Itching Ears Pt. 8 What Must I Do To Be Saved?

It may seem to some, maybe to many, that I am nitpicking here. Some may even think this is semantics and become frustrated with me. There are many areas in which we as believers can agree to disagree, but not in this area. It’s too important. We are speaking of the Gospel here. We are talking about a human being’s eternal destiny. We are also talking about Christians who rush to witness, feel mandated to come to the altar for salvation, for rededication, for rededication again at the next revival, to bring the babies forward to be dedicated. We heap guilt upon ourselves or others because they didn’t witness at a certain time. We condemn churches who have no altar call. It becomes the topic of sermons. I believe all this takes away from the personal relationship we have with Christ, and that Christ alone is the source of our faith, and puts our faith in Christ plus other things. The altar, the prayer. So again we must look to the Bible for our doctrine.

We have added to the gospel. We have added walking forward, or saying a prayer, and wonder why we have so many who are still unregenerate in our churches, or walk away. God works through the mind, then through the heart. We hear, we process it, we receive. All through the work of the Holy Spirit. The church, in its humanness, and down through the ages, as become more Roman Catholic in its presentations than we have been Biblical.

We take the Bible, excrete a few verses, call ourselves being Biblical, saying if we are wrong on this no harm is done, but yet there is harm done. There is always harm done when giving someone false assurance, who truly believes they are born again, yet in fact, are not. There is always harm done when one thinks they must perform the act of walking down the aisle or pray a contrived prayer to seal their receiving Christ as their Savior. One cannot know if they are truly born again till the fruit of their lives begins to show this has taken place. It doesn’t happen overnight. Personal experiences from those who have done or gone through altar calls cannot replace the Bible. The Bible says:

Mat 7:22  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’

David Sherrill in an article entitled What Must I Do To Be Saved writes:

This was the great question posed to the apostle Paul by the Philippian jailer (Acts 16:30). It has been voiced over and over again throughout the centuries (Job 25:4). Time and all of the changes that go with it have not dulled the need to answer this question. Medical advances and raging epidemics, bountiful food and horrible famine, booming economies and inescapable poverty, the information age and uneducated ignorance; none of these have removed the need of men and women, boys and girls everywhere to answer the question, “What must I do to be saved?”

Have you thought about this question yourself? Where will we find the answer? Should we look within ourselves, seeking a solution in our own hearts? Can we trust our hearts to give us the correct answer? No, that will not work because our own hearts can deceive us (Isaiah 44:20). No, let us turn together to God’s Word and seek His wisdom (2 Timothy 3:16,17). See how Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, answered the Philippian jailer. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household.” Now, perhaps you are wondering to yourself what kind of answer that is. Believe in Jesus? What good will that do? How can believing in Jesus save me?

Did you notice that Paul did not answer the question that the jailer asked? The jailer wanted to know what he could do to be saved, to satisfy God. He was not looking for God’s help, but how to reach God himself. Then when we run right smack dab into Paul’s reply.

Paul does not give the jailer a job description, listing the qualifications he must meet to find approval with God (John 5:39-40). Paul does not give him a recipe to follow, adding a ceremony here and a prayer there until, by the sweat of his own brow, the jailer earned salvation from God (Matthew 9:13). Paul did not give the jailer a map to a far-off city where God could be found (Jeremiah 23:23-24). Instead, Paul pointed the jailer away from himself and his “doings” and his “must do’s”. He pointed him toward the one true solution to his question.

Paul directed the jailer to Jesus. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved.” A sweeter promise has never been spoken. In those few words, the “doings” and “earnings” and “goings” which we attempt to use to gain God’s favor are all thrown completely down (Isaiah 64:6). The jailer’s question could not have been clearer and, take note, Paul’s answer could not be clearer. It is the plain and only answer God has for those who would seek peace with Him (Isaiah 1:18).

Let there be no confusion here. There is no miscommunication between the jailer and Paul. “What must I do?” “Believe in the Lord Jesus.” Paul did not misunderstand the question. God’s answer is that there is no “doing”, no “going”, no “earning”, or anything else we can perform which results in our salvation. Salvation is from the Lord and that is precisely where Paul points. It is received from the hand of the Lord (Psalm 3:8).

Paul did not give a job description or a recipe or a map to the jailer. Why not? Because they are useless to dead men. Dead? Yes, the jailer was dead in sin, unable to do anything to save himself (Ephesians 2:4-5). But Paul knew that God was able to raise dead sinners to life, illustrated in the resurrection of Lazarus (John 11:43-44)

Paul gave God’s prescription to a sick sinner, just as a doctor gives a medical prescription to a sick person. The medicine is for the benefit of the patient. It heals them. Only a foolish patient would say, “Doctor, being cared for by you is useless. Receiving medicine from your hand is inadequate. I must do something to make myself better.” No patient would turn down medicine because they would rather “earn” their healing. Similarly, sinners must be raised to life by the Great Physician and receive His prescription for their salvation (Psalm 103:1-5). Jesus can raise you from death to life, take away your sickness of sin, clothe you in His righteousness, and bring you to heaven to be with Him when this life is finished.

It is important that we point people off of ourselves, and onto Christ. To preach the gospel is to tell the Biblical truth about God and about man, about salvation. Salvation does not come through decision.

Henry Mahon writes, in What Is It To Preach The Gospel *bold emphasis mine:

Fourthly, what is it to preach the gospel? It’s to preach the TRUTH ABOUT SALVATION. We use the word “salvation” rather loosely in this day. Salvation from sin is not by the deeds of the law. Even those who are supposed to know something about salvation by grace have to remind themselves again and again that salvation is not by the works of the flesh, not at all, in any way! Salvation is not by reformation; salvation does not come by decision; salvation does not come through church ordinances; salvation is not ours by church membership; salvation is in Christ alone. That’s where salvation is — not in man’s purpose, not in man’s plan, it’s in a Person. It’s not in a proposition, it’s not in walking an aisle, it’s not in baptism, it’s in Christ! It’s not in a law; it’s not in anything we can do; salvation is in Christ.

Amen.

Too many believe that if they do not have an altar call, or don’t witness to everyone, or miss an opportunity, that this person may never be saved, they might be killed in an accident,their eternal destiny to hell would be our fault. We missed the opportunity. But again I point to the Bible and the Sovereignty of God. I stress that salvation is of God. Romans 8:28-30:

Rom 8:28  And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Rom 8:29  For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Rom 8:30  And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

God will provide a way. God will bring this person to salvation. Christ has said He loses no one that the Father has given Him. (John 10:29;12:49) Rest in that. Other passages to consider are Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in John 3 and to the Samaritan woman in John 4. No mention of an altar call. Christ pointed to God, to Himself only.

Again, I repeat that I do not have anything against either having or not having an altar call, it’s the phrase I hear often, have heard in sermons, and in altar calls themselves, the phrase, what if that person wouldn’t have come forward, come to church that day, if I hadn’t talked to them that moment. I hope I answered what would have happened, God would not have lost them. After all, He is God.

Itching Ears Pt. 7: Altar Calls By William Payne

Whilst the necessity of inviting sinners to Jesus is something to be defended, that invitation must be safeguarded. In the evangelism of today, inviting sinners to Christ, which is a matter related to preaching, has been confused with giving altar calls, which is something related to methodology. When today’s preachers speak of “giving the invitation,” they invariably mean giving an alter call in which people are bidden to walk to the front of the church or auditorium as an indication that they are “accepting Christ.”

The great objective to this methodology is that it identifies a physical act with saving faith. No matter how carefully the preacher tries to explain that “coming to the front won’t save you,” the person being addressed can hardly be blamed for equating the two. All through the sermon he has been told of the importance of coming to Christ, and then at the end of the sermon he is exhorted, “Come to Jesus Christ right now; let this be the moment of decision; come as you are; He will receive you,” and at the same time he is directed to come down to the front of the auditorium. I say he can hardly be blamed for believing in his own mind that coming down to the front was indeed that very “coming to Jesus” of which the preacher had been so earnestly speaking.

There are many people whose lives give sad evidence that they are unregenerate, yet feel sure that they have been saved simply because they “came to Jesus” by responding to an alter call. But coming to Christ is a purely spiritual matter. It has nothing to do with the movement of the hands or feet. Coming to Christ involves a response of the mind, heart and will of the sinner (produced of course by the operation of the Spirit), but it is a dangerous thing to link this so closely to any form of alter call.

Many Christians are not aware of the fact that the altar call system, deemed by many today to be so essential to evangelism, was not known in Christian churches until the 19th century. It was Charles Finney who introduced and popularized the system (though occasionally similar methods had been used by some Methodists before Finney), and though it is perhaps consistent with Finney’s theological views, it is hardly consistent with a Reformed and Biblical doctrinal position. Men were invited to Christ, and by God’s grace, came to Christ for 1,800 years before altar calls came to be used in churches. As sinners are invited to Christ through preaching, as Christ is declared and His gracious Gospel promises unfolded, and sinners are invited to “look and live,” the Spirit of God will ensure that His Word shall not return unto Him void.

Altar Calls

Itching Ears Pt. 6 If We Wouldn’t Have Had An Altar Call, If We Wouldn’t Have Witnessed To This Person They Wouldn’t Have Come To Christ. True Or False?

Geoff Baggett did a wonderful job of posting on the altar call, I’d like to briefly look at this from another angle. I have been hearing this phrase that I chose as the title of this post too many times.  I understand the sentiment behind this thought, and I am grateful for those who have a burden for the lost,  it is a phrase that I was taught and thought was true early in my Christian life, it’s a phrase that bothers me. It puts the control of salvation in our hands, and not in God’s.It puts unnecessary pressure and guilt on as it teaches that one lost opportunity means that person’s chance may be lost forever. It’s our fault if a person spends eternity in hell.

What if I didn’t talk to this person about Christ today, this person might not have obtained salvation. This person might have died without Christ. What if I miss an opportunity today, this person might die without Christ. Is this true? I believe the answer is no, this is not true. It then becomes a matter of luck, superstition, what if I hadn’t, what if I had… without meaning to, it takes away from God’s sovereignty in the role of salvation and makes Him passive, us active, when it’s Biblically the other way around. We are human, we miss opportunities. People say no to our invitations. But rest assured, Christ will not lose those who are to be His. Those who God has to be saved, will be saved, whether we have an altar call or not. Whether we witness to them or not. God will provide someone else, some other way. An altar call is not necessary for this to happen. A person can hear the message at a church service and be regenerated right in their seat, never walking down the aisle.  They can be regenerated on the drive home as they are thinking about what they have heard. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Romans 10:17

For by faith are you saved through grace, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8&9. bold emphasis mine.

The boasting also takes away the boasting that tends to be done by those who have given the invitation as well as from those of us who have obtained Christ as Lord and Savior.

God uses us, we are to preach the gospel, we have been given the task of the Great Commission. God orchestrates the meeting and the talking to people. God does the work in a human’s heart to see things as God sees them. Not an invitation, not walking down an aisle.

Too many believe that if their is no invitation, if they do not walk down the aisle, it hasn’t sealed their salvation.  When in truth, they can never say a prayer for salvation and still become a Christian. The best example of this is the conversion of Paul aka Saul of Tarsus or Lydia in Acts. Read their conversion stories, see how different this is from today’s altar calls. You can find Paul’s conversion story in Acts 9; Lydia in Acts 16:11-15. *Bold emphasis mine

There is also the story of the Church in Antioch(Acts 11:19-21)

Act 11:19  Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.
Act 11:20  But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus.
Act 11:21  And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

There have been no altar calls in scripture, the passages used by some for the scriptural evidence of altar calls, if read in their original context, were not altar calls, nor always dealt with salvation. This again is taking scripture and changing it to suit a view, instead of allowing scripture to form our view.

One example is Acts 2:37-40, which is used quite often. This is not an invitation to come forward, but something to be done in the heart, between the person and God. No where do I see it as an invitation to publicly come forward and repent. Peter simply instructs them on what they must do. This is how we begin to form a personal relationship between ourselves and God. It is a work of God, not of our will, and it is not solidified by coming forward. The two are not synonymous.

Exodus 32:26 is a passage that I implore the reader to look at critically and see if this passage is evidence for an altar call. What is the context of the passage, known by reading the entire chapter, the chapter before and after.

I want to stress that I have nothing against altar calls if done properly and do not confuse the person coming forward, that this act must be done in order to solidify their conversion. I agree with those who say that it is better than never giving a salvation message, we are to give the gospel to every creature. This is a command, and if we are truly born again, we can’t help but want to see many obtain eternal life.

What bothers me most are statements such as what if this man or woman wouldn’t have come forward that day, been to church that day, we had no altar that day…the answer is God would have still brought this person to salvation, and just the fact that they wanted to know more, come forward, is evidence that God is doing a work in that person’s heart. I will post more on this tomorrow, my goal will be to show through the use of the Bible this to be another myth, this not true, and to free another burden from Christians’ shoulders.