question:  During recent years, especially in England, among evangelicals of the Reformed faith, there has been a rising criticism of the invitation system as used by Billy Graham and others. Does Scripture justify the use of such public invitations or not?

Answer:  Well, it is difficult to answer this in a brief compass without being misunderstood. Let me answer it like this:

The history of this invitation system is one with which you people ought to be more familiar than anyone else, because it began in America. It began in the 1820s; the real originator of it was Charles G. Finney. It led to a great controversy. Asahel Nettleton, a great Calvinist and successful evangelist, never issued an “altar call” nor asked people to come to the “anxious seat.” These new methods in the 182Os and were condemned for many reasons by all who took the Reformed position.

One reason is that there is no evidence that this was done in New Testament times, because then they trusted to the power of the Spirit. Peter preaching on the Day of Pentecost under the power of the Spirit, for instance, had no need to call people forward in decision because, as you remember, the people were so moved and affected by the power of the Word and Spirit that they actually interrupted the preacher, crying out, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” That has been the traditional Reformed attitude towards this particular matter.

The moment you begin to introduce this other element, you are bringing a psychological element. The invitation should be in the message. We believe the Spirit applies the message, so we trust in the power of the Spirit. I personally agree with what has been said in the question.

I have never called people forward at the end for this reason; there is a grave danger of people coming forward before they are ready to come forward. We do believe in the work of the Spirit, that He convicts and converts, and He will do His work. There is a danger in bringing people to a “birth,” as it were, before they are ready for it.The Puritans in particular were afraid of what they would call “a temporary faith” or “a false profession.”

There was a great Puritan, Thomas Shepard, who published a famous series of sermons on The Ten Virgins. The great point of that book was to deal with this problem of a false profession. The foolish virgins thought they were all right. This is a very great danger. I can sum it up by putting it like this: I feel that this pressure which is put upon people to come forward in decision ultimately is due to a lack of faith in the work and operation of the Holy Spirit. We are to preach the Word, and if we do it properly, there will be a call to a decision that comes in the message, and then we leave it to the Spirit to act upon people. And of course He does.

Some may come immediately at the close of the service to see the minister. I think there should always be an indication that the minister will be glad to see anybody who wants to put questions to him or wants further help. But that is a very different thing from putting pressure upon people to come forward. I feel it is wrong to put pressure directly on the will. The order in Scripture seems to be this – the truth is presented to the mind, which moves the heart, and that in turn moves the will.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

No Altar Calls and Hundreds of Conversions in the Past Five Years

On Sunday mornings at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Oklahoma, we have three worship services. Two are in our main auditorium and the third one  (Refuge) is in our multi-purpose facility (picture left). In all three respective services we have various worship styles in terms of music (either a band, orchestra and choir, ensemble, etc...) and an expositional message based on a text of Scripture. We will regularly schedule public testimonies of people whose lives have been changed by God's power, show videos that are either purchased or created by our own ministry staff which are designed to enhance our understanding of God's word, and we will spend some time in prayer for our various mission efforts around the world and in our own community. The one thing that we don't have in any of our services is what Southern Baptists traditionally called "an altar call."

There are verbal invitations for people to receive Christ as Lord and Savior, as well as encouragement for those who have come to personal faith in Christ to publicly profess their trust in Him through baptism; but there are no public "altar calls." At the conclusion of the teaching of Scripture we may worship, or we may pray, or we may minister to people through both worship and prayer, but we don't have people "come forward to an altar" and make some type of "decision." The reason we do not practice this kind of  Southern Baptist ritualism is because we believe altars were used in the Old Covenant for the offerings of sacrifices that were designed to visually remind the Israelites of the coming of the Messiah and what He would accomplish for God's people through His death. Churches don't have altars. Christ has come, He has died, and He has risen from the grave. We proclaim Him. We preach Christ and Him crucified and we verbally encourage people to look to Him in faith. To ask them to "walk an aisle" smacks of some kind of religious ritualism that puts a person's faith in the steps they take rather than in the sacrifice Christ made.

When someone makes known to us that he/she has come to faith in Christ, then we encourage them to tell others of their faith through being baptized in a public forum. Last Sunday night we had a baptismal service in the backyard pool of a man who has just recently begun attending our church. The lot was very large and we had a large number of people come out for the fellowship and celebration service. We brought in a public address system and those who were baptized wrote out their personal testimonies to be read prior to their baptism. My wife told me that the testimonies she heard Sunday night were some of the most gripping, most powerful statements of what it means to have a life transformed by the power of Christ that she has ever heard. I think her opinion was echoed by some of the lost people who were there to observe their loved ones being baptized . They heard what Christ had done in the life of their loved one, and were moved by their testimonies. A husband heard his wife''s words and knew he needed Christ as well. A grandfather heard his grandson's testimony and wept. Our church members were deeply moved as they heard testimony after testimony from former drug addicts, alcoholics, adulterers, etc... who shared how they came to faith in Christ through the love and kindness of Emmanuel's church members who had invited them to worship with them on Sunday, and then modeled Christianity for them throughout the week.  Some baptized that night had been believers for a few weeks, others for a few months, and a couple had been believers for over a year.

Emmanuel will have another baptismal service in September at our local lake. At various times we will observe a believer being baptized in one of our three Sunday morning worship services.  During the past five years we have baptized nearly 500 people who have come to faith in Jesus Christ. But all of them have come to faith in Christ through various ways and by diverse means. Were you to ask any of them about their conversion, they would tell you a unique, gripping story of God's grace. None of them would ever say, "I walked the aisle to the altar." They don't know what that means. They know Christ, they know what it means to believe in Him, and they know what it means to publicly profess their faith in him through baptism.

I sometimes wonder if we Southern Baptists lose sight that God graces and converts sinner in unique and various ways because we have substituted our southern cookie cutter church rituals for relational Biblical Christianity. I'm not necessarily saying that having an "altar call" is wrong. I am saying real Christianity is best measured by changed lives.  Causing people to trust in a walk down an aisle to "an altar" is dangerously close to creating an idol out of a church ritual. We prefer to trust the Chief Shepherd and watch Him call His people by name in His time.

In His Grace,


Wade Burleson