Popular Myth No 2: Going to the front in a meeting makes you a Christian

There is nothing new about holding large evangelistic meetings and appealing for a response. I understand that Charles Finney popularised the ‘altar call’ in the 19th Century. This was after ‘field preaching’ had brought many to Christ through the early Methodists. I want to give you a ‘before’ and ‘after’ scenario here, however.

In the early days, a preacher - such as DL Moody - would preach an evangelistic message. Then he would have an appeal to those who wanted to respond. A proportion of the congregation - perhaps 5% - would respond and they were ushered in to an inquiry room. Trained counsellors would then pray with and speak to enquirers, answering any questions they had as they sought God. The crucial thing to say here is that nobody was told they were saved because they had come to the front in a meeting. A person was not labeled as Christian or ‘born again’ until it could be clearly seen that they had:
- Victory over sin, and
- Assurance of salvation.

Relevant scriptures are as follows:

Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
1Corinthians 6:9-10

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
Romans 8:14-16

People were aware that this process could take some time - minutes, days, weeks, months or years. Evangelists were in no rush to claim lots of converts.

All of this changed in the early 20th century.

An American evangelist called Billy Sunday, after beginning with the conventional method, decided to dispense with the use of counsellors and began to proclaim that everyone who responded had been born again and was now a Christian. In failing to test his respondents and exaggerating the number of converts he made, he committed the sin of Ananias. Once Sunday had begun to do it, it was not long before others did too.

In professing faith following a meeting of this type, I have heard people quote the cliche,

“God says it, I believe it, that settles it”.

Does it settle anything?

It is hard to exaggerate the damage this has done to the church. We now live in an age where professing evangelical Christians, who have been told by others they are saved, can live utterly disobedient, self-centred lives. And yet they may be going to church, ministering in the Name of Christ yet bringing him utter disgrace.

More than ever before, we need to use discernment in the church. just because someone uses all the right language, it does not necessarily mean that they are saved! Paul said,

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.
2Corinthians 13:5-6

This is precisely what we need to do.

For more information, read the Christian Disneyland and How to Botch an Altar Call.