The Sinners Prayer and The Altar Call Plus A Brief Thought

The use of the altar call and sinners prayer has probably been around since the days of the great tent revivals. Jerry Falwell was the best at this of anyone I ever saw. After preaching for a half hour about how he was sure that Jesus was going to return within a few days, the musicians would start a soulful version of “just as I am”, the lost would start to fill the isles and come forward. What followed was a generic version of a prayer of repentance.

A few things always bothered me about these ceremonies. Alot of the people who were going forward during the call didn’t look very repentant to me, some were even smiling and talking to others. I always wondered how they got so many non-believers to their meetings. How did they come up with the term “altar call”, they knew it wasn’t an altar didn’t they?
(Heb.13:10) I have heard people brag about the fact they were saved at one of these crusades or services. Are they(1Cor.3:4)? At the very height of this emotional appeal Jerry or Oral Roberts, Rex Humbard or Billy Graham, would turn from the pulpit and look into the camera and say “just look at how many are coming forward” and ask for money so this great work could continue.

Many empires have been built and financed using these techniques but I don’t think the Kingdom of God is one of them. This act of having people kneel before the speaker in a special place and way has brought about all the celebrity worship we see today. Here is some sinners prayers for professional soul-winners I think need to be prayed.

“Father forgive me for arranging for plants to go forward during my “altar calls” at my revival meetings”

“Father forgive me for stirring guilt for money for the purpose of winning souls.”

“Father forgive me for bragging about all the lost souls being saved”

“Father forgive me for asking my new converts for their addresses so I can gain a data base for future fund raising”

“Father forgive me for the mess I have caused in misleading people about the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and ushering in celebrity worship”

So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 1Cor. 3:7

EDITORS NOTE by Darren Crane

The term “anxious seat” is what religious leaders call today “the sinner’s prayer” or “the altar call.” Finney admits that in the days of the apostles, the Gospel was preached, and the people responded in baptism (see Mark 16:15-16). He goes on to admit that the “anxious seat” — also know as the “sinner’s prayer” — replaced the purpose baptism held. God’s Word says baptism is for the remission (forgiveness) of sins (Acts 2:38), yet, many religious groups today teach that the “sinner’s prayer” is for the forgiveness of sins. Mr. Finney is right in saying, “It [baptism] held the place that the anxious seat does now…”